we took a motorbike trip to ha giang province, the northernmost and most remote province in vietnam. the police make you hire a chaperone because it shares a border with china. It was us plus our friends Craig, VK & Naomi. we rode minsk motorbikes. 

rice paddies 

as we get higher it is drier and they grow corn rather than rice 

the whole mountains are covered in corn, every little spot just corn and rocks and a few trees. 

cute kids 

kids & goats 

see in the corner, I am in the mirror waving and taking a picture. everyone waves at the foreigners.

heading up into the mountains, looking back towards ha giang city. 

me & dean had a wreck. we were ok but the gearshifter broke off the bike. we put it on a dump truck full of cement and got a ride to the next town, about 2 hours. 

helpful men and curious boys 

little girls 

little boys 

the truck driver excitedly pointed out to me that the two mountains on the left look like boobs, so I had to take a picture. 

weeding corn with baby in the backpack 

cute little girl on the roadside 

the motorbikes break a lot but there are a million mechanic shops and most repairs cost less than $2 and take less than 10 minutes. Sua chua = "repair" but with different accents = "yogurt." I learned about yogurt first and for a long time though this was a yogurt-crazed nation.

the whole town comes out to the mechanic's shop to meet us and check out how tall Craig is.

VK was perhaps the first Malaysian most of them had ever seen.

little girls in yen minh 

between yen minh & meo vac - high enough for pine forests. 

a family having its portrait done wanted one with me. notice they are all standing on the step above me. 

chinese police posing under uncle ho 

kids make good tour guides and accept payment in oreo cookies

our destination - the sunday market in meo vac. it was very big, several hundred people. mostly they trade livestock and housewares, plastic sandals, popsicles, meat. 

so colorful