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Far norther Vietnam, Days 5 and 6.

Ban Gioc waterfalls to Cat Ba Island.

Ban Gioc waterfalls is tucked away in a remoter corner and the falls themselves are actually in both Vietnam and China. I guess not a lot of westerners make it up here because we got asked to star in photos with Vietnamese about 5 different times throughout the morning. These are the widest falls in Vietnam and we got on a little barge like ferry to get ushered closer to the action.

You can see people on the Chinese side doing the same, but we managed to get a not too crowded moment up front by ourselves. We drifted backwards for a while and so for the second time in as many days we ‘accidentally’ crossed the Chinese border. Still no stamp in my passport though.

We rode up to a Buddhist temple that overlooks the falls before striking out for the day. Putting some miles behind us we saw the landscape begin to change. The dramatic karst mountains of the last 5 days slowly gave way to regular old mountains, and with it came industry and people and traffic. Boo.

So too the bad weather. Up from behind came a storm, a proper storm. Wind gusts so strong they threw the bikes around, one gust pushing me nearly 2 feet sideways. Branches and leaves were coming down hard and for nearly 45 minutes we raced the edge of the storm, pulling away on the straight bits and felling the cold droplets of the storms front on the windy bits.

We pushed the bikes hard but the storm won in the end and we got bucketed on. Still we rode however, as we were in the middle of nowhere, but as the sun finally started to set we decided that accommodation, food and dryness were needed. It was after dark before we got them in some town who’s name I didn’t even bother to learn.

We set off early the next day and pushed through the growing traffic and pollution. After 5 days of riding the Chinese border we hit the coast and turned south. We crossed a bridge onto an Island on the edge of Halong City, crossed the island to the ferry terminal and got on a ferry to Cat Ba Island. The karst mountains had re-appeared and the scenery promised greatness for out next part of the adventure.

#bangiocwaterfall #vietnamtour2017 #shitcouldbeworse #chineseborder