Day 14: Bridge, Border, Caverns

Sunday, 11/2/2024

Woke early and got ready for the day.

Clothes were still not dry (sigh).  Should have left them outside.

I was able to use the shirt and underwear, but socks were still wet, so dirty socks it will be.  I had left one pair out of laundry for just this contingency.

Walked over for breakfast at 6:30am (the usual eggs and bacon) and then went back to the room by 7:00am.  I put the wet clothes outside again, as it was still windy, while I got everything else packed up and ready to go.

I went over to the truck, grabbed my water for the day and a Coke.  Then sat outside and played online a bit till 7:30am when I packed up the clothes and took the bag down to be loaded on the truck.  I put my stuff on the bike as well.

Long was still working on the bikes, and he came over to air up both my tires.  He had put brand new rear tires on two of the bikes that morning, and did the usual chain oiling and general checks.

Today we will be going to the border with Vietnam, but will do a few stops in the area first.

We stopped at the edge of town to fuel up, then back tracked to a dirt road heading into the back country.  We went down this rough road for a way, then turned around, either because they wanted to let us get the cool photo we stopped for, or they had missed the turn.

Our wrong turn view.

We got onto the road we needed, and it narrowed down a bit.  We did a short stop in an area along the cliff face that contains several caves the locals hid from bombs in during the war.  We did not have time to hike the unmaintained trails up to them, so just a small history lesson.

We soon reached the river and a very sketchy looking bridge made of bamboo and steel plates that sort of crossed it.  It looked like it might have been knocked out of alignment as it did not line up with the paved ramp on the other side, though on our side it was just a dirt/mud trail. The bridge was also about 6 feet too short on the other end, though in shallow water.

We are going to cross that?

We all rode across and up the mud bank, then had to do a sharp turn, or go around the tree with all the exposed roots, to get over to the pavement that went up into the village on the other side.

Making my crossing. (Photo by Joe)

Just a bit of mud on the slope up. (Photo by Joe)

This village is well known in the area for the number of bombs dropped around it, and for the large amount of bomb remains they find and use in various product manufacturing.

I stopped up in the main area of the village while waiting for the others.  The unicorn was on Marks bike today and he had parked to walk around.  Some local kids were so fascinated they came over for a closer look.  I snuck a photo while they were doing so.

Unicorn amazes the kids.

We only spent 10 minutes there, then back across our less than perfect bridge, which was a blast to ride.

A few of us walked around a bit while waiting for the rest, and some played riding up the surrounding banks.  Once done, we headed back to the highway where we started.

Joe coming back up the hill after crossing back over.

Everyone across, Jerry preparing to ride up a hill off to the left of photo.

We then headed toward the border.

The road was nice here, scenic, some twisty fun, but it was now getting overcast and fog was low on the mountains.  Even had a few very light rain sprinkles while we rode.

We then started up an insane hill that was steep, twisty and absolutely horrible condition.  Surface was mostly dirt at times, and massive potholes and cracks all over.  Some were large; a semi-truck had dropped a back wheel into one on a corner and was now wedged on the frame and blocking the road. 

Thankfully we could filter past it.

We eventually arrived at the Laos border station and turned into a lot to park, but we were being waved over by our Lao guide who was in front of the building with several other men.  We hoped over a few curbs and went up to park in front of the building.

The truck had proceeded straight to the border instead of following us on our little backcountry adventure.

We all used the restroom inside, and when back outside, Tan handed us back our passports which he had again collected that morning to help speed up the border crossing.  They had quickly processed our exit and we were ready to go.

We took some photos with Kone and Sy, our Lao guide and policeman, then pushed our bikes through the checkpoint to meet up with the truck parked on the other side.

Exiting Laos. (Photo by Tan)

The whole process took 15 minutes!

We rode down a short distance and had to stop at the exit checkpoint, show our now stamped passports, and then we entered the no man’s land between the border checkpoints.

There was about a 1.5km (1 mile) ride through some hills before we reached the checkpoint on the Vietnam side.

We parked along the curb in front of the building, but soon a guy yelled over from the nearby lot that we needed to move our bikes into the lot, so we all rode over there.

We then went inside the building and got into a line.

Then things just went off track.

They had us go sit in the lobby, then later called us over to carry our bags off the truck and over to an x-ray machine, but we were told we could not put them through yet.  We stacked them on the floor and the table in front of the machine.

While this was going on, it started to rain outside, so we all had to run over to parking lot to grab cameras and helmets and other gear left on the bikes and bring it inside as well.

Soon after, Tan collected our passports again to go work on our entry.

Then Lap, the truck driver, started to put our bags onto the x-ray as he was now going through the border and needed to clear the bags to get them back on the truck.

Tan came over and returned our passports soon after that, then we had to go through a metal detector and put all our other gear through the x-ray machine as well.  They then checked our passports and we could go through and back outside.

We then had to walk over and get the bikes and push them over to the lane through the checkpoint. That was complicated by a semi-truck who tried to use the wrong lane and had to back up while we were trying to cross that area.

They then manually checked the bags we had just put through the x-ray, and then waved us through.

We walked the bikes through the border and over to the side of the road by the waiting truck.  We got our gear put back where it should be, then off we went.  Process took just under an hour.

Welcome back to Vietnam! 

The roads improved immensely here, but weather was getting worse.  The fog was heavy, it was overcast and temperature came down bit more than I would have preferred.

Back in Vietnam the roads at least improved, but weather was getting gray.

Roads and views were nice today.

We stopped a bit later for lunch and this time had food prepared by the restaurant for a change.

We sat outside on the patio because just as we were ordering our food, a bus full of obnoxiously loud men filled the hall.  The echo made it very loud!

While eating, a little stray cat wound its way through our legs meowing.  It then went a few feet away and stared at us.

I tried to coax it over with a piece of chicken, but it would not come, and it would move away if I walked toward it.  I finally tossed the meat about 6 meters (20 feet) onto the pavement nearby, it sniffed it, grabbed it and ran off into some grass, did not come back again.

We got back onto the bikes and headed down the road.  The fog had gotten heavier, nearly a mist now.

We soon had a light rain, so we stopped to put on our rain gear.  We had been warned to have it ready as we expected to get rained on today.  The tour company actually provided a very basic rain cover which was strapped on the bikes tail rack.

I had brought my own gear with me, and while I left the pants in the bag on the truck, the jacket was in my back pouch of my riding jacket.

Having my own gear turned out to be a good thing, as Pierre and Tammy only had one set on their bike, so I let them have the gear off my bike since I did not need it.

And the rains finally came.

The rain of course slowed us down some as the roads were wet, but we still made good time.

Rain did create some nice views though.

We rode in the rain for about 25 minutes, then stopped for a break and another lesson in history.  The valley we stopped in had been very heavily bombed during the war.  I did not hear the whole story as I had to wander off to find a bush to piss in.

Pit stop to hear some history, watch some cows and look at cool plants.

We then took some photos of the cool flowers along the road and some cows roaming nearby.

Joe rode ahead so he could get a photo of us all while we rode in a line across the entire road.  We had a few false starts though due to oncoming traffic.

Long pulled ahead of the line too far :) (Photo by Joe)

The rain stopped for a bit, but came back later.

We eventually reached our next destination of Phong Nha.  We pulled off the highway, then down some little side street that ran along the river.  I think it must have been a wrong turn, as we turned around and went back toward the highway.  We did stop though to fuel up while on that small road.

We then took the bigger road into town and soon reached our hotel which was also down along the river.

By now we were in a steady rain fall.

We got the bikes parked the small lot in front of the hotel, checked in, and changed out of our rain and riding gear.

Saigon Phong Nha Hotel

Room for tonight.

We then met immediately in the lobby of the hotel to walk over to the boat dock nearby for the boat ride up the river to Phong Nha cave.  The rain had stopped again for now.

At the dock to get boat to Phong Nha Cave.

Tan bought our tickets and we got into the boat assigned to our group.  The very slow ride up the river took about 25 minutes and it started raining lightly as well.  We turned off the main river into a smaller tributary, and soon reached the cave entrance.

Starting our boat trip up river. (Photo by Joe)

Heading up river to the cave.

The boat stopped along the shore where the boat driver went to get our tickets validated.

Then we got back onto the water and headed into the cave.

Approaching the Cave Entrance

Much of this cave is flooded, and you ride the boats up into the cave.  However, the water levels were much higher right now, so the boats cannot get into the back sections of the cave, so we will only be visiting the first large chamber.

Moving up to the stop to get off boat inside the cave.

They dropped us off along the shore near the chamber which had a higher area of ground next to the river.  We walked around the sandy beach a bit to take photos, then headed up the wooden walkways that guided you through the cave while protecting the cave surface.

This was a very well-lit chamber with some impressive formations.  We spent about 30 minutes roaming the paths of this chamber and down the passage back toward the cave entrance where the boat would be waiting for us.

During the walk, we never saw Jerry, who had been trying to get onto some area near the back of the cave, and we jokingly said he probably had swum farther in.  Tan went back into the cave to find Jerry. But when we reached the boat, we found Jerry sitting there.  Somehow he had went past us all without being noticed.

We waited and kept yelling into the cave to get Tan back, and he eventually did arrive.  And then the cave lights were turned off.  We were the last group today.

The boat left the cave entrance and back down the river, in a light rain, to the dock in town.

We walked over to our hotel in the rain as well, but it appeared to be letting up as we arrived.

Coming back down river to return to hotel.

Back in my room, I took a good warm shower, did my usual bag sorting, and laid out the wet clothes to finish drying.  Then I sent some photos to the others while updating social media.

I wrote the journal up to the present time and in 20 minutes will meet the group for dinner in the lobby.

Down in the lobby I was sitting at a table trying to send a few photos to Joe while I waited.  I looked up and everyone was half way down the street already!  I followed and caught up with them at a restaurant about 3 blocks away.

Same food again, but at least I can get a Coke now. It had been very hard to find in Laos, and usually only Coke Zero, which I prefer not to drink if I can avoid it.

After dinner I walked down the street into town to find a shop to buy some more drinks.  Took a few blocks, but found a Vinmart, bought a few teas, then returned to the hotel with a detour through the empty tourist plaza so I could take some photos of the centerpiece.

Center structure of the tourist plaza near the river docks.

I finished up the journal for the day and sorted the wallet to move the 313,000 Laos Kip I had left out of my way, and put the Vietnam Dong I had in the front.

I also went through and made sure the best copy of each type of bill was put aside for my currency collection and determined what bills I still needed.

I just need a 2000 Dong and will have a complete set of all possible denominations.  

According my internet research, there are smaller bills below 1000, but do not seem to be used much.

It is also good to have internet back on the phone now, though the hotel has wi-fi like all the rest.

I will read a bit, then get some sleep.  We have breakfast at the hotels other building at 7:00am, and then a long ride tomorrow, likely in the rain.  I will probably wear the rain pants tomorrow as well.

Goodnight!