Ha Giang Loop - Day 1

 November 27^th, 2024 

The “Ha Giang Loop” is a motorcycle tour around the Ha Giang province in north Vietnam.  The full loop is close to 350 kilometers consisting of super windy roads with breathtaking views of countless mountains and lush valleys.  Most tourists sign up with a company to experience the journey with a local rider driving the bike for you.  It is possible to do it by yourself if you have a motorcycle licence and an International Driver’s Licence, but you still might have problems with some police checkpoints.  Essentially, they would prefer if you provided gainful employment for the locals…plus, it’s so much easier to enjoy the views when you don’t have to keep an eye on the road.

 

We chose not to do the full loop, which takes 3 nights/4 days and went with the 2 nights/3 day package.  Naomi had done a lot of research on this and chose a company called “The Real Ha Giang Tour”.  We found out later that there were actually two companies that worked together as they found that during Covid times, it was tough to fill an entire group and even now, it was easier to fill groups for the different tours.

 

Our reservation for the night before the adventure was at the NoMadder’s Hostel, which is owned by an English guy Ross, who owns one of the tour companies.  This would be Naomi’s first time staying in a hostel, but we were kind of cheating as we had a private bungalow so really the common area was the only “hostel” thing about it (although the hut was not exactly up to her usual standards).

 

The following morning, we awoke to a bit of rain.  Damn…that’s not a good start.  Thankfully it tapered off as we had breakfast.  Then eight local guys with their motorbikes arrived and we met our respective rider for the trip.  My guy was Yuan and Naomi was coupled with Hanh.  The other six tourists were on the longer tour, so we took off, rode about 10 minutes to just outside of the small city of Ha Giang, and met up with another seven travellers who had signed up with the other company.  These would be the other members of our group.  It took us a little while to understand the logistics, but it made sense in the end.

Eating our breakfast at NoMadders Hostel before the big ride.

Ross, the owner of the hostel, sending us on our way.

Getting suited up.

The "Easy Riders" are ready to go.  All the other bikes except our two were going on the longer trip.  We would meet our group in town.

Naomi is ready to ride.

Passing by a football stadium under construction:

There we were met by a Spanish guy named Ruben, who was good friends with Danny, a fellow Spaniard who owned the other company that worked with Ross (we never did meet Danny).  He told us that he was going to take us on a short tour of a local village.

A couple of farmers working on their crops...it looks like a lot of hard work to be a Vietnamese farmer.

Not sure what he has in his wheelbarrow, but he's a happy dude.

Ruben explained details about how Vietnamese villagers grow their food, build their houses and other intricacies of their lifestyle.  It was quite informative and interesting.  They are super resourceful people.  Every household has a small pond by their home where they keep fish to eat, grow plants to feed their buffalo, and even place planks of wood in the water for a few years to remove anything that wood-burrowing insects would want to eat so they are not required to paint or seal the wood to make it last for many years.  Brilliant.

Looks like a witch's brew...

A traditional Vietnamese house, but a low cost one.  They have a tin roof and not a one made out of many layers of nipa leaves.  You don't have to replace it like the leaf one, but it would be an oven in the summertime.

Walking through the village:

So this family is wealthier than the previous photo as they have the nipa leaf roof.

What you might have in your yard in a Vietnamese village...

This lady was working hard, taking dried leaves home to burn.

What a cutie!

He took us to a traditional, multi-generational house of one of the riders.  Most houses are raised up above the ground about 8 feet.  This is for a few reasons.  First off, any flooding shouldn’t be a problem.  Next, when there used to be tigers in the area, it provided protection.  Sadly, they have killed off all of the tigers over the years so that threat is gone.

This is sticky rice.  The regular rice was in big sacks but sticky rice is a bit of a luxury.

This is the future coffin for the matriarch of the house, who is 82 years old.  This is a "dying" tradition.  Younger generations will be cremated instead of being buried, but this lady is being "grandmothered" in and will be buried by her husband who has already passed.

We ventured up into the house and were greeted by the 82-year-old matriarch.  Sadly, she was hunched over from old age and probably stood about four feet tall.  She was super welcoming even though she couldn’t speak any English.  The house was essentially one big open room with a firepit near the centre which was mainly used for cooking.  It would provide heat on cold winter nights too but there were no windows to prevent the outdoor air from entering so it would only be warm if you sat near the fire. 

 

The inside of the home.  That's a firepit in the middle which is used primarily for cooking.

On one side of the room the floor was raised up about a foot, and this was the sleeping area.  One corner had some bedsheets hung up to provide privacy for a couple but otherwise they just pulled down foam mattresses what were rolled up or leaning against the wall and slept on those, including the matriarch.  It was very basic and seemed primitive to us Westerners, but It must instill very strong family bonds.  Because of this lack of privacy, Ruben mentioned that they are very used to noise from other family members.  He asked if any of us had been on a public bus in Vietnam and was irked by a local person playing a TikTok video on their phone out loud without any headphones.  Naomi and I looked at each other and nodded.  He explained that due to their upbringing in these type of family homes, they don’t realize that they are upsetting anyone as that is what they are used to, noise from others.  I have to admit that it helps to know that as I will have more patience on buses in my future travels in this country.

Reuben explaining a bit about a traditional home in this country.

Our group was asked to sit down to enjoy some green tea which was poured by grandma.  It was considered rude to decline a cup.  While we sipped our hot drink, Ruben continued to explain some nuances of life here.

It's green tea time.

The lovely matriarch of the household.  Poor thing has a hunched back.

She made sure that everyone had some tea, and if your glass was empty, it was refilled quickly.

Nobody can have an empty glass!

Tea time for the group.

It was so interesting to watch the elderly lady so fixated on what was happening outside of her house.

Now it was time to get on the road.  Ruben introduced us to Huy (pronounced “who-eh”), who had been quietly following us on the tour of the village.  He was going to be our tour leader for the next three days on the road.  Huy was a tall, soft-spoken man probably around 30 years old with decent English.

We hopped on our bikes with our designated riders and started to head out of Ha Giang.  Unfortunately, within 20 minutes the rain started to fall again, stronger than earlier in the morning.  The rest of the group had been given or purchased some raingear, but Naomi and I were missing something to cover our shoes, so our riders made a quick stop at a store, and we bought some see-through plastic boots.  They weren’t pretty, but they sure did the trick.  Five minutes later down the road, the riders decided that it was raining hard enough that we pulled into a small store with a covered area complete with a couple of pool tables and hammocks.  We hung out there for about 20 minutes until the rain abated.

Getting on the road for real.

It's raining...and we just started our motorcycle ride...

So why not just relax?!?

Riding into the clouds.

We pulled into a homestead, which was also owned by a relative of one of the riders, for some lunch.  Our group sat around a big table, and we finally got to know each other a bit.  Our team consisted of restauranteurs Bart and Steffi from Belgium, recent university graduates Annabelle and Thomas from Montreal, and the young “risk management team” from Amsterdam consisting of Pablo, Lucia and Mads.  Pablo and Lucia were from Spain and Mads from Denmark.  Everyone seemed to be very friendly, and Naomi and I were pleased with the members of our group.

Lunchtime!

Pretty good spread.

This area is comprised of an ethnic group known as the Hmong People.  They are an indigenous group in Southeast Asia, primarily in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and southern China.  Some of our riders are Hmong and the people hosting us for lunch were.  So after we ate, all of us were given the opportunity to dress up in some traditional Hmong clothing.  It was a fun activity that everyone in our group embraced, and of course it gave us some great photos.

Do you like my hat?!?

Yeah, it was a bit small for me...

But not a bad look in the end.

My pose and the plastic boots almsot seemed appropriate.

The Ha Giang Loop Group.

Someone asked Pablo where the toilets were.  His response was "Go out to the left, and turn left after the buffalo..."  Turns out that that was a very accurate description!

Back to rainy riding gear...

We continued for another couple of hours on the bikes that afternoon, always stopping at a viewpoint or rest stop every 45-50 minutes.  This was the trend for the entire trip which was a great idea as I definitely found that my butt needed a break that often!

At a gorgeous viewpoint.

Looking down below and a very curvy and narrow road.  Unfortunately we didn't take that one.

Some of our group playing hacky sack at the viewpoint.

Getting higher up in the mountains.

Yay Baby!

Getting a bit close to a truck...

These kids hope to hope to make money posing for photos.  I have to admit that the boy with the funny musical instrument, cool sunglasses and tiny little Vietnamese hats on his ears seemed to be trying the hardest.

They were cute.

This is a photo of a picture on a sign at the viewpoint of the curvy road just below...

...but this was all that we could see.

Our riders are having a little impromptu barbeque snack to recharge.

Back on the road.

Riding around some more nice bends.

Another nice viewpoint.

If you zoom in on this pic...you'll see what I think of Naomi being the driver of the motorbike!

The views just didn't stop all day.

Some of our group behind me.

I got a kick out of the communist billboards that were often near towns.  Yay, let's do it all together!

Driving into a town.

Around 5 pm, as the daylight was starting to fade, we pulled into our stop for the night, a Hmong house owned by a super jovial, diminutive man named Hom and his wife (I never did catch her name).  Hom was so welcoming, happy and hilarious.

Arriving at our reststop for the night.

Our gracious host Hom with his baby girl.

We had been warned that this would be the coldest night of the trip (as well as the coldest of my entire SE Asia trip) as the temperature dropped to at least 9 C but was also damp.  Bart and Steffi, and Naomi and me had opted to pay a bit more to have private rooms, which happened to be located about 100 meters down the road from Hom’s place.  It was a cute little room, but there was no heat.  Thankfully the duvet was pretty heavy duty.

Checking out our accommodation.

It was cozy for sure...but a heater would have been nice.

Before returning for dinner at Hom’s, I put on pretty much every layer of clothing in my possession.  It was still a bit chilly, but the fire in the main room where we would eat dinner helped keep all of us a bit warm.  

An unconventional way to warm up...with a hair dryer!

Trying to warm up at the fire in the main room of Hom's house before dinner.

Time to eat!  In the background, from left to right is Annabelle, Pablo and Lucia.

Ahead of eating our supper, we were introduced to what is known as “Happy Water” (rice wine).  Everyone was poured a shot and Huy led the first toast followed by a very energetic one by Hom.  Later Hom would sing “Happy Water for you, Happy Water for you…” to the Happy Birthday song.  I will always think of him whenever I hear Happy Birthday in the future!

Hom pouring up some "Happy Water".

The first "Happy Water" toast by the guide Huy.

And now Hom, the host's turn.

Naomi having a toast with her rider Hanh.

After dinner, Hom demonstrated how to play a few traditional musical instruments.  The first one is called a qeej (pronounced “keng”) and it is a flute or recorder-like wooden instrument.  I don’t know the name of the second one he played but it had a bow like a violin, and it wasn’t terribly pleasant sounding.  I wasn’t sure if he just wasn’t very good at playing it, or that was just the nature of the instrument.  Afterwards, he encouraged everyone to try out the instruments which was pretty fun…especially with a bit more Happy Water flowing!

Hom demonstrating how to play the qeej (pronounced keng), a traditional Vietnamese instrument.

I don't actually know the name of this instrument that Hom is playing.

Okay, my turn to try.

Lucia and Pablo giving it their all.  It was obvious that Lucia has played some instruments in the past and has a bit of talent.

Now that the Happy Water has been flowing...Naomi giving the qeej a try.

Everybody giving it a go on the instruments.

Hom and his wife...amazing hosts and people.

What a day! (as you can tell from the length of this post) And this is just day one of three on this tour.  Can’t wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow!