The alarm goes off, it's only 0630 - time for the snooze button! Jet lag hangs heavy in my head and it's raining outside. But as the only window we have opens up to the ventilation shaft, it's only when we head up to the top floor breakfast area that we see the rain on the windows, and at times it's quite intense. Just as well I brought my rain gear then.
We're collected at 8am by Ta, the local guide, and we pile into a van to get our bikes. 30 minutes dodging scooters and bicycles and we arrive at the rental place to see a tidy line of clean Honda CRF250 bikes courtesy of Motorbike Tour Expert, which is running our Vietnam tour. Shod with knobblie tyres and longish travel suspension, the bikes look ready for some offroad action. After fitting essentials, a quick spin in the carpark, fees paid and we're good to go.
The rain has subsided and we battle the Hanoi traffic like pros, most of us are used to similar traffic from trips to India, Nepal, Bolivia, Paris and Barnoldswick. Most of us, but not Ray. This is Ray's first trip to Asia and his eyes are wide at the crazy things he sees. Bikes on the pavement, bikes going through red lights, bikes riding the wrong way against fast traffic, bikes with dogs, chickens, and later, even a cow! This is mayhem, but 'This Is Asia'. Almost anything goes, and if it goes, it goes anywhere, usually with more than one person, two, three or four.
It doesn't take long before Danny realises his brakes are not working well, almost running into the back of Gerard. A splash of water helps but a proper fix will come later, so he'll have to take it easy for the rest of the day. Pretend we're riding Enfield's with drum brakes and he'll do fine. Who needs brakes anyway?
Leaving Hanoi we head onto slightly less busy roads. The same mental driving, only less, and faster. But that number one safety feature comes in handy to clear the path: beep beep. Unlike India, where it's used entirely to let people know your presence, here I detect a very slight hint of annoyance by the beeper to the 'beepee'.
We venture offroad for the first time, a detour leading back to the road, traversing paddy field borders in a series of 90 degree turns and crossing a drainage channel at one point, which calls for a delicate dance on the throttle and clutch. A gentle intro, and no doubt giving our guide a chance to see our limited offroad skills and to find out who might be trouble over the next twelve days!
Back to the main road and then smaller roads past fields and through villages. The ground is similar to the 'terre rouge' we saw in Cambodia, but as it's damp there's no dust to contend with. The roads are still quite busy and we see kids in uniform going to/from school, walking and riding electric bikes and scooters. I've started waving again and the kids wave back with cheery grins. The effect works on adults too, turning stern looking old men into 'happy to see you' faces, in the process taking years off their appearance. We spread joy and love wherever we go.
After a quick lunch we hit more dirt tracks and on one tricky downhill section we have our first tumble with Duff scoring an average 6 out of ten for style, but zero for technical merit as there were no somersaults involved. Suitably embarrassed and photographed for posterity we help him up; our priorities have not changed.
More paddy fields with huge striking monoliths of granite protruding from the flat terrain, not quite mountains, but more than hills. Probably the remains of volcanic injections from below the Earths crust many millions of years ago, the weathered debris has created a flat landscape about them.
We climb uphill into the mountains and into the mist. After refueling we really head into the clouds where visibility is reduced to 20m in some places making it hard to spot the wandering cows that don't have foglights fitted! We're not that high, not even 1000m I reckon, but the cloud is low. And then, just after the summit it clears, just like that. A few clicks on and we're at a viewpoint overlooking our destination for this evening, Lac Village. We take a group photo and Ta tells us a little about the area.
A "home stay" accommodation we are sharing a large attic; eight burly men who could snore for England, Ireland or New Zealand. The meal is a surprise a real feast of tasty food and we dine like kings before retiring. Just as we sit the sack, the dogs are set off Barking at each other - I hope this doesn't last. Expecting the cockerels to wake us in the morning. Another 8am start.
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