Motorbiking through Northern Vietnam: Ha Giang Loop

In early July, we landed in Hanoi, Vietnam. We spent only two days in the capital, as we wanted to reach the beautiful north of Vietnam as quickly as possible, before the rainy season began, to ride motorcycles there. After a seven-hour bus ride, we arrived in the city of Ha Giang, where we rented motorcycles before starting the journey with Maria and Luis from Venezuela.

We rode through winding, narrow mountain roads, past rice fields and bamboo forests, and through small villages for two days, heading north towards the border with China. The magnificent landscape showed itself at its best on both days, with the rice fields shining lush green in the sunshine against the picturesque backdrop of the wooded mountains.

Enthusiastic about the beautiful landscape, we, persuaded by Luis, embarked on an adventure on the second day of the journey. Readers with weak nerves should stop reading now and join again in the next paragraph!

Since we were so close to the Chinese border, we did what many had done before us: we searched for an unguarded border crossing, parked our motorcycles at the end of the road in Vietnam, and climbed over a slope across the "green border" into China. We were greeted by large stone slabs with painted skulls, which were probably meant to convince us to turn back. Of course, we couldn't decipher the engraved Chinese characters, but the message was clear. So, we walked a few hundred meters illegally through China, took a few selfies, and then, feeling euphoric and still excited, walked straight back to the motorcycles. We laughed about our adventure and were very excited - until Johnny started to panic and unsuccessfully searched for his motorcycle key. Feeling sure that he had lost it, we had no choice but to "go back to China" to look for the key. After about half an hour, still not giving up hope of finding the key, our hearts sank when we saw a truck, which looked like a passenger transport vehicle, approaching us. Ready to sprint in order to flee from Chinese police towards Vietnam, we waited to see who would be in the truck. After a short time of silently observing, we noticed that the driver was just as suspicious of us as we were of him, and after he got out and nodded to us expectantly, we felt somewhat safer. After a while, we saw a Vietnamese woman slowly moving from Vietnam towards China as well. She also looked at us uncertainly for a while before apparently deciding that we didn't look like Chinese border police any more than she did, walked past us, and greeted the truck driver.

We watched in complete disbelief as the scene unfolded: a group of arriving Chinese people also greeted the Vietnamese woman, and together they opened the loading area to unload a huge, black mother pig with loud squealing, to smuggle it into Vietnam. We continued to search for the key and kept looking over to the completely bizarre smuggling scene. When I finally found the key in the middle of a Chinese cornfield, I let out an incomprehensible gasp of relief, waved the key, and then we ran as fast as we could to our motorcycles. After a few hundred meters of riding, we stopped, hugged each other, and couldn't believe the completely absurd hour we had just experienced! We drove to the next city in the sunset and recovered from our adventure.

The next day brought a setback: it was pouring rain and we had, according to the reports we had read, the most beautiful stretch of road ahead of us. We didn't want to ride it in fog and rain, so we decided to take a day off. Coffee, soup, a leisurely lunch, a short walk to a former fort, and a beautiful viewpoint were our activities for the day. When it cleared up in the afternoon, we decided to at least drive a few kilometers out of the city to a homestay in the mountains. We arrived at Mapileng Homestay in the late afternoon and immediately felt comfortable in the wonderful setting of the mountains on the outskirts of a small village of the H'mong people. Our plan to continue driving the next morning was once again thwarted: it was pouring rain again... But since we felt so comfortable in the homestay, it was easy for us to do "nothing" for another day: we took a walk through the village and had a very relaxed day. In the evening, two more motorcyclists joined us: Kata from Chile and Federico from Argentina. With our South American travel group, we finally started the next morning at six o'clock to continue our journey: Initially, we set off on a short trek along the beautiful Skywalk, and then continued riding through the serpentines of the Northern Vietnamese mountains, enjoying the magnificent landscape. In the city of Meo Vac, we took the wrong turn, so we ended up driving through small villages and hamlets along a river for about three hours, alternating between gravel roads or concrete roads full of potholes. When we realized that this was the road we had been specifically warned about because it was in extremely poor condition, we decided to turn back - one more day didn't matter now. So, we turned back and took the wrong turn again: according to the map, it was a shortcut to our destination, but after about 300 meters, we found ourselves on a more than bumpy, steep uphill dirt road, where the locals were traveling at breathtaking speeds on their mopeds, but we could only move forward very slowly. Even when a group of other tourists came towards us, who gave up on the road and decided to take the longer but asphalted route, we stuck to our decision: "It's not that bad", we unanimously decided, and continued driving - "it's only 16 kilometers, and the locals drive here too!". Well... after 30 minutes of driving, we had only covered one kilometer, and as the tanks of our travel companions, who were each riding on a motorcycle together, became emptier faster than expected, we decided once again unanimously: turn around and take the longer route... Somehow, after everything that had already happened on that day, we were not surprised that Federico noticed a flat tire a few kilometers later and had to go to the mechanic... fortunately, the mechanic was only a few meters away, so the repair went quickly. After a whole day of driving, we arrived back in Meo Vac in the evening - only 20 kilometers from the place where we started. Although we hadn't really made any progress, I enjoyed the day very much - magnificent scenery and some wonderful impressions of the cheerful residents in the less frequented areas of the Ha Giang district!

To end the day, we treated ourselves to a few cold beers - we felt like we really deserved them after this day!

The next day, we finally rode the last stretch of the journey - without any complications. On the contrary! We had beautiful sunshine again, and behind every bend, we had a new view of the stunningly beautiful landscape, with joyful children waving to us as we passed by. Behind one bend, I even had the opportunity to do a good deed by taking a little boy, who was struggling up the hill with his heavy load, and his load on the motorcycle, and giving him a ride home.

Lastly, we happened upon a river where we joined the locals in bathing, which they found more than amusing, and they wanted lots of photos and selfies with us in return, while they gave us pineapples and green tea!

This is how our first week in Vietnam passed, and we enjoyed every minute of it!