Today is the day I embark on the 4 day Ha Giang motorbike loop. It is considered a must do activity for any Vietnam visitor. Ha Giang is a region in northern Vietnam, just south of China, with narrow winding roads lining through beautiful mountains and villages. The loop entails 4 days of driving about 100km per day, making several stops at landmarks and sites along the way, and staying overnight at different villages. The loop by motorbike is considered a bit risky, however, as the roads are narrow, hilly, cliffside, and some even unpaved and on large rocks or gravel. For those unconfident in their motorbike driving abilities or wanting more safety/security, an option is to have an “easy ride” where you will ride passenger to an experienced worker driver. Having ridden motorbikes around Koh Phangan, Pai, and Siem Reap, I wanted the full experience of getting to drive myself.
We had breakfast in the lobby, then we had our motorbike “driving test,” which involved driving the semi automatic motorbike 10 meters and determining our comfort level with it. Until now, I had only driven automatic motorbikes. Changing gears and a foot brake felt different, but I quickly adjusted and felt secure in my choice to drive.
After signing the papers assuming responsibility and releasing liability, we killed time playing the pool game Crud until we gathered in the lobby for the debrief. We were given the itinerary for the 4 days on the loop. What stuck out to me the most was the organizer saying to not touch the fence on the China border as it carries a potentially lethal amount of electricity, and to not cross the border into China. Before Covid, you would be able to visit a village in China, but after they’ve closed their borders, only people that have had to outrun the Chinese military or get bailed out of Chinese prison after capture have crossed. Also noteworthy is that Jasmine would sent a scout ahead to check the police checkpoints before an unlicensed motorbike driver would pass. If there were police officers, they would have a licensed Jasmine worker drive us across the checkpoint. It seems like a po-po proof plan to me! Last note about the debrief, she mentioned to exercise extreme caution around other vehicles on the roads near villages, as the drivers were likely drunk. Ah-huh, got it! The debrief ended and our groups were assigned. At this point, some of us guys (Janis, Timo, Simon, Oliver, and Adam) had already gotten close, and we were determined to ride together. Timo, Janis, and I were assigned to group 5. Oliver, Simon, and Adam were assigned to group 8 since they only signed up for only the 3 day and 2 night tour. Disappointed by the assignments, I spoke to the organizer after the team assignments and pleaded she moved them to our group, and she agreed fairly quickly. I really appreciate that Jasmine Hostels values the customer experience and allowed us new friends to stick together.
We met our other group members, strapped our bags to our bikes, then assembled into starting position. The scout did identify police at the first checkpoint in town, so we had Jasmine drivers get us started just through town past the checkpoint. We drove for about 75 minutes before making a stop in Quan Ba for lunch. Following lunch, we rode further into Ha Giang to the Lung Khuy Cave. We had a decent hike up many steps at considerable elevation to get to the cave mouth. As I entered, I ran into my friend Chloe (sat next to on Siem Reap to Hanoi flight two days prior) exiting and she warned me to watch my head. Once inside, we appreciated the massive caverns and remarkable stalagmites and stalactites throughout. I had to duck and limbo beneath stalagmites at least two dozen times, so the heads up for head down was helpful. We completed the route then hung outside the cave for a bit, where I enjoyed laying in a hammock and took a puff of tobacco through a large bamboo pipe with our group leader, Diep.
Following the cave, we drove for the remainder of the afternoon through the hills and curvy cliffside roads, taking in stunning views until we reached an elevation where clouds and fog appeared. It was slightly challenging to drive at this point because the visibility wasn’t fantastic, but it was hard to not appreciate driving a motorbike in the clouds of mountains in northern Vietnam. Eventually we arrived at Yen Minh, where we checked into our homestay for the night. There was one large dorm room that our other group members began filling, and one smaller dorm with 5 beds. Having stuck together so far, even through shifting to the same loop group, and not wanting anyone to miss out, Janis, Timo, Simon, Adam, Oliver, and I elected to take the smaller dorm and push some beds together to sleep 6 instead of 5. Then, the 6 of us went to dinner and were joined by our group member Anne, our new friend from Netherlands. Food was already prepared on the table, as was a pitcher of the famous “happy water,” or rice wine. We were told by Jasmine workers that a lot of happy water goes around at the homestay along the route, and that it doesn’t give hangovers. We would surely put that to the test.
Over the next few hours, we went through over at least a dozen pitchers of happy water as a group. We did the Vietnamese cheers several times, led by Diep and myself, several unique German cheers, led by Janis and Timo, and several Danish cheers plus one Ghanan cheers all led by Simon. Other groups were doing happy water shots to the Vietnamese cheers and then started Karaoke.
Wanting to address the historical elephant in the room and satisfy my curiosity about how Vietnamese people felt about Americans given the war that took place only 50 years ago, I asked Diep what he thought about America/Americans. We had a really positive conversation (with the help of Google Translate) that basically boiled down to people not being responsible for the actions and decisions of their government, our shared awareness that most Americans strongly opposed and still oppose the war, and Diep assured me that as a result of the USA visiting Vietnam, Vietnam had many technological and societal benefits by their presence. I was reassured to know that there were no tensions or judgments based on myself being an American in Vietnam, and we continued to laugh and share happy water. Later, I joined Simon in the lobby where he played guitar and we sang along to Bob Marley songs.
Around 23:00, the hostel worker told us the party was over and we needed to go to bed. Back in our room, Adam was passed out, and we noticed some vomit in a now clogged sink. As fair justice, Oliver, Simon, and I sharpie some small “shapes” on Adam until the hostel worker came back to our room a third time to quiet us down for sleep. He saw we were drawing on Adam, and then he came inside our room, grabbed the sharpie, and joined in on the Adam drawing too! We laughed uncontrollably, and then eventually winded down and went to sleep.