Homestay and Run For the Hills

2/18/09
Jun Village to Lam Ha, Vietnam
Day: 112.17 km
Cume: 2490.5 km
Avg: 13.7 kph
Max: 55.5 kph
Time: 8h9m
Highs: Very nice scenary, mountain riding, lvoely morning bird song and while I was in the jungly part of the first big climb, seeing the "Napa Valley of Vietnamese coffee production," occassional cloud cover provides relief from the heat during the climb, little traffic, climb 2 PAVED (not dirt), amazing descent, seeing Dalat/Mt. Longbian in the distance for the first time, hotel in town with comfy bed, meeting amazing Vietnamese guide in Jun Village and talking all night about politics and culture
Lows: Hot sun on long ascent, 4:45 AM start, miserable road conditions on climb 1, home stay @ Jun Village not so good


Perhaps it's because I'm comparing it with the simple and gentle nature of the people and way of life in Kong Lor Village in Laos, but the Jun Village turned out to be rather disappointing. I think they're in enough travel books to receive enough farang traffic that they have basically mimicked the worst behaviors of tourist destinations in other parts of the country. They wanted to sell me everything. They weren't very friendly. Homes were being built, improved with moneys earned from homestays. I didn't interact very much with the family I stayed with and didn't even really meet and/or spend time with them in the two days I was there. Unlike Kong Lor, I didn't eat with the family, I traveled to one of the village restaurants and overpaid for low quality food. One very nice outcome of staying there, though was that I met an Aussy and his Vietnamese guide (Motor Cycle tour guide from Dalat), who spoke excellent English and was happy to answer every question I posed to him about Vietnam and Vietnamese culture. He was super smart and super political and had decent knowledge of world politics, so it was quite an enjoyable discussion. He was very lively and had a lot of very funny and illuminating stories.

Sunsets and night at the village were simply amazing. Looking out across endless green rice fields and into the mountains, red sunset reflected off clouds dominating the sky above the mountains. Crickets and other night sounds. The stars again. Another valuable feature of staying out in the village.

I awoke in the Jun Village at 3:30 to the sound of thumping techno coming from one of the houses just down the road. It was so loud, I couldn't go back to sleep and they played the same song (a song I've heard throughout the country) about three or four times. Combined with the hocking and spitting sounds of the older woman of the house, I couldn't get back to sleep. So, I decided to quiet and carefully extricate my belongings from the long house I was sleeping in, pack my belonging in their rightful places in my panniers, load the bike and take off an hour and fifteen minutes prior to my intended start time at 4:45. This sounds ludicrous, but with my lights and headlamp, this was infinitely safer than any other highway I have ridden in this country during the day time. I saw very very little traffic until about 6:30 and riding under the stars had a brilliant affect.

My goal was to attack the uphill before the sun and heat could set in, but they were 60km from my start point and I knew even with the early start, I'd still be making the ascent in the full sun. I can't remember the distances offhand, but I know that there were two major ascents on the day, the first, I believe, a smaller one and the second a major unpaved ascent (according to LP). over the 1500 meter pass. I was so thankful to arrive at the point LP stated the dirt would start only to find about 3-5 year old smooth asphault! No dirt ascent!

The descent between the two ascents was AWESOME! Red soil, hot temperatures and the most impressive collection of coffee orchards I had seen. It really felt like Napa Valley in terms of the scenary and the temperatures and the soils and the coffee production was obviously prolific! LP said that this was some of the finest coffee in Vietnam.

It was a long day at 112 km with two major ascents and I was thankful to arrive at Lam Ha, get a couple of bun bao and settle in the great little hotel in town. I really liked this little town for some reason, it had a certain feel that was pretty neat! I was happy to get to sleep early after sharing dinner with the hotel owner's wife. She's a good cook!