Today would be another 1000m day. I’m so pleased that we had our bags taken up to the main road. Pushing our loaded bikes for a few kms up the 20% slope wouldn’t have made the greatest start to our day.
The day started with a 12km climb which was slow and steady but beautiful. As we climbed, we could see we’d soon be up in the clouds and it was then that the temperature dropped and the humidity climbed.
We reached a paragliding jump off point but there was absolutely no visibility and it was deserted. We did stop for a Nescafe and imagined what a stunning view was below us through cloud.
There were other viewpoints but they had the same issue and when we finally crested the pass, we expected to be in for more of the same – wet roads and minimal visibility.
After a couple of hundred metres down the other side, the clouds parted and we had a beautiful warm day for the remainder. A nice surprise.
The rest of the ride was filled with rice terraces in the sometimes narrow valley. The pictures I’d seen in the brochures looked nothing like this, and it was clear we were here in the off season. Apparently most tourists come here in August to see the terraces at their best.
Still, it was a beautiful valley to ride through.
A noodle soup was needed to sustain us and we rolled into Mu Cang Chai to our hotel. We checked out the town, got some cash and supplies and retired to the hotel.
I did some investigation into a knocking noise that This Moment has started making, but couldn’t find any issues.
Dinner was at a local restaurant up the road where we wrapped pork, rice and greens in leaves and wolfed them down.