2/19 Bike trip to Bihn Lu valley

Unloading the bikes

Start of the bike ride

Heading down!

Oops!

Getting warmer

Bathroom break

Lady in rice paddy

Betel nut juice on her teeth

Happy kids!

Inside the home we visited - grandma

Planting rice

In the valley

Left foggy Sa Pa and drove around an hour to Tram Ton Pass (The highest spot in Indo-China). Almost as soon as we left the Sa Pa Valley we were out in the sunshine. The bike ride was described as stunning views of the Hoang Lien Valley before a “free-wheeling 26km glide to Bihn Lu Junction”. We may have set the record for the slowest trip ever! Way too many photo ops, and slow and steady members of the group the cause. Once we got to the lowest part in the valley I would say the temperatures were probably in the 80’s. 55 degrees in Sa Pa and many layers of clothes, most shed as we descended. I was able to get down to bicycle shorts and a tee shirt but Connie was stuck with a long sleeve shirt (plus another undershirt and long tights) – all in black.

The ride down the mountain was exhilarating and really pretty easy. I was watching my watch and I hit a maximum speed of just under 30 mph when I thought I was chasing Rich and Richie. Turns out they were behind me, something I realized after I had gone pretty hard for about 15 minutes. I waited for the rest of the group while I shed my jacket and rain pants on a nice level spot. Along the way we saw a truck that had tipped over at 3a.m. Apparently the driver fell asleep!

Once in the valley the roads got much worse, a combination of dirt and gravel for about 10 km. Stopped for lunch (really good) and after a short rest got off-road to visit some more ethnic villages. Here’s when the REALLY cool stuff started! We headed up a water buffalo trail and passed a Zay family who invited us to visit their home. We waited outside until they got there and they sat us all down for some tea. Apparently, we were the first group of foreigners ever to be invited in – one of the ladies said how nice it was and thought it would bring them good fortune. We asked them some questions about their way of life and whatever we could think of to pass the time. While in the house we took many images of the local kids and they were giggling their heads off when they saw them. We told Dong (tour guide) that we would send him the images and he would bring them to the family on another one of his bike tours. As we were leaving a elderly lady and her teenaged boy were waiting outside. They had heard that a doctor was in our group and Dr. Blood (Richie Steingart) did a examination of her ear. He thought she had an infection and gave her some Tylenol for the pain but didn’t have antibiotics to dispense. Dong told her to see a doctor and to take the pills to alleviate the pain in her ear.

Bobi Steingart had brought a whole bunch of little yellow finger puppets which she distributed to a bunch of kids in the village. You can’t imagine what a kick they got out of it! More and more kids kept running over and they seemed giddy. It really doesn’t take much to make their day!

Got to the end of the bike ride and into the support van and started generally towards Sa Pa on more local roads. We passed 4 young teenaged xxxx tribe members along the road and they didn’t want us to take any pictures. Later, we saw a whole group of them heading up a trail off the main road. Dong explained that it was “engagement day” that only happens after the New Year (just happened). So, it’s the start of the planting season and the New Year and this is an auspicious time to become engaged. So one of them was heading to become engaged and was supported by all the others. They had incredible garments – Dong says they take up to two years to sew! Of course we snared a few images on the sly. I’ll post when I get form one of the other cameras.

We then happened upon a group of women planting young rice plants in rice paddies. We took quite a few images and passed some more finger puppets to the delight of everyone (us includes).

Finally back to the hotel where we’re ready for some dinner. Another really good day!