My buttocks are tired between Bao Lac and Cao Bang

This day saw us rally Bao Lac to join Cao Bang, our base, to then go see the Ban Gioc falls, a must-see in the region. What was supposed to be a fairly short day given the distance, with a flatter road than in recent days, turned out to be much longer than expected…

A short… but long journey

I like the optimism of Google Maps showing me a "small" 2h37 to cover the 135 km of the day between Bao Lac and Cao Bang. In any case, it motivated me when I left that morning because I said to myself "come on, in less than 3 hours I can rest my butt"... How naive...

Because for us, it was more like double that we needed. So no, I'm not going to create suspense, we didn't get lost. But quite logically, this is largely due to the many stops, except that it wasn't particularly linked to the beauty of the landscapes...

This journey was certainly very pleasant and I happily took a few photos along the way, but compared to what we had seen in the previous days between Ha Giang and Meo Vac, the landscape we were crossing today seemed rather "bland".

800 km on a motorbike, it wears you out, it wears you out, 800 km on a motorbike, it wears out your buttocks

And the main reason therefore… it may make you smile, it was my buttocks! Yes yes! I had already mentioned it, but you should know that being 2 on the bike, with my backpack on the back and Jitima's bag in front between my legs, it was far from being optimized in terms of comfort.

And as we approached 800 km in the legs, my behind was supporting the distances less and less. Result? I had to stop practically every 15 km, in addition to having to regularly jump on the saddle on the way to relieve a few seconds...

The pain is silent, it is silent!

This is the main disadvantage of this way of traveling. Knowing that if you can, I strongly advise you to each take a motorbike, certainly it doubles the transport budget but you will gain significantly in comfort, it is not negligible…

How to start the day wrong

We got up quite leisurely (as usual) around 10am. Before going to lunch in the same area as the day before, changing restaurants on principle to try something else.

We also had a coffee at the same place as yesterday before going to pack our things and load the motorbike.

Well, no, this time, we didn't start the day by getting lost... On the other hand, when I had already covered a good 10 kilometers, we realized (fortunately!!) that we had forgotten our passports at the hotel (because they systematically keep them at the reception, it was valid in all the hotels in northern Vietnam anyway...)...

So we lost a good hour to start this new day... But fortunately, nothing else to report and the rest will therefore take place without any other hitches than the regular stops mentioned above.

It was a fairly easy journey, which allowed us, for once, to arrive before nightfall (well, really just before…)

The road followed the valley at the bottom of which flowed a river. It is from this day on that we will come across the most rice fields already green.

We stopped at a sort of small local market, as we were starting to get hungry, but the place held little interest for us.

Just after we were surrounded by a superb bamboo forest, a little further, we came across some not disgusting viewpoints.

After another stop to fill up with petrol in a small local shop, I drove for another quarter of an hour before stopping again. This time, to take a slightly longer break, we decided to stop in a rather charming little town surrounded by mountains.

An hour later we reached a valley where there is another small town, from which we could see in the background all the mountain peaks, similar to sugar loaves.

It was around 17:30 p.m. that we arrived in the suburbs of Cao Bang. Time to enjoy the sunset over the rice fields bordering the city and we finally entered around 18 p.m.

Where to sleep in Cao Bang

Cao Bang being one of the rare stops where we stayed 2 nights in a row, I had booked a decent hotel, just to be able to rest properly. I found it quite easily, the city not being that big either (45 inhabitants).

It was at Duc Trung Hotel for $20. Nothing to complain about, I didn't actually expect such a high standard in terms of appearance (the illustration photos don't really show it off...). Cao Bang being relatively untouristy from an international point of view, the level of English remains very basic on the other hand.

However, we struggled to find the restaurants indicated in the guide and some were closed... We ended up eating in a kind of "fast-food" restaurant, both because we also wanted something other than noodles or rice, but also because we didn't want to stray too far from the hotel.

I sincerely regretted that the shop opposite offering pâté and bread was apparently closed…

That evening, there was another big, quite violent storm, fortunately for us it only happened at night.

The next day, a beautiful day awaited us towards the famous Ban Gioc Falls, on the border with China (it was also a tough day...)