We got up at 4.30am in Ha Giang and went to catch the bus. It left the bus station at 5.10am. You have to be early if you want to take public transport in this region. I say it left at 5.10am, which it did but it drove around for ages, we swapped buses and eventually we left the town at around 7.30am. I am not saying that you could wait that long and guarantee a bus, but if you do oversleep, just remember that all may not be quite lost yet. Part way along the road we changed buses again. Not really sure why. We passed through Bac Me first. Its a really pretty town on a river that widens into an almost lake. Very picturesque. This bus trip was definitely worth it. We were seeing yet another stunning road along the route. I would love to have grabbed some photos here but we weren't stopping. Again I am not sure if you can stay there but it is worth investigating. The road then continued onwards to Bao Lam, which is another nice local town, where a river carves its way through a gorge before you enter town. This is another area that is really beautiful. The whole North of Vietnam has places that aren't in any guidebooks that are more scenic than almost all the 'highlights' in the rest of mainland South East Asia. On the way there one of the drivers had got in the back and was playing with my arms as I am not sure if he thought they were big or very white. Either way we ended up getting into a game of rock, paper, scissors. I hadn't understood at first, but when I realised what he wanted to play, I thought why not. I beat him 3-0. The whole bus was laughing and everyone was joining in. I love this about North Vietnam. Great people. When we arrived in Bao Lam the bus driver offered to look after our bags for us so we could look around. Everyone was super friendly and it was obvious that there really weren't that many foreigners who came through there. Again I am not sure if you can stay there but it would really be worth taking some time to do this road. We eventually made our connection around 1pm or so and were on our way to Cao Bang via Bao Lac. The road is still scenic and very good, but the part between Bao Lam and Ha Giang is much prettier than the part between Bao Lam and Cao Bang so it may be worth considering doing a loop. The last 30km on the way into Cao Bang are very rough and badly paved. Seems to be a lot of heavy trucks using the road. We arrived in Cao Bang after dark and got a place in the cheap hotel next to the bus station. At first they said they could rent motorbikes, but afterwards they changed their minds. We went to lots of hotels and everyone kept laughing at us. This was the first place in Northern Vietnam where the people had not been so nice. We ate dinner in an amazing restaurant (food and enormous portions) just off the main square. We carried on our hunt for motorbikes but had no luck. Some people quoted us 400,000 for a manual, but in general it seems that it is impossible to hire a motorbike here, so bring your own or take a bus. On the way back we realised our hotel had locked us out. Shit. Luckily some taxi drivers helped us get into the hotel and some others also told us that there was a bus to Ban Gioc at 6am the next day.
We woke up not really knowing what we were going to do that day. We had heard you need a permit, but someone else had said that this was no longer necessary. We decided to gamble but took our bags with us just in case we got stuck there. The bus cost us 80,000 even though they were asking for 100,000. It turned out that you don't need a permit anymore and that the return bus is the same price and comes back from Ban Gioc at around 12.30pm, leaving you 3 hours at the waterfall which is more than enough. The landscape was really beautiful up here as well, carving through limestone valleys and cut up with a beautiful turquoise river that terminates at the falls. We arrived and the ticket guards agreed to watch our rucksacks for us. Nice people. We went down to the waterfalls where we weren't hassled by anyone. There are a lot of people punting along the river from the Chinese side, but not so many from this side. I am not sure if the boat is worth it, but we stayed on land. The falls are really beautiful (even in the dry season) and are maybe a nice contrast in both seasons. I am sure they are more powerful in the wet season, but you don't get to see all of the rocks. The location in and of itself is enough to warrant the journey. Its surreal to see China over the river for the second time. We walked back away from the falls to see some more of the river that we had passed by bus, but it is easier to continue just round the corner from where the bus drops you off. We relaxed at the falls and then grabbed some lunch. The bus driver came back and stopped for lunch as well. He even gave us some tea for free so that we could drink with him. Nice people. We still continued to saee some French tour groups up here, who must have paid a lot of money to visit, while we were luckily doing all of this for almost nothing. The restaurant there is expensive and a bit shit, so my advice would be to take a packed lunch. We went back to Cao Bang and made the mistake of staying in the town again, purely to visit the same restaurant, as we believed we would be able to easily get to Ba Be Lake National Park. In hindsight I believe there to be one direct bus a day from Hanoi, two from Thai Nguyen and one from Bac Kan. Go to Bac Kan. There are plenty of places to stay and you can get to Ba Be Lake the next mornbing directly and cheaply without having to rely on motorbike drivers. I am sure you can visit Ban Gioc in a day and when you get back, get straight on a bus to Bac Kan. That night we met some Canadians who had biked their way up Vietnam and we recommended that they head to Ha Giang province. Finally we watched the film Locusts 8th Plague. Truly awful. Its about some killer locusts who eat everything and are attracted to pesticides. The hero, when he tries to work out why the locusts hadn't attacked him realised that 'its because I only eat organic food'. Ah I wonder who sponsored this film. Babou and Cyril broke up as well, which made Cannelle secretly happy as she thought it would be better for her sister.
In the morning we were up early again to get a bus to Na Phac, which is a junction off the main road on the way to Ba Be Lake National Park. From there we could get a local bus to Cho Ra. I think it was 60,000 for the first and 30,000 for the second most likely. There or there abouts. We arrived in Cho Ra and could see a bus for Ba Be Lake, yet our bus did not stop. The Ba Be bus drove off and they let us off. We asked for the bus and they told us there was no bus. Lies. There is a bus, but we had just missed one. There would be one in the afternoon, but I am not sure they enter the park via Cho Ra. They certainly leave that way. If anyone gets the bus in from Bac Kan (recommended) then they will be able to tell me if it passes Cho Ra or not. The moto taxi drivers wanted 100,000 each to go to Ba Be. Ridiculous. We decided to walk, even with full backpacks. The signs say it is 14km or so, but it is really only 11km as the accommodation options are 3km before the lake and all the signs are for the lake. The moto taxi drivers pursued us for 2 to 3 km, presumably assuming we would cave in and take them. I don't think they believed foreigners could walk it. If you don't mind paying that then you can get here from Cao Bang, but go from Bac Kan and you should save yourself the walk. The moto taxi even handed us a phone so a friend of his could ask if we wanted a taxi. We still said no. Eventually they left us alone and we hiked all the way to Ba Be. Part way we stopped at a place to buy a drink and the guy had scales outside. I thought it would be fun to weigh myself and the local guy seemingly guessing told us all to weigh each other. He thought I would be 130kg or so. I laughed. Not that heavy. It turned out I was now 89kg, so I had lost about 7kg on the trip so far. It was very funny. Really nice people all the way except the last 1km or so when all the kids were asking us for money. You can almost see the line of where tourism has reached. Go to the North before it is ruined. There were lots of aggressive dogs along this road that charged at us a few times, but as normal if you stare them down they run away. One dog came right at me, so I barked right in its face and it ran about 100m away really scared. They are not too scary. The pig was though. We got followed by a pig, who seemed to be trying to attack us. He kept crossing back and forth, looking for a better angle, before he finally charged us once. He followed us for around 400m. Damn aggressive pigs. Tougher than the dogs. Both of us were tired and we decided to stay in the first accommodation we found. It was really nice, but I didn't like that they had added lunch and dinner to our bill already. Lunch was cheap at 60,000 for two, but dinner would have been 120,000 had we not found this out and decided not to eat. They organise tours that include a village, waterfall (in the dry season and we had just done Ban Gioc) and a cave (a shitty version of Kong Lo). We just wanted to see the lake and agreed to a 2-3 hour trip for 500,000. We were stupid and lazy, because if you walk down to the lake you can get the same tour for around 310,000. We paid 190,000 for the privelege of being lazy. Just go to the river and organise it yourself as all the tours that are done at the hotels are the same as hiring a private boat as they don't send a guide with you anyway. The lake is pretty. Not stunning, but nice. If you have not been to any other lakes like Kao Sok etc then it is worth coming (especially if your holiday is just Vietnam), but if you have I would say this is the place that you could most easily skip and that it is less necessary to visit. Its nice, but nothing special. The rest of the North is really special. We walked down to the lake just to have a look, but when we came back both of us were feeling a little tired and sick. Spurs beat Panathinaikos in Europe and we were into the knock out rounds. We should have told our hotel we weren't having dinner, as they knocked at our door and were super pissed when we said that we weren't going to eat. We were quite worried about what their reaction would be the next day. They have direct buses from Ba Be to Hanoi by the way, so we booked one but it was only reserved as far as Thai Nguyen for I think 80,000 or so and then you have to make the connection to Hanoi. We took the afternoon one at 2.30pm, but there are a couple in the morning (really early).
In the morning we took the lake tour. It was really nice. We went around the three lakes (the infernal mist killing the sun again). I don't think you see the sun in Northern Vietnam in the winter. We went to the Fairy Pond (which is nice, but not as nice as the photos) and the pagoda island (which is nice and probably slightly better than the photos). We had a nice time, but again it was nothing amazing. They wanted 40,000 for a soup for breakfast in our hotel and it ended up being just an instant soup. He eventually lowered this to 30,000 including the bananas and tea, as I am sure he realised his price was ridiculous. We also found out that he had paid $250 for a talking bird and so couldn't be doing too badly. We met some Australian birdwatchers on the way back from the lake and they told us they had paid $139 just to be taken by car to the lake. Fuck me. Some people have more money than sense. All of the North can be done by public transport for almost nothing as long as you are prepared. We don't speak any Vietnamese so its not necessary, though it would be easier if you spoke some basics and you would definitely get a lot more out of it. The Vietnamese seem to treat foreigners as equals and you can have some real fun with them. The bus was super, super, super slow. My God. I thought we were never going to get to Thai Nguyen, but we eventually limped in between 7pm and 8pm. Shit. We were never going to get to Hanoi in time. Don't worry though. We got a local sleeper bus to Hanoi for not too much and that eventually dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. We had assumed that we had gone to this bus station last time we had come to Hanoi, but it seems like there are around a million bus stations in Hanoi. After circling the bus station and recognising nothing we realised we were buggered. It was very late and we didn't know where we were. We set off in what we thought was the right direction. A few taxi drivers wanted 200,000 or so, but eventually one agreed to take us for 100,000. He had his meter on, but we had a fixed price. We eventually got to the central lake after driving for over 12km and the meter read 117,000. Bargain. We must be one of the few people to pay less than the meter price for a taxi and we finally knew that the price should be around 10,000 a km. Useful. Jessica had been asked for 1,000,000 when she had arrived in Hanoi from Ha Giang. Mental. Eventually they accepted for 50,000 on a moto taxi. Everywhere was closed so we just grabbed a steak sandwich from the only place that was open and checked into our hotel.
We decided that we were just going to take it easy in Hanoi after 2.5 weeks in the North. We had a very lazy day. We grabbed a pizza hut for lunch, found an awesome French bakery near the shopping centre, where the owner had lived in Marmande (a tiny village where Cannelle's dad lived) and went to see the Paperboy. Not a bad film. There was no skype, so we just uploaded the photos from the North. They don't look as good as the region does, but when do they ever. We went to Gecko restaurant again for dinner and then I watched Spurs lose 2-1 to Everton, conceding two last minute goals. Sucker punches. New Orleans were destroyed as well, so that was the end of our season. Now we would head East to Cat Ba Island and begin Central Vietnam. The North is awesome. Just go. You won't regret it.
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