Fingers Crossed I’ll be on the Road Tomorrow

Daily Stats

Distance: 0

Time: 0

Elevation: 0

Speed: 0

Accumulated Distance: 340

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Daily Disasters

1. Forgot my rucksack in a resturant.. passport…. money 🤦.
2. Bus had a puncture.

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I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my bike on my trips to Ha Noi. But on ny first night in Sa Pa I ate in an Italian resturant, somehow I got talking to Michelle and Bach and they offered to look after my bike on my trips. I cannot express how grateful I am for this kind offer.

Hanoi

We are building up to Tê’t which is on 29th January. Vietnam’s (lunar) new year festival.

I went out for a curry last night, it was decidedly average, then I went put around town just sightseeing the night market. Maybe an hour later I realised my rucksack was not on my back 🤦. Of course by this time I had forgotten the resturant and was an hours walk away. I sprinted back in the direction I came,  I had found the resturant on Google maps luckily I refound it snd the owner handed back my bag, passport and dollars all inside.

This morning I got up way too early and ambled to the Laos embassy getting to it exactly at 8am unfortunately they don’t open till 8.30am. Ambling about the town at that time is fun. People dancing in the parks

Getting back to the Laos embassy I get inside already 8 or 9 people inside. Fill out the form, which border are you crossing/where are you staying/when are you entering, stick the passport photo on the form. (There are rumours about the size of photo being important) I handed the form in, the guy said nothing about the photo size….. come back at 1.30pm pay the $40 then collect the passport with visa. Interestingly I was not the only person who had returned to Hanoi having been refused at the border crossing.

The Embassy districts are always affluent so I searched out a Starbucks (once again I have to emphasise I do love a coffee and Starbucks are the only place that sells decaf, otherwise Never)!

On the bus journey back to SaPa we always stop at a service station. There is always time to get some food. I grabbed a few bits and started to eat, then saw my bus rolling out, I ran towards it waving and I saw a German girl I had been talking to running towards it, the bus just drove off and we were left staring at each other stranded, but there were a few others and we stood for about 30 mins waiting all extremely nervous as we had left all our stuff in the bus.  It did eventually turn up having changed a wheel. There was much relief amoungst us all.

I hope to be back on the road riding tomorrow. What time I set off depends on what time I get in tonight. My bike is still at the Italian Restaurant. We’ll see what happens.