Breakfast and Departure
Finally! Morning had come. I woke up at 7 and hurried to get ready. No one else was up yet, and while I wondered why everyone was still asleep, I took a shower and got fully ready! A woman made breakfast and I chose an egg dish.
Everyone woke up one after another, and we ended up having breakfast together at the seats of the people who happened to be there. Everyone ate a lot for breakfast.
They hadn't all been traveling together; at first each of them was alone, then they met somewhere along the way and decided to travel together, and now there are three of them, or so they said.
One was from England, one from India, and one from Australia — they all came from different countries, hit it off, and today is apparently their second day in Cao Bang. I thought everyone was really open and it was fantastic. This kind of atmosphere is exactly the kind I love.
I also took a photo with an Italian friend! We were actually planning to go to the loop together, but his destination was different from mine and our schedules didn't match, so I ended up going alone.
I think it would be fun with friends, but I'm sure it's also fun alone! Being able to decide the plan for yourself anytime and anywhere — I thought that's pretty great in its own way.
Into the Loop
Finally I started the adventure! Leaving the town more and more, I entered the loop. With lots of bikes and trucks around, I finally sped off at full throttle. Time was crucial; I wanted to arrive near the waterfall at the Chinese border before it got dark!
The route ran through many forests and mountain paths, so there was nothing but nature. The smells were rich and delightful, and I felt Vietnam as I rode the bike at full speed.
At first I was scared, but I gradually got used to it. After riding for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, I reached the first destination!
A nearby German person took a photo for me and I set off immediately! Because there were many puddles, my feet got all muddy and messy. I enjoyed that as part of the adventure.
A Village Between Mountains
After 2 hours and 30 minutes of riding I finally arrived at a small town. It felt like a small settlement between mountains, but there was a bakery and fruit being sold, so at last I was able to buy something to eat.
Maybe because I was going fast, it was incredibly cold—so cold I was freezing, and my body temperature had definitely dropped. I was really glad I could buy food along the way.
Summit at the Chinese Border
I reached a famous destination! It was almost at the Chinese border, and after arriving I spent 40 minutes climbing the mountain to get there! The summit was truly beautiful. It was a viewpoint where you could see all the places I'd ridden by bike, and I rested there for about 30 minutes while eating a banana.
While descending the mountain I met a group of Brits. Because of time and energy constraints they had canceled climbing the mountain and were coming down now. I felt a little sad — it seemed such a waste not to see that beautiful view. But well, it couldn't be helped. While going down I was talking with a university student.
She said she studies fashion and loves Japanese street fashion. She had apparently been traveling in Japan for about a month and was going to another Southeast Asian country next. We talked for about 20 minutes as we descended.
Exchanging Instagram on the Bike
We said bye-bye and I headed back along the road on my bike. I stopped along the way to take pictures, and that girl's bike caught up to me; she showed me her phone, and I wondered what it was—turns out it was Instagram.
It was the first time I'd been asked for Instagram like that, and it was amusing. Both of us were on bikes, with the person riding in front controlling as we approached, so I thought, what an amusing little drama!
Lost
Relying on Google Maps, I headed to the next destination. Next was finally the hostel! As I was eager to check in quickly, I got lost along the way. The signal went out; it was so rural that Google Maps couldn't be used.
I passed by a nearby village and wandered around wondering where to go next. I was using downloaded Vietnamese on Google Translate to ask for directions, but of course they only spoke Vietnamese, so it was really tough. I lost count of how many people I talked to.
Among them I spoke to a villager, but he couldn't understand what I was saying, so in the end we just took a commemorative photo.
I was lost, but I figured I probably wasn't going to die, so I didn't panic too much. Still, getting lost in a foreign country without knowing the language felt unsettling.
Trusting Myself
I needed to keep moving forward anyway, so I decided to just head down the road at random. The only thing I realized was that I had never been here before.
I kept going straight ahead. I ran into a motorbike, so I asked a Vietnamese man, "I want to go here, which way?" and he told me, "This way."
But when I checked the map carefully, it was actually the opposite direction. At one point the signal came back and the location updated, so from then on I kept an eye on it and roughly knew where I was.
I decided to trust myself and went the opposite way to what the man had said.
And after 10 minutes, I finally reached the main road! Google Maps' location info returned too! I was really relieved. I felt very safe. Maybe the man didn't really know the way. Anyway, I was glad to have made it to the main road safely.
A Mountain Hostel with No Sign
I headed for the hostel at full speed. After riding for 1 hour and 30 minutes, having taken a detour, I finally arrived at the hostel!
That hostel was also in a pretty confusing spot: you enter the entrance to the mountain settlement, go about 1 km from there, go down a slope where cows are walking, and past them the hostel was there. There was no sign and no name. So I had no choice but to ask people.
Precisely because it was such a place, there were things you could only experience there, and I was able to spend time feeling the Vietnamese countryside. Apparently no one had checked in yet, so I left my luggage there for now and headed back out immediately.
I asked a child who lived there, "Hey, hey, where is this hostel?" but they opened their eyes wide and didn't say anything. I figured they probably weren't used to it. Cute.
A 600-yen VIP Experience
I headed to the waterfall! The waterfall is a very famous tourist spot and the hostel is nearby, so that was great. When I arrived by bike it was around last admission time and there was nobody there. First I took pictures near the waterfall.
Since it was a special chance, I decided to take a boat to get closer and have photos taken. Because no one else was there, I wondered if I could go alone, and they said I could if I paid twice the regular price, so I paid 600 yen and they gave me VIP service with a guide and a driver for just me.
I could take as many photos and videos as I wanted. I sat at the front the whole time and felt the roar of the waterfall and nature.
By the time it ended, the guide asked, "How old are you?" I said, "25," and he was like, "Oh, the same!" so we took a photo. That was it (laugh).
I returned to the hostel by bike safely. The room was very small but not bad. I took the bananas that had been on the bike and put them in the room.
A Night Livened Up by French
Back at the hostel, it's dinner time! I had dinner with the guests staying today, the hostel owner, their child, and their husband!
The guests were French and Spanish. They'd met locally and decided to travel together and were together in Cao Bang. Everyone was really open and seemed to be having fun.
They had a notebook and were writing down handy Vietnamese phrases, so we decided to exchange notebooks. I wrote a message in Japanese, and they wrote messages in French and Spanish for me.
When I spoke French, she was really surprised. She lived in Toulouse, and I thought, that's the very first city I visited when I first traveled to France!
It got lively. The food was insanely delicious, almost moving. The hostel fee was really cheap — I think it was about 1,500 or 2,000 yen.
I wondered if it was okay for them to serve such luxurious dishes. I found myself wondering how much profit would remain after taking into account expenses.
Today was truly the best — a fun day with many different experiences.
