From Wikipedia:

Hà Giang is a city located on the banks of the Lô River in the Northeast region of Vietnam close to the Chinese border. I spite of its remote location and rugged terrain, it is a relatively large capital city of Hà Giang Province. The city has an area of 135.33 km² and a population of 55 559 inhabitants, comprising of 22 different ethnicities, of which 55.7% are Kinh and Tai people.

I’ve travelled to Guangxi Province in China via Friendship Pass before and for this trip, I’ve decided to avoid all the crowded places and check out Ha Giang, having seen the videos showing the stunning landscape and colourful people.

I arrived at about noon and without wasting time, hopped onto the bus bound for Ha Giang near the airport. 6 hours later, I arrived in Ha Giang. It was a sleeper bus and service was unexpectedly good. It was already dark when we pulled into the bus station. The company arranged for a small bus to drop us off at our hotels. At the reception, I booked my 3D2N motorbike trip.

It was a nice and very affordable room as you can see from the video. The next morning, we were off on our road trip.

Apart from running out of gas and the last minute change of accommodation, it was a pretty good first day. The food exceeded my expectations and my fellow travellers were also very friendly and accommodating folks from different parts of Europe. We arrived at the town of Dong Van more than 130km from Hà Giang and spent the night there.

Day 2 could have been a lot better if not for the annoying intermittent rain. The visit to the weekend market was a stunning eye-opener. The live animals on display, the riot of colours from the Hmong costumes and exotic foods, made for a good start to the day. The rest of the day was unfortunately less pleasant. A frigid fog descended from the mountain tops to the valley floors. It was cold and damp all day. We were supposed to have stunning views across to China, but the grey, cloudy skies and thick fog obscured the views. It was a little disappointing, but our Hmong guide brought us to an authentic Hmong village.

We saw mud houses built by hand and learned about bizarre funeral rites. Dinner back at Dong Van was pretty good.

Day 3 was perhaps the most rewarding day on the whole trip. It was clear skies and sunny weather most of the day. We started the day with a crossing of the beautiful Ma Pi Leng Pass. From there, the emerald thread of the Nho Que river wove its way amongst the terraced cultivation. We descended to the riverbank and did the Nho Que cruise. Young travellers injected a torrent of energy into the placid river, helped by techno music blasting onboard. The rest of the day brought us through numerous twists and turns over valleys dotted with stark limestone karsts. It was a heavenly sight taken out of 西游记.

We ended the day with visit to a French fortress and Du Gia village. Our homestay had a fish pond in the midst of lush rice fields and soaring karsts resembling tree stumps.

After a night at beautiful Du Gia village, we set off on another bright, sunny morning. The final day brought us over more stunning passes, cliffs, waterfalls and canyons. We rode through an authentic Hmong village where the villagers were more curious about us than we were about them. By noon, we came alongside the Lo river before returning to Hà Giang for lunch. From the hilltop cafe which we visited after lunch, we could appreciate the size of this town in the frontier region of Vietnam Hà Giang is truly worth another visit.

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