They said don't stop (14-15/2/14)

Another 2 day catch up.

14/2/14. My plan last night for today was to go to Bac Ha just north of lao cai which is a quieter town and less touristy than Sa Pa and there are less hawkers in the streets trying to flog you stuff. And the journey would be shorter and easier. I awoke this morning after a well deserved lay in, went to find some breakfast and hopefully buy some socks and t shirts as had run out and I was starting to smell. I gave up on a cafe and walked into a small convenience type shop. They were very helpful. I asked for bread and they pointed out some things to put on it and pointed me to drinks and also showed me something to snack on. For less than a pound total I thought it was worth a risk. I was unsuccessful with the clothes. The sachet that contained something to put on the bread turned out to be this very runny white chocolate flavoured sugary liquid. It was awesome. Whilst eating I re read my lonely planet on Bac Ha and it said it doesn't come alive till Sunday so I made a very very last minute decision to get to Sa Pa instead today. I think I needed to get back onto the traveler trail and somewhere that was touristy. I missed talking too much. So I rang a hostel in Sa Pa and booked a bed in a dorm. I packed my things, loaded them on the bike and was off. 265 km to cover. The road out of Ha Giang was very good and so made good headway straight away. It didn't change much the whole journey. I went through one town, I'm not sure where and just as I was getting to the end of it I realised about 15 metres ahead two police 4x4's were sitting on the road one on each side, with about 3 police men by each one. And one of the police men on the opposite side of the road was pointing his truncheon straight at me (not that truncheon!) indicating me to pull over. And one police man on my side had his hand up to stop me. Now the police uniform in this country that I've seen so far is olive green and these guys were in beige coloured uniform. I didn't spot them till really last minute because of this and so couldn't break in time to stop at the first bloke. I had to swerve right to avoid him whilst breaking and then another jumped out and I swerved the other way to avoid him still slowing down. The third one on my side by now was holding his truncheon up and blowing his whistle frantically at me. There were about 5 bikes around me so why they picked me I don't know. But I got to the other side my head switching between stopping and trying to win a conversation with 6 officers partly about why I hadn't stopped, or doing what I'd been told by the bike company to do which was don't stop just keep going. Straight up I was absolutely shitting myself from the moment I realised the first policeman was pointing at me. In the end I decided bollocks I've got this far let's carry on and don't look back. One of the other bikers near me kept looking at me and other people on the pavement stopped and stared like they'd never seen someone defy the police before, but I didn't know what to do so I shrugged and opened the throttle to a speed that meant if they wanted to catch me they could and wasn't so fast it looked like a get away. For the next few kilometres my heart was racing. I even had someone behind me tooting at one point but it turned out to be just another car going past. And I thought I might get stopped in the next town but nothing. So after about 10km I relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. I still don't know why me. I turned off the main road further on and the road ahead had lots of pot holes and even turned into just rocks and mud at one point but the most dramatic change so far occurred about 2km after that. As the end of one province finished and the next one started literally at the sign post, as if a big knife had been used to slice across the road, it went from mud and rocks to clean pot-hole free beautifully smooth tarmac. Nothing on the bike rattled or shook. It was perfect. And it carried on like this for pretty much the rest of the journey. So I actually got into Sa Pa about half 4 which was great time for the journey. The only thing was Sa Pa is so high the whole town was in really dense cloud and I couldn't see any land marks to work out where I was. Straight away I was accosted by people on mopeds to go to their hotel and I followed one bloke who seemed to have the same address as the one in my lonely planet on his business card but the phone number was different when I got there. So I phoned the people I'd booked with and they came to get me and take me to their hostel which was the right one. The cloud was really cold so once in my room I went straight out and bought socks and a t shirt as I'd run out and a fake north face down jacket for about 15 quid which as it turns out is surprisingly warm considering it's fake. They wanted 30 quid to start but I offered 10 and they said no. But every step I took towards the door the price dropped till I was happy. Went back to the hostel took a hot shower as I stank and put all my clothes in for washing. I needed food so went out, saw a picture of a pizza above the door to one of the restaurants and was sold. I needed something fried and western. In I went, pizza, chips and beer. I couldn't have been happier. They even had menus. And in English. It was superb. Finished my meal, went back to the hostel, got into bed and found an electric blanket in there and was elated. Warmth at last. Spoke to the people in my room for ages, which was great, watched a movie on my tablet and went to sleep. Happy.

15/2/14. The girl from California I'd spoken to last night left early this morning and a Dutch guy moved into her bed. By the time I got up he was about to head out around town and so we teamed up. Found a place for breakfast had a kind of fry up and a Vietnamese coffee. The coffee was about 1.5cm deep in the cup and that was it. I wondered where the rest was so asked for milk. They brought out a small amount of condensed milk which I poured in and raised the level to 1.7cm. Confused I drank it. OMG best coffee I'd ever had, no contest. I could get hooked on this stuff. It was exactly as I wanted all coffee to taste. I'll certainly be getting my fix whilst here in Vietnam. Once we'd finished breakfast we headed off around town. It's not massive but was still really misty so it was hard to get an idea of distances. The Dutch guy Marc also found it ridiculously cold so I took him to the shop I'd got my jacket and he bought one too. Nearly every other shop sells them and other north face stuff but some are more willing to barter. I also got a hat as my ears  were freezing. Also north face but this might be real. Marc wanted to climb the highest mountain in Vietnam whilst he was in Sa Pa but found out this morning that apparently there had been a fire in the mountains six days ago and the whole national park was closed. I wasn't actually that fussed about doing a trek since seeing the mountains in the north and so wasn't that bothered but Marc came here just for that which is a shame. The mist in Sa Pa can change in a matter of seconds. Literally one photo could be perfect the next you see nothing. It's unbelievable. But slowly throughout the day the sun came out and broke though the fog every now and then and warmed everything up immensely. So in the afternoon Marc and I decided to get on the bike and visit a local waterfall just to say we'd done something. It was only half an hour away and there was a potential view point just down the road too. The waterfall was pretty weak as it's out of season. Water doesn't flow much in February apparently. The view from the view point however WAS good. We were above the clouds and could look down on Sa Pa and the cloud. It's not a bad photo but was still a bit misty. Got back to the hostel and Marc planned some other bits to do and I went out to get my chain oiled and tightened as it had come loose again. That cost a pound! When I got back I parked up my bike and collected my beautiful smelling, clean washing. I got chatting to a Dutch girl, Stephanie, out the front of the hostel about her trip so far and about mine, and we're possibly heading south about the same time. Possibly Marc too. It was about 5 when we finished chatting and so arranged for all 3 of us to go out for dinner around 6. We met up and walked around town till we saw something we liked. They fancied pizza so Marc checked out a few kitchens till he saw one with a pizza oven and we ate there. I had a Vietnamese curry which wasn't bad but could do with more flavour. After dinner we found somewhere that did hot chocolate and had a quick drink before heading back. At the hostel Marc booked onto the same bus to Hanoi as me for tomorrow night, yes apparently they put motorbikes on buses here, we swapped numbers with Stephanie as she was leaving early morning and we headed up to our room. Hot shower, clean clothes on, into my warm cosy bed. Night john boy.