2
December, Muong Giang to Muong Gion, 40km (more or less)
Quoc Yeu Guest House 120,000VND
We’re
lost in translation and lost in reality! Seriously! We knew we had a long climb
and then a long drop to Lai Chau. I was a fraction concerned, but quite
excited, when the long climb started considerably earlier in the day than
anticipated. Soon after we began our descent we saw a nice restaurant and
decided to break for lunch. We were surprised to find a town here at all and
out of curiosity decided to check our whereabouts on our map. While we were
doing so a young man who spoke a few words of English came over to say hello
and we asked how much further it was to Lai Chau. He said the next town was
Than Uyen another 50km away and pointed it out to us on the map. Than Uyen lies
on a completely different road from that we thought we were travelling! It is
very difficult to communicate in the mountains of northern Vietnam. There is
essentially no English spoken and the pronunciation of town names is a
struggle. Yesterday we came to a biggish split in the road and enquired of
three men selling meat on the street which was the road to Lai Chau. Two pointed
to the left, one to the right. After much discussion between the three and the
inclusion of the opinions of one or two passersby, the consensus reached was
that we should take the right fork. My mantra is “double check”, so we asked
two or three others if we were on the road to Lai Chau and were waved onward.
But here we are on the wrong road... As Sapa is our actual destination and Lai
Chau just one stop en route, and as the road we seem to be on seems to go to
Sapa too, this is more of an adventure than a disaster. But with no internet
connectivity, we do not know where we might find accommodation or what state
the road is in. Regardless, tomorrow on we go...
Between Muong Giang and Muong Gion
Between Muong Giang and Muong Gion
Between Muong Giang and Muong Gion
Between Muong Giang and Muong Gion
Muong Gion