Hà Giang ?⛰

Day 77. Hà Giang was initially not on my list of things to see. Throughout my trip though, I met several people who told me about that place in the north that’s supposed to have one of the most scenic landscapes they’ve seen in a long time. So I thought I just might give it a shot and decided to make it the last destination to visit in Vietnam before leaving the country. It didn’t disappoint.

If you’ve never heard about Hà Giang: it’s a province in northern Vietnam, directly at the border of China. The surrounding nature is comparable to Sapa, but it’s less touristy. By a lot. Get prepared to use google translate a lot for your day-to-day conversations. Other than Sapa though, this is less about hiking, but more about riding a motorbike. Overall a whopping 350km.

The Eastern Loop

So the whole idea is renting a motorbike in Hà Giang city and riding through the mountains, villages, lakes, rivers and flower fields while breathing in the stunning nature on one of the many stops provided on the road. You will go all the way to the border of China, see the most stunning mountain pass I’ve ever seen, Mã Pí Lèng, and freeze your ass off if you’re planning to go on one of the colder months like December, just as I did.

350km doesn’t sound too much if you think about nicely built highways. But we’re talking about mountain passes here with pretty bad road conditions at some parts. So you can expect to drive on an average of about 30-50km/h depending on how comfortable you feel on a bike.

I can’t describe the area too well, it literally left me speachless every now and then. Have some pictures as an explanation:

It was an exhausting 3 days, being on a motorbike all day long. I was so happy to stretch my legs and having a hot tea every night when reaching a village and being frozen from the cold temperature here.

The only thing I was missing here was more time to hike a bit around the area. Also, that way I would not have been in such a rush to see everything and could have enjoyed everything even more.

But I feel it was still the perfect final destination for my trip. The landscape was so incredible, never have I seen so much in such a short period of time. On the dong van plateau I saw the most purple sunset, followed by the biggest full-moon ever when reaching the town nearby. Highly romantic. Even a rock would crumble. The only thing missing was a bottle of champagne I guess.

If I had to rate Hà Giang on a scale from 0–10 I would give it a 12. It’s just so good. ❤️