Ha Giang

At a street food stall in Da Nang we had met two backpackers who told us they were going to do a motorbike trip in the far North of Vietnam. This was the first we had heard of the Ha Giang Loop.

Some research later, our interest was piqued and we were sold on the idea of this 350 Kilometre loop around the very North of Vietnam, which reaches to within sight of the Chinese border. So once in Hanoi we arranged the trip through our hotel. You can hire motorbikes and do the loop yourself or in a group following a guide but we chose the Easy Rider option, i.e. travelling pillion with our drivers as guides. The roads are rough and can be treacherous in places so it is much safer to be driven (although much less comfortable), with the added bonus of being completely free to enjoy the views.

While we were in the North of Vietnam there was an unseasonal spell of bad weather which brought with it much lower than average temperatures, in single digits. As we had come on the trip with no warm clothing we had little choice other than to buy some warm weather gear for the trip. Fortunately, the old quarter of Hanoi has lots of shops selling knock-off North Face clothing, so for around US$20 each (after some pretty intense haggling) we each came away with a warm down jacket and a waterproof outer jacket of surprisingly good quality, to keep us warm and dry.

The trip started with a 7pm pick up from our Hotel in a little minibus to take us to rendezvous with a sleeper bus for the 6 hour journey to the town of Ha Giang, which is the starting point for the loop.

The sleeper bus was really comfortable with flat beds, curtained-off into private alcoves for each person. The Vietnamese onboard were fitting at least two to each bed but that would have been far too cramped for us. The journey flew by as we sped through the darkness and arrived outside our guesthouse in Ha Giang at 2.00 in the morning.

We were directed upstairs with the other travellers to the sleeping area, which turned out to be a large space (with areas separated by curtains for privacy), filled with very thin and incredibly firm, mattresses on the floor – oh to be back in the comfort of the bus! We were however pretty tired by this time, so we did manage to get some sleep despite being pretty uncomfortable and what seemed like a party going on downstairs.

In the morning, with all our layers on, we came downstairs for breakfast, met our drivers and were kitted out in a helmet and red high-viz vest. Our guide, Windy, introduced himself and explained that we were the only ones that had booked the four-day loop (everyone else on the bus had booked the three-day option – maybe they knew something we didn’t!). On the plus side, this meant that we would be getting a private tour! When we got to the bikes we were a little surprised by their size, having assumed they would be similar to the bikes we rode on the Hue tour in central Vietnam. In fact, once our bags were strapped to the back, there really wasn’t a lot of room for us to sit comfortably. We started to think it might be a very long 4 days!

It didn’t take long for us to leave the town behind and head up into the mountains, surrounded by terraced rice fields. Growing rice up here is much harder than in the South where they are able to harvest four crops a year – only one per year is the norm up here.

Our first major stop was a viewpoint called Heaven’s Gate with a fantastic view over a neighbouring valley… allegedly. Unfortunately, due to the poor weather we would have to use our imaginations, here and at many of the viewpoints along the way. The whole region was socked in with low lying cloud that persisted for the whole trip. This meant that every time we headed up over about 850m we went straight into the cloud layer and there was nothing to be seen.

We started to realise that the bike tours had specific routine stops along the route, many of which were high up at the ‘stunning’ viewpoints. It took a couple of days for our guide to understand that we would prefer to stop below the cloud line so we could enjoy some views, rather than right up in the usual spots where it was a complete whiteout.

After dropping down from the mountain pass we visited a village called Lung Tam and a family that has been making clothes and material the traditional way for 100’s of years. The oldest member of the family was in her 80’s and still working every day. It was a fascinating insight into traditional methods of production.

It was with some relief when we reached our stop for the night, just outside the town of Yen Minh. We were shown to our room, which had missing panes of glass in the window – with the temperature already in single figures by late afternoon and dropping. After a quick discussion we got a new room – still no heating but an extra blanket and this one was at least weather tight.

After dinner, eaten very quickly as the dining area was outside and all the food, other than the rice, was cold, we jumped into bed fully clothed to warm up. There was no hot water so a warm shower was out of the question. Under the blankets with all our layers on we were warm enough but we weren’t keen on getting out. In good weather none of this would have been an issue and I am sure we would have had a very different experience. It’s a real shame we were so unlucky with the weather. Fortunately for us, this turned out to be the most basic homestay on the loop. After this, the others did have some form of heating and hot water, but all the meals were still served outside so dinner was not to be lingered over.

The next morning we hopped on the bikes again to ride North, close to the Chinese border and the Lung Cu flagpole. This is basically a tall tower that can be seen from China with a large Vietnamese flag flying from the top. It’s a big symbol of national pride! Again, the views from the top were pretty limited while we were there.

After this we headed to the Lo Lo Chai Village in a hidden valley in the mountains. It seemed to have its own microclimate because as we descended to the valley the clouds cleared.

We were greeted by young girls carrying bunches of flowers – earning their money by being in shots for Instagram. We visited a traditional clay family home in the village of the Lo Lo ethnic minority people. The house was built around a courtyard and the rooms were sparsely decorated with almost no furniture.

The next stop was the Palace of the H’Mong King. This large house was constructed in around 1919 as a house for King Meo who was the leader of the H’Mong people, who are the majority people in the Northernmost region of Vietnam.

The building cost was 150,000 Indochina white silver coins which is the equivalent of about 6 million USD today.

We ended the day at Dong Van which is a sizeable town and to our relief at a much more comfortable homestay – with heating.

Overlooking the town is an old French fortress on a karst buttress above the town. I walked up to this first thing in the morning and had some good but intermittent views across the valley as the clouds came and went.

Day three was when we really started to feel achy from being on the back of a motorbike on rough roads for seven hours a day – perhaps this is what our fellow travellers were aware of! We had to grit our teeth a little, the whole experience was starting to feel like a test of endurance. We weren’t the only ones feeling it. At breakfast, we overheard a couple of people asking to be driven to the nearest bus station, making an early exit.

This was the day when we would go up to highest point of the trip at over 2000 metres and of course completely socked in by cloud. We had got into a rhythm with Windy though and were stopping at the point below the cloud where we could get some views. Much better.

We skirted the Chinese border at one point and were the other side of a valley from the big fence that comprises the border. Our guide took the opportunity to vent his feelings about the Chinese by shouting a big FU accompanied with appropriate hand gestures. We’ve found that the people in Vietnam are not the biggest fans of China and their neo-colonial politics.

The highlight of the day was arriving at the final homestay of the trip in the Dua Gia village, which is a melting pot of seven different minority peoples. The homestay was set in the middle of rice fields in a verdant valley and the village market was in full swing when we arrived. This was a great insight into the lives of the Northern Vietnamese.

At dinner there were bottles of mineral water on each table – or so it looked. Luckily we didn’t pick it up and take a big gulp, as this was in fact “Happy Water”, which is home distilled rice based fire-water that our host encouraged us to drink with chants of “Một, hai, ba, dzô!” (the last pronounced Yo) or literally “1,2,3 Cheers”. After a couple of shots we left the younger backpackers to it – and judging by their sore heads at breakfast the next morning they had enjoyed quite a lot of it.

Our last day started with a visit to a small waterfall near the Dua Gia Village and then we had a lot of driving to do to leave the rural North and get back to Ha Giang town. The weather on the last day was a bit drizzly and we were more than grateful to arrive back in Ha Giang by lunchtime.

Then it was a case of getting on the sleeper bus (this time not an alcove sleeper but just reclining chairs) for the journey back to Hanoi. We arrived back in Hanoi at around 10pm pretty exhausted after the last few days.

We are glad we did this trip, it will certainly be one we remember, but I think neither of us would want to spend four days doing so much bike-riding as an Easy Rider again, at least not on bikes of this size and quality. It was hard on the body, which I felt sure was to do with our age, so when I heard a much younger rider complain that her knees hurt it definitely made me feel a little better! We were clearly unlucky with the weather, which must have been unusual because even our guide said he wasn’t taking any more trips off the company until it had warmed up! It is a real shame that we missed out on the spectacular mountain views but unfortunately you can’t win them all!

And with that, our time in Vietnam had come to an end and it was on to our next stop, Bali.