Nhat Ky Xe Day 9: Huang Su Phi -> Ha Giang -> Yen Minh Approx. 120km?

Thanks to the better-than-expected road conditions, we easily made it through Ha Giang city and started on the final journey northward. Lonely Planet’s guide to Vietnam mentions in the detail-free page dedicated to Ha Giang province that one must obtain a “special permit” from local police to be allowed into the districts north of Ha Giang city. What does that mean? Local police in Ha Giang or local police in those special districts? Whatever. They wouldn’t send us all the way back to Ha Giang city just to buy a permit, right?

We stopped again for coffee in Quan Ba just long enough for a violent storm to start up. By the time we got back on the bikes, the rain was so thick I could hardly see and the lightning was striking steadily closer. I wanted to stop for the day there, but Michael insisted we keep on. Five minutes later I watched a bolt of lightning strike the road (or very near it, hard to tell) about 3 km’s ahead, but we kept riding. It ended up being a good call - the weather lightened up and we had a pleasant ride through the pine forests to end the day. We stopped just short of Dong Van in another small town called Yen Minh. It seemed to be a nice, quiet place; We found a decent, but slightly expensive, hotel for the night.