The journey from Hanoi to Ha Giang felt like forever; 7 hours on a sleeper bus during the day squished at the back with 5 grown men and not being able to sit up as you had to lay down the whole way (it was not fun at all). We arrived late at night, got told me couldn’t stay in the hostel we paid for so were sent to a homestay and slept there for the night.
The following day we woke up ready to start the Ha Giang Loop. We booked our tour through ‘Jasmine Hostel’ who I would hugely recommend as they were amazing at organising everything! Now the loop is a motorbike tour around Ha Giang for 4 days and 3 nights. This would not normally be my cup of tea but George really wanted to do it so being the nice girlfriend I am of course we did!! I decided I didn’t want to drive my own motorbike so I sat on the back of Georges (literally trusting him with my life). That morning during the briefing we met lots of other people doing the loop with us. We chose our motorbike, paid the insurance for the bike chose our motorbike, paid the insurance (thank god we did) and off we went!
Day 1 we set off at 11, it was a lot of driving, however we were absolutely amazed at the sights we saw. Our final destination for day 1 was a place called Yeh Minh which was around 110km from Ha Giang. Our first stop was a cute little coffee shop at the top of a mountain which overlooked beautiful fields and mountains. We stopped in a town for lunch where we had traditional Vietnamese food and carried on our journey.
A couple of hours later we stopped again to hike up a mountain to find a recently discovered cave. The hike was extremely hot and sweaty but the views from the top were very impressive. The cave itself was really cool and actually helped to cool us down because it was so cold in there!
The roads to Yen Minh were in awful condition, they were extremely rocky, so many pot holes and some of the roads were literally non existence. This made me quite nervous being on the back of George’s bike so half way to Yeh Minh I had a slight ‘meltdown’ and decided to switch bikes and sit on the back of the main tour guides bike. The tour guide soon after that gained the name ‘flag man’ because he had a Vietnamese flag which the other bikes had to follow throughout the loop. Being on the back of his bike made me feel a lot more comfortable and safe therefore letting me relax and enjoy the views a bit more.
We arrived in Yen Minh around 7 so it was already dark (which was quite scary to drive in down the windy, rocky roads). The hostel was perfect, lots of beer, a huge buffet for dinner and we even got a private room! That night we sat with our new Ha Giang Loop ‘friends’ and slept like babies from all the beers and exhausting day (until about 4 in the morning when the roosters started!!)
We woke up early the second day, got ready, had some breakfast and got back on the road. We left at 10am and were heading to Dong Van that day which was around 95km from Yen Minh. After about 30 minutes of driving flag man told everyone to stop and pull over. We looked out to the view and it was incredible. You know the picture everyone has as their cover photo of Northern Vietnam, we were there, windy roads covered with green mountains.
After this we travelled on more towards the Chinese Border. We got off our bikes in a small village, hiked up another rocky mountain and soon arrived in China. It was pretty cool having 1 foot in Vietnam and 1 foot in China. We then travelled through the villages to our second destination. It was so lovely seeing the local people waving and high fiving us as we drove through. It was also really interesting to see the houses and areas they lived in, it is a totally different way of living compared to back home (lots of huts, young children walking on their own and lots of people carrying extremely heavy baskets full of crops and plants).
After travelling through the villages we stopped for lunch and then carried on our journey. We began to drive up a really narrow, windy road (quite scary) and I was thinking to myself where are we going? We soon stopped and got off the bikes and hiked up another mountain. The view at the top of the mountain was amazing but what shocked me even more was the children begging for money at the top of the mountain. The mountain was not easy to climb but these children were right at the top of it asking for ‘money, money’. It made me sad to see the children so dirty and begging for money, however I needed to remember it’s a different way of life out here.
We travelled a little further after this stop and arrived at what flag man called ‘the party hostel’. The hostel itself was actually so nice. In a small village, made out of wood but very modern. That evening we drunk ‘happy water’ (a Vietnamese shot) until about 2 in the morning and were all feeling very regretful in the morning.
The following day we headed out at 10am and our final destination was Du Gia. Now some of the people we had made friends with were only doing the 3 day Ha Giang Loop so we had to say goodbye to them on this day and carry on with everyone who was doing the 4 days. We didn’t have any major stops this day but we again saw beautiful views and landscapes.
Just like our second night hostel all 25 of us were put in 1 big room together with 25 mattresses on the floor, we even ate dinner in this room on the third night, it was like one big sleepover! The last night we sat around chatting and headed to bed early as we were all exhausted from the previous night.
On our final day we headed back to Ha Giang at 9.30am with a final stop at the beautiful waterfall. The waterfall was amazing and great to jump into off the cliffs. However, do note never wear an Apple Watch in a waterfall whilst jumping in as you will lose it and spend hours looking for it using a go pro video to help navigate it (just like George did! – luckily he did find it after the help from 4 Vietnamese men, a go pro and good swimming skills).
The journey back to Ha Giang was very long, we didn’t make many stops, apart from lunch, so our bottoms and backs were extremely sore! When we got back to Ha Giang it was time to say goodbye to our Ha Giang Loop friends who we actually became so close to. We had dinner, said our goodbyes and then got ready for the 12 hour overnight sleeper bus journey to Cat Ba (the joy of travelling!)
So this post was very long and none of the pictures do the scenery that we saw any justice at all because in person it was just breath taking. The Ha Giang Loop has been a highlight of my trip so far, it was absolutely incredible. Not only were the views incredible, but the way the whole thing was set up was perfect. Doing the tour with 25 other people at a similar age and travelling around on a motorbike was super cool. We made so many friends which we travelled on with from Ha Giang. We were recommended Jasmine Hostel by a friend we met on our travels and I can say it did not disappoint! Big shout out to flag man for not letting me die on those extremely rocky roads! Next stop … Cat Ba!
Adventure Awaits... 