Since our last post a lot had happened. First off - sorry for the lateness of this post. We have been on the move, spending lots of time on busses and trains without wifi. When we haven’t been on the move tiredness or busyness has prevented us from writing. We are winding down our “off the beaten track” part of this trip, and are moving into our “relax and vacation” part of the trip, so we will have much more time to dedicate to this blog, and we will also have more reliable power and wifi.
The last post talked about the beginning of our northern adventure. After the first day motorbiking up north in the Ha Giang province we were convinced that we had seen some of the most amazing scenery this world has to offer, and swore that it couldn’t get any better. The next two days of our trip proved us wrong. During the next two days on the trip the scenery got more extreme, varied, and beautiful. The towns got smaller, cheaper, and had more of a communist feel than we had seen before, which was very interesting. The roads got smoother, emptier, and much more fun to ride. Everything was spectacular.
The second day up north (June 7) saw us riding from Yen Minh to Meo Vac, which was a 120km ride. We slept in to about 9:00am, and after a quick breakfast took off, with the goal of making it to the Vietnamese north pole, and then over the Ma Pi Leng Pass, which we heard was the most impressive pass in Vietnam. We rode north, heading for the pole, and above us saw some larger storm clouds start to form. Keeping a quick pace, we saw the clouds continue forming behind us, and we decided that we would be able to outrun them. Making it smoothly to the north pole, passing some gorgeous places on the way, we hopped off our bikes and went to see the Chinese border. We parked the bikes and walked up the steps to the pole, which consisted of a huge lighthouse-esque pole adorned with a Vietnamese flag flying from the top. The northernmost point was quite amazing. We were able to walk up through the [literal] pole to see a 360 degree view overlooking the Chinese and Vietnamese limestone karsts and rice paddies. The area was shockingly pretty, and seeing it from the higher viewpoint gave us an unparalleled view of the area. We headed down to where we parked our bikes, grabbed some coffee, and as we joked about how we had outrun the rainstorm it immediately started pouring. To keep our stuff dry we ran our bikes under an awning, repacked so no valuables would get wet if the bags were to get water on them, and waited for the rain to calm down. After a few minutes it did and we headed out, hoping we wouldn’t be stuck in rain.
Quicker than we thought we would be able to, we left the rain, and continued with it chasing us from behind. We knew that we would want to spend a lot of time admiring the views of the Ma Pi Leng Pass, so we kept a quick pace to try and get a gap on the storm we assumed was behind us.
We arrived in Dong Van, the town situated before the pass, at about 2:00, and had a quick lunch. After eating and leaving the town we were immediately struck by the beauty of the area. We arrived on an empty road that took us across the side of a limestone mountain. It brought us up and up, affording us amazing views of the expansive valleys below and mountains in the distance, and eventually led us to a descent. When going down into Meo Vac we saw some of the most impressive views either of us had ever seen. The nearly empty roads led up to the side of a mountain that looked over a strikingly blue river, surrounded by jungle covered karsts and valleys. The beauty can’t be understood unless you are there. The photos below show the area, but in person all the features are so much more massive and unexpected than can be described.
We then found our way into Meo Vac, a small communist town stuck at the base of a huge Yosemite-esque valley. We settled into a hotel we found, and after dinner fell asleep.
We spent two days getting from Ha Giang to Meo Vac, but only had one day to get back to our evening bus in Ha Giang. We knew it would be a long day of riding, but decided to take some small provincial roads back so we could avoid other bikers and tourists, and hopefully be left with a quiet ride. Spending the day riding we passed through small ethnic villages, where the inhabitants looked at us in a way that made us think that hadn’t seen many westerners. We rode about 150km, and saw almost no other cars or bikes. The roads were smoother and more fun than any we had ridden before, and this day we thought would just be full of dull travel ended up being one of the most exciting of the trip so far.
The first two days of our northern loop were quiet and took us far away from most tourists and into some very rural areas, but we still went through some towns and saw a few other foreigners who were adventurous enough to spend a few days on a small bike. The last day of the trip was quieter than we thought it could possibly be, and we saw villages of farmers who were completely unaffected by tourists, just living their lives as they always had. It was a really good day of riding.
We arrived in Ha Giang, and booked bus tickets for that night back to Hanoi. We then returned our rented bikes, had some coffees, found a shower, and then walked to the bus station.
Bryden and I were both asked before leaving for Vietnam about what we looked most forward to. We both answered saying we were most excited for our time up north. We knew it would be an interesting place, but it ended up blowing us away. The scenery, the roads, the quietness, and the lack of development made it one of the most beautiful places we have visited. A lot of people traveling to Vietnam go to Sapa, which is just west of the Ha Giang province, but to anyone reading this blog who would like to travel through Vietnam we would highly recommend skipping Sapa and choosing Ha Giang instead. Also, while planning this part of the trip I talked to a guy from Ha Giang named Johnny Nam Tram, who was an amazing resource. We also rented our bikes from him, which were really great bikes, and anyone planning on going up there should talk to him. We expected a lot from the northern mountains, and they still managed to impress us with scenery and culture and riding beyond belief.