When we arrived in Ha Giang we saw a less touristy part of Vietnam for the first time. The part of town where we got out of the van after a drive of several hours consisted of a bus station, a few very basic guesthouses and hostels and lots of different providers of motorbike tours and scooter rentals. You came here for no other reason than to ride the famous Ha Giang Loop by motorbike or scooter – either riding yourself, alone or with a group, or as a passenger. The route, done as a 3–4 day tour, leads over high, narrow as well as wide mountain roads almost to the Chinese border, along breathtaking views. One of the viewpoints, for example, is called Heaven's Gate. There you're already standing above the cloud cover that winds down over the pass into the valley. If you're lucky, you see the valleys covered by clouds – if you're less lucky, you stand in a thick layer of fog and see nothing but a white wall hiding the view of the surrounding mountains.
Since the route winds along steep mountainsides, then through untouched mountain-farming villages and past huge rice terraces, some count it among the most beautiful motorbike routes in the world. We definitely didn't want to miss that. Here it was common to take a so-called "easy rider": a (hopefully) experienced local biker, behind whom you sat on the bike and enjoyed the ride and the view for the next few days. That way all Ha Giang Loop tourists, whether they could ride themselves or not, had the chance to take on this adventure. But of course I had the big advantage of having brought my own great, extremely experienced (sexy) easy rider from Austria, whom I could cuddle up to for the next 3 days. After weighing up whether we wanted to ride alone or with a group (the tour organisers provide the map and a WhatsApp service and organise the accommodation), we decided on a two-wheeled adventure in a group. That way we didn't have to take care of anything and simply rode along dutifully in line, and could process the impressive images and views that presented themselves to us. At least I could. Chris was busy riding. But at least he didn't have to deal with the route, and I had the time off and didn't have to check the route with Google Maps in my hand and call out directions to the rider in front. The day of departure was rainy and cold. We swapped our summery globetrotter clothes for our only cold-weather outfit, pulled on our rain jacket and poncho and got rain covers for legs and shoes from our tour guides. The tour luggage was also packed rainproof in plastic bags and strapped tightly onto the back of the bike. I was then wedged between Chris and the luggage like in a baby seat, which gave me a perfectly comfortable seat including backrest.
For the next 3 days we rode from morning until shortly before sunset through the most impressive landscape we had seen in the course of our world trip. The Ha Giang Loop is definitely one of – or the – highlight of our Vietnam trip. They were simply 3 days packed with impressions. There's always something going on. At first we thought the decision to ride with a group might have been wrong after all, since we formed an extremely long motorbike convoy and only made slow progress at the start. But we soon realised that the journey really is the destination, and at high speed you don't take in anything of the magnificent surroundings you get to be in anyway. By the first evening at the latest, when we were put up in a typical rustic guesthouse and served a traditional Vietnamese dinner, it was clear to us that it could be even more fun in company. Our 8 tour guides in total, all funny young Vietnamese, made us more familiar with the obligatory high-proof "happy water" than we would have liked, and of course the traditional Asian karaoke session couldn't be missing either.
We quickly became better friends with part of the group and swapped travel experiences. Actually, most of our two-wheeled gang consisted of young, weatherproof British women who did the tour in hot pants and T-shirts no matter the temperature or time of day. A Belgian woman travelling alone became one of our closer acquaintances, and as luck would have it, we soon met her again in another region. But more about that a little later.
During the great rides we had plenty of opportunities to see something of the country's culture. Again and again we rode past farmers carrying huge, heavily loaded baskets and bundles of giant grass and wood on their shoulders up the steep slopes. We already knew from our guide Pang in Sapa that people here start training to carry heavy loads as children. She herself carried 50–60 kg and was a good head shorter and much lighter than me. It was simply unbelievable, but it was proven to you again and again as you rode past the porters. And I get a stiff neck after just 20 minutes with my 13 kg globetrotter backpack.
Every evening was fun and sociable all over again. Our guides used the regular breaks for games of indiaca and bamboo tobacco pipes/bongs. In the evenings there was happy water in masses again, and karaoke anyway.
In any case, the whole 3 days were indescribably beautiful, exciting and so great that even the fog and rain couldn't stop us from being happy. We also had a few hours of sunshine now and then during the ride. Along the steep drops I clung tighter to Chris and tried not to look down, but the great views were often too tempting, so I quickly pulled out my phone to film.
Lucky for you – because now you can watch our memories compilation again: