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Published: November 11th 2007
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Duncan and the Jeep
Our not-so-trusty steed... The Northern Loop
Driving holidays have always been our thing. Long stretches of road, not knowing what's going to be in the next town, or if there even is a next town - for us, that is what getting right away from it all really means. The Northern Loop promised all of that, amidst some of the most spectacular landscape Vietnam has to offer.
To do this area justice, your own wheels - whether two or four - are required. Our original plan was to get motorbikes and go it alone. After a few days careening around Cat Ba on motos, the thought of two weeks sat astride scooters, traversing some of the most difficult terrain in the country gave us pause. Idea two - we'll get our own Jeep and 4WD ourselves through it all. A great idea, until we discovered it's illegal for a foreigner to drive a car in Vietnam.
Aside 1: One of the numerous incongruities of this country is this - you can't drive a car (for which you may have a licence and many years' experience operating) but you
can ride a motorbike (which many of us have never done
Tea Plantation, Lai Chau Province
Tea, corn, sugar cane and of course rice were in various stages of harvest as we wound our way from north east to west. previously and certainly don't have a licence for). Road rules? Apparently you don't need a briefing; work it out for yourself. And as for a helmet - you'd better ask if you want one, although the gear you get is little more than a stack hat. Go forth. Ride on the wrong (right) side and honk if you're in any doubt. Honk anyway.
For two weeks, we rode in the backseat of a 1993 Jeep, most beloved possession of Ta, our driver. We both secretly exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing Ta for the first time. Where most Vietnamese are tiny, reaching barely our armpits, Ta is a giant - taller than both of us and with a voice that carries across provinces. A ponytailed Vietnamese Steven Segal, Ta wore only army fatigues or t-shirts with bearing the Jeep insignia. He looked like a man who took crap from no-one, could get us out of any scary sort of situation and who would probably know where the best time to be had could be found - regardless of where we were.
His hidden talent, which we didn't discover until later in our first week, is his ability
Stop here?
With the car needing a drink every hour or so, there were plenty of stops like this. No-one else in sight. to fix anything wrong with the car with found objects. For example, the day on which we had the misfortune to get two flat tyres one after the other, Ta fashioned a temporary plug out of a cigarette butt and some superglue. Similarly, when something happened to some small piece of the clutch (sorry, that's as technical as I get), again out comes the super glue, a bit of some black goop, squish it in there, wait for it to dry and then get the local family to help us get a running start in third gear. He couldn't change gear after that, so we had to travel the 35km to the next town in third - hairpin turns, other vehicles, slight inclines. To say we were all quietly crapping ourselves is an understatement - no-one spoke until we pulled into the mechanics.
Jeep stories aside, the scene stealer of our fourteen day, nine-stop northern adventure was most certainly the countryside itself.
Most people arrive in Sapa on the overnight train from Hanoi, awaking in the morning to find themselves suddenly in a landscape of steep mountains shrouded in mist. It's certainly the most practical way to do
Tram Ton Pass
More often than not cloaked in mist, Tram Ton is the highest pass in Vietnam. As you can see not a cloud in the sky as we made our way up the mountain. it, but with time on our hands and road trips in mind, we opted for the scenic route.
The highway wends itself via Son La (where we picked up Ta's nephew, Lee), just past Dien Bien Phu (the site of an historic victory over French occupation forces) and on to Lai Chau (a town with no notable features whatsoever).
Driving through small clusters of homes, clinging to the highway, villages and town pass by, the wares and goods of residents for sale right on the road. We passed plantations of tea, sugar cane, corn, other crops we couldn't name. We stopped at montagnard (mountain people) markets, where families sold whatever it was they made, grew or had on hand - vegetables, fruit, fabrics, sunglasses, rice.
The roads we travelled on were barely one lane wide, yet shared by cars, trucks, motorbikes, pedestrians, water buffalo, cyclists; all travelling in both directions at various speeds and carrying all manner of passengers and cargo. We could barely see ahead of ourselves and had to put our faith (and lives) in the hands of Ta. But with the distraction of the mountains around us, it wasn't hard to forget the sheer
drop that greeted us at every corner.
To say the landscape was breathtaking, overwhelming, immense - none of those words are enough. Each corner we turned and every pass we climbed revealed yet another vista more beautiful than the last, more serene, peaceful and mysterious. It almost got to be too much. Our eyes couldn't see it all - the shot was too wide. If your eyes can't take it all in, a camera sure can't.
The day we travelled from Lai Chau to Sapa was the finest, so I'll concentrate on that. Befitting a couple for whom all has thus far gone utterly swimmingly, we were treated to the kind of weather the
Lonely Planet lead us to believe was reserved only for the supremely lucky. The day was clear and bright - a blue sky, a crispness to the air that was refreshing but not uncomfortable - and an arrival time at the highest pass in Vietnam that afforded us the view of a lifetime. The road we'd travelled on twisted behind us, a scrambled egg-coloured belt drawing itself across the waist of the range, separating the valley from the peak. It trailed off
Tram Ton
With no roadside markers or viewing platform, it was a case of Ta knowing where to stop and us scrambling over the safety barrier to take it all in. into the distance, where a breath of fog heaved in, respirated from the lungs of some unknown, earthy source.
There are a few times in your life when you get to stop, look around, and think "I'm here, this is for me". And being at Tram Ton Pass was one of those for us. Enjoy the pics - hopefully they capture more than my words can.
Other highlight from the road to Sapa:
- H'Mong girls in the square, and Dao women at the markets: Beautifully adorned, with the luxury (for us) of knowledge of the English language. We got the opportunity to spend a lazy hour with these women (after the negotiation of the sale of their craft items) sitting around, learning about their lives, their marriages, how far they have to walk to peddle their wares to tourists, whether they have email addresses or mobile phones - a real cultural experience.
- A day walk with Pea, our guide, who showed us through the villages and gave us the chance to see how the people there live.
- The luxury of looking out the window at beautiful scenery, all day every day.
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Carol
non-member comment
What ! haven't visited the Library yet
Hi Shannon Great to see you are on the road and enjoying Vietnam - amazing place isn't it just so suprising and interesting. Hope it doesn't or didn't rain too much in Hue. I'm back from France and back in the Library - in body if not quite in spirit yet. Great pics keep them coming Cheers Carol