LaoCai-Sapa ride

The start of the uphill ride at lao Cai at 7.30am. I managed to find a motorbike place to pump up my tyres for 5,000vmd
the valley at Sapa

3 young boys who walked alongside me for a while in the middle part of the ride total of 35km
Local family who shared their snacks with me ( loaded on my front bike bag are tube like corn/rice crackers. the little girl was about to go off to get water with a 4 litre container
View of the valley and Mt Fansipan from my hotel window
Scenery on the slow ride up

This is an attempt to add illustrations to my previous emails.

I have selected somephots from the LaoCai - Sapa ride which took me 5 hrs of riding time up a 10% incline and yes, the lowest gears were well used. In the 7 hrs of travel I was stopped for photos, meeting people and generally getting my breath back for 2 hrs.

My speed up hill was around 5kphI only had half the pannier weight on board for this trip so i was a bit apprehensive of th HaiVan Pass later in the trip.

but i did not have to resort to walking the bike. Total ascent 1275m descent 159m (sapa @1473m above sl)

Return journey took 1hr and 31 mins, max speed 53.6kph to LaoCai (100m above SL).

The overnight train trip back to Hanoi with Bike friday booked on as cargo was just as well, the 4 berth cabin already had a large screen tv in box, 2 fold up chairs, 2 large suitcases and then a very large coil of rope.