The Loop of Ha Giang
Ha Giang 2/24/2025-2/28/2025
The morning of the 24th we woke in Hanoi. I think we were both filled with anticipation, excitement, and stress of what was to come. We had been planning this trip with this particular event in mind for months and months. On top of this, there was still uncertainty of whether we would be getting easy riders or we'd be driving ourselves. At 11 AM we got to the Jasmine office to check in and I asked if it was possible to change to easy riders. At first the lady behind the counter said no, then told me she misunderstood my question and said we could decide when we get to Ha Giang. To this day, I'm not certain if she actually knew what I meant and if we could have switched or not but this conversation made me want to do this loop myself. Doing it ourselves meant we would be fined by the police. These fines could range anywhere from 500,000 to 6 million dong. I felt I would have been a little disappointed in myself if I did not complete it on my own.
We checked into the tour and waited for a bus to come pick us up. We had a 6 hour journey ahead of us to get to Ha Giang. Thank god a sleeper bus pulled up because that would have been a long trip to sit upright. Camila and I got a bunk. I was on top. She was on the bottom. The ride was nice. a little bumpy, lot of honking but we had snacks and each other. Ride was uneventful, couple of piss stops and a few naps and we arrived to Ha Giang. We got off the sleeper and were transported in the town in smaller vans. The van we got into was older. There was a panel that was bent inward on the floor. No one paid attention to it until someone put their bag on it and the thing started sparking and smoking. Turns out this bent panel was covering the battery and placing the bag on it connected the positive to the negative causing it to spark. Needless to say, no one ended up sitting there.
We had made it to the homestay. We checked in for the stay that night and to confirm that I was indeed going to be riding the motorbike myself. We put our stuff in the 12 person hostel room and wanted to get something for dinner. The only thing the hostel sold for food was pizza (did not look as good as the one we had in Ninh Binh). There was a place next door that sold Vietnamese food so we decided to go there. I also invited this dude from the Netherlands to come with as he was with us on the sleeper bus and was in our dorm. He was traveling alone so I thought it would be nice to ask him to come with.
The place next door had long tables set up, almost like lunch tables that were cover by a large metal roof. Next to the tables, were 3 pool tables. Side note: there are a shocking amount of pool tables in Vietnam. The owner was a woman with two kids. The woman cooked in the back, the oldest took our orders, the youngest was trying to get us to play with him by throwing a soccer ball at us. The kid taking our order could not have been older than 12. We ordered beers and he came back to the table with the beers in his pockets and handed them to us. I thought this was funny.
With a long day of riding tomorrow, it was the smart decision to pack our smaller backpacks for the next few days and head to bed. A little foreshadowing, in Ha Giang, all music is shut down at 10 PM and all bars close at 11PM/12AM. While Camila and I are fast asleep and usually the only ones in the dorm room at these hours, once 12 AM hits, everyone else from the bar goes into the dorms. First night wasn't that bad. It was just a two dudes who were hammered and talking to each other.
First to bed, first to rise. Camila and I hit the breakfast hard as soon as it opened. She's not a big breakfast person so it's usually me who is just starving in the morning and needing to be the first one there. The morning was filled with more prep work. Getting helmets that fit, getting our bike, test riding that bike, packing our bags on the back, etc... We were the first to do most of these things so we had even more time to anticipate this journey. Finally, we had a little orientation where they explained to this group of 100 people what the 4 days of travel would entail. They told us of the challenges of the roads ahead and how each day it gets a little harder. They also told us that if we didn't have the right permits, we could pay the police off at the first check point and be good for the rest of the loop. The fee was 500,000 dong per person which was so worth it. I was quite relieved to hear this.
It was go time. The orientation was over and we were divvied up into groups. We were in group three along with our friend we had met the night prior. Definitely a nice feeling knowing at least one person going into the ride. In total, there were about ten of us in a group. It was kind of chaos going out to the bikes because groups were leaving, people were yelling in Vietnamese, and there was very little space to move. We got to our bike, put on our helmets and before I was properly set up, one of the easy riders was yelling, "Go, Go, Go!" in my ear and we went went went.
Before I could even comprehend what was going on, we were on the beautiful roads of Ha Giang. There was so much build up to this ride, and for it to begin seemed to not make sense. I'm not gonna go into detail about every rock, turn, and tree I saw on this ride but I would like to talk about the moments that stood out most to me. I also find it hard to put into words the feelings I had when we first were on this ride. There was a tremendous amount of freedom operating my own bike as well as a strong sense of responsibility for Camila who was on the back. On top of that, was an unwavering feeling of adrenaline. The order of the pack we were in was as follows: first, our group leader, who was also an easy rider (a member of the Jasmine Tour who carries a passenger on the back of their bike); next, our friend River, whom we met the night before and who was riding solo; then it was us, followed by a fleet of six more easy riders and their passengers. We had a 125cc semi-automatic bike, as did River, and the easy riders all had160cc bikes so they had a bit more power and could blow us out of the water when we came to a steep hill. River riding in front of us going solo had an easier time accelerating than we did because we had the weight of two people. All this to say, I really had to focus on what I was doing to keep up and, above all, do it safely.
The Ha Giang area has many steep mountains which area make some great view points and a lot of accents and descents. The first accent was up a switch back road and we ascended into the clouds. Funny thing about clouds is they are wet as hell. I seemed to have forgotten this. The clouds brought on a cold misty air with low visibility. This was a running theme for the first two days. We made a couple of stops that morning and most of the view points were covered by clouds. The visibility would be so low that you would hear a car or truck honking and have no idea where it is and sometimes it would just seem to appear 40 feet in front of us. The ominous honking frightened me but I also found it so comical. We did see a set of mountains known as booby mountain that we could actually see from a view point. What a beautiful set of mountains.
About an hour or so into the ride, we had our inevitable police run in. This was super chill. They flagged us down, asked for our documentation, handcuffed us, threw us in their makeshift prison cell, and demanded all of our money from our bank accounts at the nearest ATM. Totally kidding, the police man was super nice and told us that the documentation we had was not sufficient for the roads, Which we already knew, and to continue riding we needed to pay 500,000 dong one time and would be covered for the whole ride. If we weren't part of a tour, then the first scenario might be a little more real.
We stopped for lunch a little while after and we got to actually talk to the people we were riding with. River was from the Netherlands, and everyone else was from the UK. Lemme tell you, these Brits loved their cigarettes almost as they loved to drink. The boys of the group were pretty boisterous and endearing.
The rest of the ride was full of views with less cloud coverage and a few coffee stops. Towards the middle of the afternoon, I was afflicted with a pretty gnarly headache. It would only go away when we were riding and would come back stronger each stop. I had a shit eating grin ever second on the motorbike and every stop I had my head in my hands. Looking back on it, I think it was so many rise and falls of adrenaline it was just fucking me up.
Getting closer to sunset, we arrived in this little town and went through some back roads to get to our homestay for the evening. We were put into a 5 person dorm that consisted of 5 mattresses on the floor. I was not complaining because the beds were so comfortable and there was a 20 person room with 20 mattresses on the floor (I think some wrestling went down in that room later that evening). I just put my head in the pillow and did not want to move. We only brought small backpacks for this trip and I told Camila to not bring the little first aid kit in hopes to save space. Turns out we did in fact need it because we had no aspirin. After a while of lay down time, I went to the room next door and asked if anyone had something for headaches. These Norwegian girls gave me two pills. They said they are really good and they're from Norway. I took two and with in 15 minutes I felt so good. I went down to the common area and had a beer with the British bros and played the infamous card game known as ride the bus.
The evening consisted of a nice family style dinner of Vietnamese cuisine which was quickly overtaken by learning the Vietnam way of saying cheers and being handed shots of "happy water." The dinner was quickly forgotten about when the karaoke machine was up and running. The Brits were in control of the song selection. They played songs that we had never heard but seemingly all of the Europeans knew every word. At some point in the night, River asked me to sing Let Her Go by Passenger. I really left it all out there. As the night went on, the fatigue of the day was settling in and turned into Camila and myself watching the Brits go bonkers. Never seen a group of people drink or smoke as much as these guys. Per the rules of Ha Giang the night ended fairly early and were in bed by 10 pm.
The sound of rain droplets woke me up in the morning. I peered outside and a nice rain was coming down from the grey sky. While rain is not ideal on this trek, we were prepared for it. As an additional precaution we purchased plastic pants and a coat to keep our clothes dry as possible. Another mandatory step for the day of riding was breakfast. I had 4 eggs, toast, fruits, and a total of 8 pancakes.
The morning started out raining which lead me to believe we were in for a long day. Shortly into the ride, the rain let up and we were left with an occasional cloudy mist. This day was very similar to the first day as in we would go to view points and they would be masked by the clouds. We made a stop by the infamous death road which we did not have to drive up, we just walked. But it was a narrow, rough concrete road with no kind of guard rial to stop you from falling off a pretty steep cliff. We all walked up the road to this rocky point which was a steep rocky mountain that people were climbing. Climbing this, for some reason, intimidated me. I was not gonna let this feeling of fear dictate me so started towards the mountain. Once I made that decision, the intimidation wavered. That's what life's all about right, doing things that scare you. At the top, I would get glimpses of the amazing views through the passing clouds. Still quite awesome and glad I did it. In the afternoon, we got glimpses of sun light which made it too hot for all our layer. Only to need them again after 20 minutes because the mist came back.
We went down so many awesome roads that were super well paved and perfect to wet gravel roads. The feeling of excitement and freedom was still with me. Just enjoying every little turn.
Our homestay that evening was in the center of a town. It was a five story building with a restaurant, bar and dance floor on the first floor and hostel rooms on the rest of the floors. We got put in a maybe a 12 person room on the fifth floor which we thought would be perfect cause we would be as far away from the rowdiness that was to ensue that evening. It was another family style dinner followed by another round of cheers with happy water. I think we were filling our shot glasses up with water in secret to still be apart of the cheers. Before the party was gonna get started we told our new friends we made at dinner that we would be right back after we grabbed something from our room. We did not come back down. Instead, we watched two episodes of lost and we were asleep by 9:30.
At about 12 AM the rest of the people staying in the room came up and wanted to keep the party going. They were playing this song Big Dirty Stinking Bass on a portable speaker. From what I can gather, there was also a pull up and push up contest going on in the room as well. Not sure how long it went on for because I was able to fall back to sleep.
The next morning felt almost routine. Get breakfast at the hostel, pack the bike, and begin the day of riding. Pretty perfect way to start a morning. However, this morning was a little different as there was not a single cloud in the sky. This meant no plastic rain gear, dry roads, and a day full of breath taking views.
We got to experience a more open roads this day. This one road was much wider and had less curves which meant we could haul ass. Everyday seemed to present a new challenge. Today's challenge was speed. I did a fairly good job of keeping up though.
We had a boat tour scheduled for that day. We were on a boat going down one of the turquoise rivers. It was pretty beautiful to be in a canyon with this water. Some People even went swimming in it. Honestly, the ride had been so good I just wanted to keep riding the bike around.
Hands down this was my favorite day. The motorbike I had spent so much time on, riding it had become second nature. I could not get over all the views we saw. I tried not to think about all the views we didn't get to see in the last two days. And to cap it all off, we arrived at our homestay for the evening which was situated amongst mountains and rice fields. The adrenaline of the day washed away as we stepped onto this peaceful property. Although we had one more day to go, I still felt I had accomplished something grand. We enjoyed some celebratory beers as we watched the sun settle behind the mountains. The dinner was of course family style that was followed by cheers and shots of happy water. The karaoke speaker made its way out and the party started. There was this one British guy who chose Oppa Gangnam Style for his song of choice. I think I saw him go for it three times and he never knew the words except the chorus. It cracked me up every time. Just about the boldest karaoke song there is.
We hung out with everybody until the music had to be turned off. The music was blasting and everyone was on the dinner tables dancing until the very end. A somber tone filled the air as everyone knew this was the last night together.
I think I woke up every morning so eager to get on the bike and everyday I was so happy to be riding for the both of us. I would not have enjoyed this experience nearly as much had I had an easy rider. Some of the best parts were the ride itself. The morning was more of the same. I think I had only 3 or 4 crepes in addition to my eggs and fruit. We started our journey back to the starting point.
The beginning of the ride our bags were coming off the rack so one of the easy riders got my attention and pulled me over to fix it. The rest of the group did not stop and continued toward the next destination. I strapped everything more securely and got back on the road. I was hauling on these rocky dirt roads in hopes to catch up. I felt like an expert at this point as I was able to catch up to the group in no time. I even got props from the easy rider which was high praise.
One of the stops that day was at a waterfall where I got to do a little cliff jumping. The ride was amazing as usual. As the day went on, the roads looked more familiar as we had been on them just days before. Most of the riding that afternoon was very rough and jagged rocky roads. This was today's challenge. I had to be so focused the whole time. it was pretty taxing to be so locked in for so long. Micro decision after micro decision, it felt like this road would never end but of course it did.
Approaching the last hour of the ride, there was a lot of hooting and hollering from everybody as the anticipation of completing this ride drew nearer. There were a lot of straight aways so the easy riders would get into the left lane and just wiz passed the group, slow down and rejoin the group and another would go. The hostel was now within our view and the just like that we had completed the Ha Giang loop. It was an emotional moment for all and we all got to experience something truly wonderful together. I was exhausted, thrilled, and very proud of myself for keeping Camila in tact.
Back at the hostel there were sleeper buses that were to be leaving through out the night going to various places in Vietnam. Our bus to Hanoi was the last bus outta there and was to be departing at 8 pm so we had time to kill. We got a pizza from the hostel. I played some pool with the mates from the trip. People slowly began to leave as the different busses pulled up. Sad to say goodbye to people you got to know after an amazing experience such as this one. But that's life. As people left, new people came in with a whole adventure ahead of them. Finally it was our turn to leave.
As we are waiting for our names to be called, this one dude who I spoke to the night prior comes up and starts chatting with me. He discloses to me he had drank 17 beers since we finished the loop. I was impressed. I also realized he was gonna be on the bus with us. It was a sleeper bus and we had 6 hours until we were gonna be back in Hanoi. I was kind of in and out of sleep but we had to stop multiple times because people were begging the bus driver to pull over so they could have a wee. Then at some point in the night, at the mid way stop, there was a commotion. The guy who had 17 beers was no where to be found. All of his mates started freaking out and went to look for him. Apparently, he went out for a piss at the stop and got back into the wrong bed before anyone else was back and passed out. So everyone was out looking for this guy but he was passed out in the bus the whole time.
We got dropped off at the Hanoi airport 5 hours before our flight. We were there before the kiosks were even open so we waited in for like an hour and a half. As soon as we could get in, we hit the lounge hard with our priority passes. We tried to rest up as much as we could before heading to Da Nang.
I have to say doing this loop was such a memorable experience and something I would recommend to anyone looking for a big adventure. It was fun, it was hard, it was scary, it was addicting, and it was an accomplishment.
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