Day 50! Kind of fitting to have such a big day on a travel mile marker! Today was full of lots of insane views, amazing roads, and spontaneous changes in plans (as always)!

I’d like to add, if you ever plan on riding the Ha Giang Loop yourself, I’d skip reading today and tomorrow’s posts. I really loved not having any idea what I was going to see and it makes the experience so much better! In the future I’ll be posting my route and suggestions as a guide, keep an eye out for that!

My internal alarm clock has been finicky the past few days… and again, I woke up promptly at 7am with my brain itching to get the day going!

Maybe it’s the anticipation of the drive or the desire to see amazing views, but my brain said it was time to get ready, so I got ready!

I packed up my bags, paid a very cheap 200,000 Dong for my stay and dinner, and set out back down the sketchy road that led me to the hostel the previous day!

I took this road down to the main road and this is when I realized my speedometer AND my odometer were both not working.

Neither things are a necessity, but both help a lot with gauging my rides! Luckily, I’ve been riding this bike for over a month and know the sounds and feel of when I need to shift gears, how fast to take turns, etc. And Google maps covered the odometer! I’ll get it fixed soon!

I passed through Bao Loc and set out on the days adventure!

As I headed over a bridge out of Bao Loc, I saw two travelers on the side of the road, so as I was admiring the view, I started chatting with them! Turns out they were on the older side and from the US! Brian and Steve, from Colorado and Washington, were biking around the north of Vietnam together and were thoroughly impressed that I motorbiked from Ho Chi Minh City to where we were at now. We also had some nice chats about our wonderful experiences with the locals and how wonderful this country has been to us even though we’re American!

This chat got me so hyped for the day and I said goodbye and went on my way!

The first 3 hours of my ride were absolutely spectacular (yeah 3 hours was the first leg… this was a long day).

For the first hour, I wound along a river that was a gorgeous blue. I started my ride on the road QL34 but then finally joined the QL4C, which is the road that follows the Ha Giang Loop! This took me from Bao Loc to around an area called Bo Pia.

I didn’t stop there, as I kept chugging along for the next two hours winding my way up very tall mountains and gazing out into gorgeous valleys below!

These roads varied in every aspect! Some were wide, some were narrow. Some were perfectly smooth, some had a ton (and I mean a ton) of pot holes! But for the most part, the main road was pot hole free!

These roads also consisted of many hairpin turns going both up and down! I was shifting the gears on my bike constantly to make sure I could make it up hills and to make sure I didn’t take a turn too fast!

All of this was worth it though as I stopped many times to admire the scenery and take pictures!

As you can probably tell, I was thoroughly enjoying this ride! But hunger and a fear of my gas level set in so I stopped at my first official destination for the day, Meo Vac!

Meo Vac is a popular stop along the Ha Giang Loop. One of the big draws is its Sunday market! But seeing how it’s Wednesday, not much was going on.

So I found a com restaurant and got myself some chicken and rice!

As I was leaving, the local fish guy was dealing business right next to my bike. A little odd but thought it was interesting.

I then found a gas station and topped up my bike because there aren’t as many as I had hoped along the way!

Being this far north there’s a lot of cultural elements that are lacking in the rest of Vietnam. There’s a lot more traditional clothing being worn and it almost feels like being around the original culture of Vietnam (but then you see them whip out telephones or riding motorbikes).

I moved on from Meo Vac and kept heading north! My original intentions were to explore a side road that led down to the river I had been riding near. At the end of this side road there’s a boat tour you can do on the river!

I got to the side road and it was insanely bumpy and packed full of cars and motorbikes. I decided to attempt it anyways since I was already there!

I got about halfway before I met another westerner on a motorbike and asked him if it was worth the dangerous ride. He said him and his girlfriend went all the way down, it was so packed they turned right back around. That was the answer I was looking for so I turned around too and got back up to the main road!

It was a bit disappointing to not go on the river boat, but I’ll have plenty of boat rides in the future!

I kept on driving to my next destination, Death Rock.

Even though I didn’t get to go on the river, I saw some amazing views of it from thousands of feet up!

It was a fairly short ride to the entrance of the hill with Death Rock, but the Ma Pi Leng Pass stood in my way of getting to it. There was the option to walk the 2 kilometers… but what’s a little adventure!

This probably was one of the more sketchier roads of my ride. It was windy, narrow, and a sheer drop down the mountain side. The nice part was this place was pretty much empty!

The ride was worth it because these pictures are some of my favorites from the entire day! There were a few people taking pictures and they were kind enough to take some for me as well.

So after parking my bike, I hiked up a bit to reach the rock hanging over the valley below!

I road back down the sketchy road and finished safely, conquering the Death Rock!

I kept riding on as I continued to head north towards the town of Dong Van!

This is another popular stop to spend the night while riding the Ha Giang Loop. Unfortunately for me, it was the day time! So again, not much going on. But there was a small market, so I rode through that and then kept pressing on even further north!

I thought the views up to this point were spectacular… but they just didn’t cease to amaze me!

The views kept on coming as I made my way to my final stop of the day (or so I thought) the Lung Cu flagstaff!

It was around this point when I finally started to really run into the giant groups of Ha Giang Loop tourists! Some were 5 bikes long, others were 40-50! They sounded like clone bikes flying past from Star Wars!

Seeing these groups made me a little sad I didn’t have anyone to share the loop with. But it also made me so happy to be able to do what I want, when I want and not at the mercy of 50 other people! Also I couldn’t imagine riding these roads around that many people.

I made it to the flagstaff, where I met a very nice tour guide who informed me there were 125 steps from the parking lot to the top. Within those 125 steps, I learned about his life and we chatted about my adventures solo along Vietnam! He told me I’d probably felt lonely, but I said the exact opposite! I’ve met the most wonderful people! He also told me about the stairs on the inside of the flag pole that lead to an amazing view!

Now this was supposed to be my last stop for the day… but it was only 2pm! So I decided to keep going to the next stop on my list (the start of tomorrow’s journey), Dinh Vua Meo – Hmong’s Palace!

But first I got gas from a side of the road pump since Google maps didn’t show any for quite some time.

I drove back down the way I came and you’d think this might be boring seeing the same views twice. But quite the contrary! You get to see these views from a whole new perspective!

I made it to Hmong’s Palace and wandered around for a bit exploring the interesting architecture.

This villa/palace was built in 1921 for an Hmong King. Outside of this, I’m not entirely sure what the significance is, but it is a popular stop on the Loop!

By this time I was ready to find a place to stay. So I looked at the village nearby, Sa Phin.

But of course, all the home stays were already booked… so I settled on traveling another hour to Yen Minh and racing against the sun to make it before dark.

I did end up driving through Sa Phin and road down some sketchy roads to check out different parts of the village.

I then road on to my final destination before Yen Minh, the Tham Ma Slope.

But before I got there, I was met with more views and an open road which I very much welcomed after today’s ride! I also found a real gas station and took advantage of that as well since I was running low!

I made it to the slope and before I ventured onto it, I saw a solo rider chilling admiring the view. So I joined him and we started chatting!

His name is Dan and he’s from Israel! He hasn’t lived there for 3 years and has been traveling ever since he left! We dove into some deep conversation in the short amount of time we were chatting, exchanged WhatsApp info, and set off on our separate ways hoping we’d meet up to continue our chat in the future!

He was finding a place to camp for the night too, which sounded super cool!

After completing the slope I drove a few kilometers further into the town of Yen Minh where I found a nice homestay to spend the night!

The owners were super friendly and funny! They gave me a good price for the dorm room which was huge, had huge comfy beds, and had a wonderful view of the of the town!

The owners convinced me to do the family dinner so I ended up paying more than I wanted to, but I ate as much as my stomach would allow to get my moneys worth! And because I really hadn’t ate much today.

I also got my first homestay happy water experience and we drank a few shots with some of the homestay workers and some other locals who were the drivers for some of the guests.

Apparently, happy water in Ha Giang is made with corn instead of rice, not sure why!

I also met 3 nice travelers while at dinner and we stayed up late chatting about all sorts of things!

It ended up being one heck of a day! From leaving at 8am to arriving at 5pm, it was a major journey! I now understand the hype around the Ha Giang Loop for sure and saw some pretty incredible sights. I will say, I was a little underwhelmed with the activities around the drive. But as drives go in Vietnam, I can easily say this one of the prettiest!

Also, it was a bonus I had no run ins with the police! Hopefully my ride stays that way!

Tomorrow I’ll continue on to Ha Giang where I’ll decide if I want to spend the night there or get even closer to Sapa to make my next drive shorter! Only time will tell!

– Elie

(Also if you’re interested, here’s a map of my route today!)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wHcuS2J18Hk2YheQ6?g_st=ic