Vietnam – day 5

Monday, 16.12.2024

Cao Bang – Ban Gioc–Detian Falls

At 2am I need to pee, so I go ask if they could stop somewhere. They say we’ll be stopping in 10 minutes. I grab toilet paper, my phone and money. They drop me off by some restaurant. It’s genuinely pretty gross there. I pee fast and go back. We pick up a few more people who’d just finished at a pub. We stand there about another half hour. I put in earphones, since they’re snoring pretty loudly. I doze off again and wake up after 5am at the station in Cao Bang. It’s already fairly lively, probably also serving as a market. Our bus takes us on into the town center. Outside the bus doors about 6 men stand competing to offer us a taxi. I don’t even know where I am, let alone where I’m heading. So we continue on foot and go look for food. At the market everyone’s getting ready to sell, and in some places people are still sitting around. We find an open soup place and have pho ga chicken broth. A family’s getting ready to head out there, giving the kids breakfast, and the mother combs her daughter’s hair. Then she points at me with the comb, that I should comb my hair too, and honestly, fair point. They leave and shortly after a group of teenagers arrives, not sure if they’re finishing up or starting their day. They’re fairly chatty. We finish eating and go for a walk around town and along the riverside promenade. The sun’s starting to rise already.

We buy some sweet iced tea from a shop and go for a look round the market. They’ve got a really big meat section there. Then we go to see where the rental shop is. It’s still closed, but the lady at the side entrance tells us to text the number. So we send a message via WhatsApp saying we’d like to rent a bike, asking when they open, and that we’re off for a coffee. It’s already 7 o’clock and we find a café that’s open. We order black coffee, but as always, there’s something added to it that we can’t identify. The lady from the rent shop replies, and we sort out the details of the rent. She isn’t at home, but her mum helps us out. So we head over there. We rent a semi-automatic motorbike for four days for 600,000 dong (€24). We leave our laptop and a few other things we don’t need there. First, we head to a chemist’s, as sunny weather is forecast and I want to buy some sunscreen. I buy some Vietnamese sunscreen and then we go to fill up with petrol. We don’t have a specific destination in mind, just heading towards the waterfalls. All around us is beautiful countryside and steep green hills.

We pass an overturned truck, it’s a fairly winding road. It’s properly cold on the scooter. I’m wearing three-quarters of my clothes. It’s still early morning and we’ve got plenty of time, so we make a detour to Thang Hen Lake. Entry there costs 30000 dong. We pay and go to the lake. It’s a bit low and the promised turquoise water is more on the green side. Almost nobody’s here, so at least we walk around it.

We go check out one more nearby viewpoint. This one’s great. A view of a mountain with a big hole in the middle of it.

We continue on, and with the cold and my sleep deficit, I start getting seriously drowsy on the scooter. We stop in the town of Quang Uyen and go eat, hoping it perks me up. We can’t find anything suitable, but then we come across a Bun Cha restaurant. Good choice. The portion is just the right amount for me, so Jozef goes off for a baguette at a stall.

Then we want coffee, and we find a café, but it doesn’t even have a Vietnamese coffee. So we go look for one where men are sitting around, there will be good coffee. And sure enough, we find one. We explain to the man we want coffee with no additives at all. While the coffee drips, he pours us green tea. He offers Jozef a cigarette, and it didn’t take much convincing.

Then he pulls out a bottle, which Jozef declines since he’s driving, but I have some. It tastes really good, it’s grapefruit rice wine. Our coffee’s ready, so we sip it along with the tea. We really like a café like this. Usually at the newer places they put all kinds of syrups in the coffee and tea and it’s hard to explain what we actually want. I’ve already found accommodation, 40 km away. We’d like to wrap up early today so we can get proper sleep. We wander further through the countryside and the sun starts peeking through the clouds, finally. When we reach the accommodation, the sky’s completely blue and there’s a great view over the river.

It’s open inside, but nobody’s there. We warm up in the sun and wait half an hour. Nobody shows up, so we go check out the nearby waterfalls, which a lot of tourists visit.

They’re right on the border with China. We pay 40000 dong entry and walk around. To our surprise there aren’t many people, and the waterfalls are beautiful.

I’ve still got two pairs of trousers, a down jacket and gloves on, but for some people that’s a suitable swimming temperature.

We stay about an hour and head back. The owner’s there now, so we book a room for 200000 (€7.50). It’s basically a mattress on the floor, board walls and an open structure. But we get a proper duvet and a genuinely heavy blanket too. We shower and then sleep for 1.5 hours. We’d also booked dinner, since we really don’t feel like going back into town. We’re the only guests here and the lady makes us an omelet, pork, rice, fries and salad. We properly overate. In the evening I write and edit a bit more, but we want to get up early tomorrow, so I’d rather go to sleep.