Back in Hanoï, when Leo was having his exam, we chatted with the librarian of the French Institute. When we mentioned that we were planning to visit Sapa, he explained that although the Sapa region is beautiful (it’s famous for a reason of course), mass tourism the past few years has made much less appealing. Instead, he suggested we could go to Ha Giang in the north, near the Chinese border. The region offers similar landscape but is less accessible, and therefore less crowded and more authentic. It wasn’t the first time we heard this kind of feedback about Sapa, so it was decided, it would be Ha Giang for us.

The Ha Giang loop is a motorcycle road trip that takes you to various towns north of Ha Giang, up to the Chinese border via winding mountain roads. The region is rich with 17 ethnic minorities and offers stunning landscapes of terrace cultures on the mountains.

I was ready to get Leo, Mary and me on a single bike and hit the road like we had done elsewhere, but Mary sent me horror stories from the internet about how dangerous this road was. Also the price difference between one bike for 3 and 3 bikes with drivers was so small that we ended up getting the full « easy rider » package. As much as I liked to ride myself, this was going to be more comfortable, less tiring, and I would take pictures along the way.

Besides the 3 of us, our group was comprised of Jia and her aunt Linh, from Malaysia, Alvis from Singapore, Amelie from Quebec, Martina from Poland, Ita from the Netherlands, Mauro from Argentina, plus Minh, Khoa and Cuong, our guides and drivers.

Most people do the loop in 3 days. I’m glad we picked the 4 days option: instead of rushing 160kms on the 3rd day to get back to Ha Giang, the return is split into smaller chunks over 2 days and you get to see a lot more.

Luckily, we reached Dong Van on a saturday evening and the next morning, we could visit the big market. This for me was the highlight of the trip, and I spent an hour or so roaming in the alleys of the market, taking pictures of villagers of various ethnic groups shopping for livestock and chatting around drinks. After some time, when our guide came to call me back, I was already seated at a table with 3 men, drinking « happy water »!

Another highlight was the Lung Khuy cave. We weren’t expecting anything when we entered this massive prehistoric cathedral ornate with stalactites and stalagmites of all shapes and sizes, sometimes creating full pillars from floor to ceiling. According to legend, the gods created a source of divine water in the cave and sent a dragon god to take care of it. The dragon later incarnated in a Hmong boy who married a Hmong girl and they lived happily ever after. Good night.’

We’re approaching the rain season and the weather was quite hazy on the horizon, not easiest for landscape pics, but we were lucky to have no rain during the 4 days. It was even rather hot and we could swim everyday in a different river spot!

Although not as crowded as Sapa, the Ha Giang loop is an increasingly popular tourist attraction and Minh, our guide, was pretty good at avoiding the crowded spots we could see from time to time. Minh was also super friendly with Leo and they had a blast together!

This loop will remain the most scenic and most memorable part of our visit of Vietnam. Now our visa is expiring in a couple of days and we have to rush to the Laos border!