Hanoi to Cao Bang

Here's some pictures from the ride from the capital city to the provincial capital of Cao Bang - where my office is located. It's about 270 km north of Hanoi into the mountainous highlands on the border with China. The road is generally good - a lot like the drive between Tana and Fianar in Madagascar. About 7-8 hours in the dry season, good paved road for the most part, but lots of wind-y mountain switchbacks and whatnot to deal with. This time we did get out of Hanoi until 1:30 in the afternoon, so I don't have a lot of pictures from the road. The first 1/3 of the trip is very built up and urban, and then it steadily becomes more rural until is almost all mountains for the last half into Cao Bang. It was dark by the time we reached the halfway point, so these pictures are from the first third of the trip. The light was hazy to begin with, so the quality isn't the greatest, but you'll get the point. Basically - it looks like Madagascar with water buffalo!