The Ha Giang Loop is a spectacular route through the Northern Vietnam mountains near the Chinese border. What makes it special for motorcycling, besides the stunning landscape, is the insane amount of turns (I don’t think I went more than half a kilometer without having to turn at any point over the four days), and the consistently decreasing and increasing elevation. Nothing is straight nor flat for very long on this route. You also have the adventure of oncoming traffic sometimes encroaching almost completely into your lane on turns. There were multiple times I came to an almost dead stop on steep curves as trucks or buses took up almost my entire lane as they tried to make their turns.
I went by myself with a guide. I didn’t want to join a group because I know I’m a pretty slow rider on elevated curves. I didn’t want to slow down a group nor feel forced to go faster than I was comfortable. Probably over 80% of the Westerners I saw went as “easy riders” where they were on the back of the bike with a guide driving the bike. They went in large groups of 10-15 bikes and would wizz by me as I was taking my time on the route. There were a few couples I met that drove themselves with their own guide. I only met one couple doing it completely on their own.
I highlighted the route below over the four days: from Ha Giang to Du Gia in red on day 1, from Du Gia to Dong Van in blue on day 2, from Dong Van to Ha Ahn on day 3 in green and then from Ha Ahn back to Ha Giang on day 4 in purple. The day 3 squiggle north was up to Lung Cu where you could see across to the China border.

The buses to and from Hanoi I took the day before and day after the tour were unique. There were three rows of almost completely horizontal bunk seats with both Western and Vietnamese passengers. Local Vietnamese passengers sat on the floor between the seats. These rides were about 8 hours long and the seats were configured this way because many people took these as overnight buses. It was incredibly crowded, but relatively comfortable.

I had a Honda Blade semi-automatic motorcycle with my three nights of gear tied to the back. I bought a nice windbreaker/rain jacket in Hanoi for $26 that I ended up giving to my guide at the end of the tour. I wouldn’t need it anywhere else in SE Asia. The tour company also gave me elbow and shin guards. Thankfully, they were never needed on the trip.

I had brought my backup GoPro with the ambition of filming parts of the ride to provide some nice memories of the experience. Unfortunatly the battery crashed and I could only get short video snippets before the camera died each day. So I’ve got some nice pictures out of the video attempts, but it’s not the same. It at least shows how incredible the scenery was and how varied the roads were.






This tiny, young woman spent the morning climbing up a hill to get this bundle of wood and was going to take it home on her bike. My 23 year old guide (who was a rare Vietnamese taller than me) tried to pick up the bundle to help her. It was so heavy and awkward he could barely get it off the ground.





We woke up on a Saturday morning in Du Gia to find it crowded with the weekly market.




The Mien River flowing through the canyon it created.

Some local women in costume posing above the river.

Our steampot dinner in Hong Van filled with beef, pork, chicken, tofu, noodles and all kinds of vegetables.

Sunday morning in the relatively large town of Hong Van was crowded with Vietnamese tourists.

Looking across to China. The thin line in the distance snaking across the mountains is the Chinese border wall.





The Lung Cu flagpole is located at the northernmost tip of Vietnam and is a huge tourist attraction for the Vietnamese.

Across the way a vast tourism complex is being built anchored around the newly constructed Lung Cu Pagoda.

There is a fascinating 100 year old fortress near the China border. It was built by a local king who made his family fortune primarily through selling opium to the French, British and Chinese (at least according to my guide).



My guide said these young girls would get up at 4:30am each day to go and pick these flowers to sell to Vietnamese tourists at this roadside location.

A small coffee shop with an incredible view not far from Yen Minh.


The Lung Khuy Cave was developed in the limestone formed from an ancient sea over 400 million years ago. It was only discovered in 2015 and is estimated to have a total area of around 15,000 square meters.


It’s a 1.2 kilometer walk to and from the cave. The trail is beautiful and it was a nice break from being on the motorcyle for more than three days at that point.



Our typical lunch on the last day. Eggs, chicken, beef, spring rolls, fries, rice, beens and vegetables. I definitely didn’t go hungry on this trip.


One last beautiful vista before riding into Ha Giang to end the tour.
