Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned. Everyone said the cops lie in wait, pull you over, demand your International Driving Licence, then hit you with a million dong fine when you don’t have one.
We thought we might outsmart them by leaving at noon, hoping they’d be hard at lunch by the time we left Ha Giang (whose environs were reputedly the prime hunting ground). And it seemed to have worked until, oo-er, there were a couple up ahead. But by losing ourselves in the middle of a huddle of bikes, all doing a sensible speed, we seemed to avoid their attention. Result!
On we rode, on roads better than we’d expected, with the scenery becoming steadily more majestic as we hairpinned our way up into the hills. The weather wasn’t great – completely overcast – but as we got higher and began to enter the clouds, the swirling mist surrounding us, it began to feel almost zen-like. Until we entered a little village, and suddenly realised we were being waved down. Dammit!
I did my best. Presented my UK license, pointing to the full motorbike accreditation, but I never really thought that was going to cut it, and sure enough, the very nice, very patient policeman, with the help of translations on his phone, made it very clear that we would be on our way after, and only after, handing over the million in cash. Fair enough. Call it a sort of official unofficial tax on rich foreigners enjoying a poor country. Can’t really blame or begrudge.
Then it was just a couple more hours of spectacular scenery and the occasional herd of cows till we arrived at our day one destination: Yen Minh, and found our way to a homestay called Milk Milk, as recommended by the lovely Malaysian couple we chatted to over breakfast. Where we found the place heaving with millennials, having the time of their lives right below the decidedly underwhelming room we were offered. Nah. We’re old. We like our sleep.
So after a quick google consult, we found our way to Tom’s Homestay, which we found much more to our liking, with a much larger and pleasanter room, a significantly lower price tag, a lovely view, and some good old peace and quiet. That’ll do nicely.