KHONG VIET
Story 15　Road between Son La and Ha Noi

I had a simple job in Hanoi to draw out money from my account through ATM. They have provided ATM machines only in Hanoi and Saigon which can accept my international ATM card. I used to draw my money in various towns in Indonesia. It was free to me. But I faced problem about withdrawal through ATM machine in cities in Vietnam other than these cities. It can be said that Vietnam is still behind of Indonesia by 10 years about financial systems.

Well,

We must drive about 340 kilometers of Route 6 between our project site and Hanoi through passes with 1200 meters altitude. Among 340 kilometers of road, distance about 300 kilometers of road runs among mountaineous area with many hairpin curves. There are many places suffered land slides and they have provided a diversion at the landslide which shows as "Diversion" on the graph below. You must pay attention to rolling stones and land slides during rainy season while you drive Route 6. Traffic between Son Lan and Hoa Binh is a few. Distance between villages along the road is considerably far. Then you must avoid night driving.

Altitude of Route 6 between Muong La and Hanoi is as shown below. You can obtain a graph with higher resolution by clicking the graph. GPS data is available here. An Excel file of this profile is available here .

Map is as shown below. You can obtain a map with higher resolution by clicking the map below.

I live at Muong La Village of Muong La District in Son La Province of Vietnam. The town faces to Ma River which is the largest tributary of Da River. Da River is the largest tributary of Red River. The town locates on EL. 180 meters from sea level and distance to river mouth at Tongkin Bay is about 500 kilometers.

As seen on the profile above, we must go up to the nearest town of Son La by 400 meters which is far from the village about 35 kilometers..

From Son La Town with altitude of about 600 meters, we must cross a tributary of Ma River with altitude of 260 meters. Then, we go up to the highland with altitude of 1200 meters along 50 kilometers distance.
Photos below are shots at center of Son La Town.

We have a diversion at large land slide point at 155 kilometers from Moung La. Coordinate is N20 53.923 E104 31.979. You may not worry about this diversion road, since large trucks can pass through this point easily. You must pay attention to further land slide after heavy rain. You can ask road conditions at petroleum stations in Son La Town or Hoa Binh Town prior to enter this area.

You can see a pretty town of Moc Chou at point of 130 kilometers from Muong La. They provide a hotel in this cool and fresh town. Moc Chou is familiar to Vietnamese about dairy products, green tea and vegetables. You can enjoy delicious yogurt in road-side restaurant. Try it!

I found a place which looked artificial garden at N20 44.129 E104 56.563 as shown below. Distance is 180 kilometers from Moung La.

We enjoy a panorama of Hoa Binh Town along this route at N20 39.623 E105 08.594 in sunny days. On occasions, an open air market opens here.

At point of 235 kilometers from Muong La, we have spectacle of lime stone mountains in rather flat land. A large hotel of "An Lac Hotel" opens this area, but I have never seen that the hotel is full of guest.

Hoa Binh Town locates at 265 kilometers from Muong La. Hoa Binh Town is located on just border of area of Kinh and Thai tribes. N20 50.495 E105 21.511 and altitude is 30 meters.

A large dam was constructed in Da River flowing at Hoa Binh Town in 1970th with help of the last Soviet. This dam has functions to control flood discharge and hydropower generation. Both functions are important for Hanoi people. However, the river debit is far bigger than the capacity of Hoa Binh reservoir, then Vietnamese government started to construct a new Son La dam about 200 kilometers upstream of the dam.

We run on the flat land to Hanoi. There is almost no adulation until Hanoi. Traffic is heavy with huge numbers of motorcycles without traffic manner.

There is a toll gate at point of 305 kilometers and they collect VND 10,000 every time. Receipt of the toll is as shown below.

It is about 30 kilometers from the gate to center of Hanoi City.

2008-06-06 Created

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