To New Lai Chow

When we arrived at Lai Chou this afternoon, we were covered with a patina of clay dust from kilometers of road construction in the mountains.   

We started at 8:30 this morning from SaPa in the mist again – the ride was initially cool  enough to wear biker sleeves, although it heated up quickly.   It was a morning of fragmentation – Rick and his son Will took the bus for the first portion of the journey.  Nick was pedaling ahead and missed a turn – then headed back to SaPa looking for us figuring we had “a mechanical.”  When Nick rejoined us at Silver Falls, Bill rode ahead – and we didn’t catch him until just a few minutes before lunch.   For me, I stayed with the group the entire day. Just to be safe, I got Bingh’s phone number  – so that if I don’t see anyone for awhile I’ll give him a ring!

The mountain pass at Tram Ton was just spectacular – as the fog lifted we could see for miles, and got a real sense of accomplishment for seeing how high we climbed.   Of course, we got the thrill of the descent as a reward, too.  The work of creating (and expanding) roads on these cliffs in huge – and of course we got to see a lot of it because just after Tram Ton the road became dirt and gravel. We passed dump trucks and steam rollers – but mainly construction workers doing by hand what would mostly be done by machines in the US.  The traffic rolls right through the construction site – horns blaring.  Buses and trucks leave a plume of reddish dust in their wake – we bikers hopped off the road to let them by.  Once again, both climbing and descending we were hugging the mountain and not looking down the cliff.    

Lunch at Tam Duong was great!  We had vegetable spring rolls in a thin egg crepes with chili and fish sauce for dipping,  along with fish with pickled vegetables, tofu with spicy tomato sauce, mustard greens and goat with lemongrass for the carnivores. This was followed by a course of soup much like egg drop with tomatoes and fish sauce – Bingh assured me no meat, although who really knows.  Dessert was perfectly ripe pineapples (cut carefully so looking like works of art).

The market at Tam Duong was depressing compared to the vibrant colors and fresh vegetables of SaPa (although there was no meat market – perhaps an advantage).    We rode up another 15 or so kilometers after lunch, under a brutal afternoon sun.    It was nice along the way to stop in the shade of a banyon tree or at a natural spring.  Nicer still was the 15 km of coasting down to Lai Chou.

Lai Chou is in transition. The province is building a new city here – to accommodate those who will be displaced by a dam nearby.  The architecture looks like a cross between Stalinist and American strip mall –and the place is eerily deserted.   Bingh tells us that the new residents will all have to evacuate their old villages by September, and are gradually moving in here.   Imagine an 8 lane highway with just a few vehicles anywhere in sight, or a grand roundabout with a sculpture in the middle, and just a handful of bikes going  by.

The hotel for this evening also seems out of the Eastern bloc.  Nick remarked that the faux cracks painted in the new façade don’t inspire confidence. The rooms are large and nondescript, and most of the fixtures are shoddy and don’t work properly.  When I turned on the shower, I got hit by an errant spray that soaked the bathroom.  The threadbare towel is no match for the flood, but happily there is a drain on the floor.  The lamp by the bed doesn’t work, but  I’ve got a headlamp for reading,   Happily, the bed is not as hard as in SaPa.

I’m sure I’ll sleep well tonight.  We’re off to the OLD Lai Chow tomorrow, covering more hills and sleeping in a hotel that will be demolished as the waters from the new dam arise.  Residents from there are moving to the new Lai Chow now.

I took some good photos today - but the upload speed is incredibly slow here - so I'm likely to post photos when I arrive at Dien Bien Phu (March 19).