We were nearing the end of our stay in the mountains of northern Vietnam. If you looked at my itinerary (visible here), you could see that we decided not to visit Lake Babe, the photos that you can see on the net did not inspire me much and also and almost above all, I wanted to see something different since obviously everyone was passing by there.... my "rebel" side...
No, instead, we were originally planning a tour around Lang Son, continuing further south from Cao Bang along the Chinese border. The idea was even to stop there for 2 nights before having a bit of "rest" before returning to Hanoi.
Except that precisely, the photos having attracted me towards Lang Son, I realized that if they were indeed taken in the province of the same name, it was not around the city itself, but in fact on the side of Bac Son, a town located 80 km from there.
On the road to Bac Son.
The decision was made to head to Bac Son, which is part of Lang Son province and not Lang Son, the city. The advantage was that it brought us closer to Hanoi and the next day's journey to Thai Nguyen was only 80 short km to do.
I still hesitated until the last moment to actually go to Lang Son town, because the mountain not far from there looks rather beautiful too.
Cao Bang – Bac Son journey, finally rice fields!
As we were reaching the end of the route, we were feeling tired, so we allowed ourselves to have a lie-in to recover a little (especially me who was driving).
It was a journey that started with a bit of mountains on a road that wasn't always great (with gravel and trucks), but nothing too bad. After the first 30 km, it's a road along the side of the mountains without much difficulty.
Shortly after, we ate without much conviction in a small roadside stall, passing through a small, random town (the food is really a big disappointment on this trip, as a reminder...)
During the first 30 km.
Oh, green rice fields!
Our lunch today…
So many people…
A few more mountains.
For the rest, no need to go down to Lang Son, and we took a road cutting through the mountains on the left after the village of That Khe, 60 km south of Cao Bang (road 226)
There we came across (finally!) rice fields already planted and green, villages and their inhabitants busy in the fields or grazing buffaloes.
For the last hour or so, the road is relatively flat. I felt, and we did, that we were going to (finally!) arrive for once before nightfall.
River crossing in the small town of Van Mich.
In the middle of the game.
Another break.
As we were getting close to our arrival, the landscape suddenly changed, and we were surrounded by all these cone-shaped mountains, with plantations and villages in the middle. Even after all these kilometers, I still manage to be charmed and already I don't really regret my choice of passing through this region.
In total, it was a 130 km trip, so quite a few kilometers, but easy to do (even if breaks were frankly obligatory for my painful butt, much more than my arm and cracked elbow by the way...)
Where to sleep in Bac Son
Having neither really planned to go through there originally, nor really had the "time" to look into it, I had no idea where to sleep... The problem being that everything is written in Vietnamese, and even in more local vocabulary that we are still not used to...
At that point we took the time to take a look at the guide and look at the possible options... We made a choice and went looking for the hotel in question... We must have wandered around the city for a good half hour, passing through the middle of the local market, in front of the mostly half-amused, half-stunned gaze of the vendors and passers-by doing their shopping.
At the Bac Son market.
We finally found a building that looked like a hotel and bingo, we found our accommodation for the day!
For only 200 Dong (000 euros!) we had a very decent room (apart from the mattress, a bit hard but that was true for all hotels in northern Vietnam...) in a building that had apparently been recently renovated, the best! The advantage of less touristy areas.
Facade of the hotel.
Our cool “cheap” room.
View from the hotel and the mountains surrounding Bac Son.
We happily had a quick dinner at a restaurant along the main street before finally settling into the hotel.
The next day, before leaving for our next stop, we went to look for the viewpoint... we passed a possible alternative to our hotel (but we didn't stop to ask the price or take a closer look inside...)
Here is (I think) its location:
Another possible hotel choice in Bac Son.
If you had to choose between Babe and Bac Son, what is your choice?
