Viet Road Trip Days 20 and 21

Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam. This is day 20. Day 19 can be found here.

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ay 20 was a miserable day for riding. It was cold, wet, and foggy for most of the day. On day 19 I thought I was pretty smart when I put plastic bags on my feet to keep the moisture out (I put on socks, plastic bags, another pair of socks, then shoes). That worked out pretty well on Day 19 when it wasn't raining. On Day 20 it rained, and the plastic bags on my feet quickly filled up with water, making my feet cold and painful.

I had a rain poncho that kept the majority of the water off of me, but the water would pool and run down my legs into my shoes. I didn't have gloves, so my hands were cold as well.

I only saw this shrub crop in a few places in the North. I never learned what it is. My guess is coffee, but I'm not sure if coffee grows in shrubs like that. Anyone know what this crop is?

A random village after a downpour.

I've seen these kinds of arches in different parts of Vietnam. I'm not sure what they are exactly. Maybe boundary markers for provinces or counties? The markers for entering/exiting towns and cities are little signs with a town icon.

The road to Sapa.

I stopped to warm up and take some photos when I spotted a commuter on the highway.

He's not alone.

It looks like the whole family is out for a walk.

Water buffaloes are one of the biggest hazards on the back roads of Vietnam. Their shit is also pretty dangerous to hit when traveling at high speeds.

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ven though it was a short ride, I was freezing when I arrived at Sapa. I found a hotel and got a room. After unloading all my gear and taking a hot shower, I then spent an hour or two bundled up in bed, trying to warm up.

Because I was living out of a backpack, I didn't have much of a wardrobe. I had one pair of shoes and one pair of pants, both were soaked. So I went out into the cold, wet fog wearing a pair of shorts and flip flops. There was nothing to see but fog. I found a restaurant, ate, then went back to my room for the rest of the night to warm up.

One of the main objectives of my trip was to avoid winter for a couple of years. I was not enjoying the cold weather in Sapa at all.

When I woke up on Day 21, it was still cold, rainy and foggy outside. Everyone online had said how beautiful Sapa was, so Day 21 was dedicated to exploring Sapa and seeing the sights. Unfortunately, all of those sights looked a whole lot like fog.

A small street in Sapa.

A kid with a basket backpack, out with her granddad.

This is probably the best visibility that I experienced, while in Sapa.

Sapa's backpacker ghetto. These "ethnic" ladies are some of the worst touts in Asia. They are VERY persistent and abnormally annoying. As soon as they realize that you're not going to buy one of their stupid change purses, they will call you every bad English word that they know. The funniest thing is that they ALL sell the same little purses. Not exactly a product that people buy multiples of.
These ladies make Turkish restaurant barkers look like saints.

apa wasn't a good stop for me. The cold weather was depressing. The fog made the scenery only slightly more exciting than a white wall. And the touts were so annoying that they made me wish I actually was inside, looking at a wall instead of trying to explain why I'm not going to buy a change purse, again.

Everything wasn't all bad in Sapa. I did come across this Taco brand toilet paper. Who doesn't love tacos?

I've seen photos of Sapa and it looks like a beautiful place, but I'll never know. Unless I get a girlfriend that desperately wants to go to Sapa, I'll never return by choice. Vietnam is jam-packed with beautiful locations full of lovely and kind people. Life is too short to go to places overrun by jerks. The scenery of Sapa isn't enough for me to endure its army of rude touts.

I had been unlucky with the weather in Sapa, and unlucky with my encounters. By the end of Day 21, my clothes were dry, I'd wasted a day looking at fog and being called names by touts, and I was especially ready to get back on the road. Part of me was tempted to turn around and go south to where I'd met so many friendly people. I was also thinking that if the fog held out, there wouldn't be a reason to keep going north because fog is so boring to look at. Luckily, the weather would clear up as soon as I left Sapa. More about that soon. Until then, ride safe!

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Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, 9.1, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15-17, 18 and 19 here.