Motorcycle Loop through Northern Vietnam

From Cat Ba, we took the night bus to the north, to Ha Giang, to do a motorcycle tour there.

But first, a little story about waking up;) That was quite a torture with this night bus. The first strange thing was that the hostel owner who sold us the bus tickets also gave us his number in case there were any problems. Yes, that gives you a really good feeling... so we first went from our hostel to the ferry, then on the ferry, then on another bus. After about half an hour of driving, he just stops and throws all the tourists out in the middle of the street. Well. From there we were taken by taxis to the bus station where the right bus left. But everything was super hectic - the Vietnamese are so hectic in everything they do. In any case, they even wrote down our address from our hostel so they could deliver us there. So into the bus (with beds!) And off we go.

It's 4 o'clock in the morning, all the locals are unloaded, only tourists inside, the bus driver stops and goes to sleep. Kilometers outside the city. Uh, okay? We try to make it clear to him that we would like to go to our hostels now. After 10 minutes of loud discussions, he wanted to throw us all out, but two French women quickly convinced him to take us back. The bus then takes us to the first hostel and throws everyone out. Our hostel is actually still 2 km away, but we decided to stay there as well. Oops, we hadn't experienced something like that before.

One day later, we started the tour. We decided to rent only one motorcycle so that we could take turns driving.

We crossed passes, drove through different mountain landscapes, past rice terraces, through pine forests and... occasionally banana trees.

The whole route goes through numerous small villages where you are THE attraction for the children. They were often totally excited to see us, waved at us, and gave us a smile. It was really exciting to see how people live there because life in the mountains is completely different.

When we reached the northernmost point of Vietnam, we also drove very close to the border with China. There was even a small border crossing, but we were strongly advised not to go anywhere near it. If you enter China without permission, you could face around 2 weeks in prison. So it's better not to :)

Day 3 started beautifully and ended badly. We drove along another pass and were rewarded with a breathtaking landscape!

At a viewpoint, we were even interviewed by a Korean TV team. Well, actually one of them told us a lot and we answered maybe 2 or 3 questions. Still, it was a funny experience. In any case, we drove around stupidly for about 3 hours because our navigation system led us in the wrong direction. When we finally realized that, we turned around and shortly after that it happened. An accident. Let me explain briefly... The roads are quite curvy and sometimes very narrow.

But that doesn't stop transporters, buses, or trucks from speeding through. That's why everyone honks before every turn to signal that something is coming. With the big vehicles, it can be heard clearly (sometimes the horns are half melodies). We drive - not too slowly but far from fast - and at the same time we meet a small truck in a curve. Due to braking and abrupt steering, our tires slide on the gravel and we fall down hard. The shock is initially great, BUT luckily nothing bad happened to us and it could have hit us much worse. As a result, the last 2 days were more marked by fear and not really enjoyable. Nevertheless, it was an incredibly beautiful experience!