Northern Loop Part 2 - Ha Giang to Yen Minh (Vlog Included)

The Northern Loop is my blog series about a short motorbike trip in North Vietnam, starting and ending in Ha Giang.

Northern Loop Part 2 - Ha Giang to Yen Minh

We left Hanoi by sleeper bus, and very little sleep was had by either @doctorcrypto or myself. The "beds" were tiny and I spent 8 hours sandwiched between my brother and a stranger. By the end of the ride, the whole bus was wet from so many people breathing and it smelled like ass and feet. We got off the bus as soon as it arrived in town. Unfortunately, it was 03:00 and Ha Giang is a ghost town at that hour.

Ha Giang, early in the morning.

A taxi came by and I told him which motorbike place that I wanted to go to (QT Motorbikes). The driver took us to a different place that was a hotel. We worked out a deal to get a room for 6 hours and said that we were interested in renting motorbikes.

We woke up and I went down to check out the bikes. The place where we stayed at only had a few dirty bikes that didn't have luggage racks. QT Motorbikes was close, so I walked down there to see what their bikes looked like. QT had a ton of bikes and they all looked to be in excellent condition. They also had luggage racks. I talked to a guy there and his English was great. He said he would help us plan a route.

I saw this on the way to QT motorbikes. It looks like someone just went duck shopping.

I went back to the hotel where @doctorcrypto was getting ready for the day. I told him what I saw and we decided to rent from QT. The guy at the hotel seemed disappointed that we weren't going to rent motorbikes from him, but I really needed someone with strong English skills to help us with our route planning. I also knew from experience how important luggage racks are for people with as much luggage as us.

We rented two Honda Blades for 7 days and the total price was something like $65 (USD). It seemed pretty reasonable to me. We planned our route, filled up our gas tanks, and got on the road.

We started out following a muddy river but after a while, the water cleared up. The weather was pretty cold, but we had brought a fair amount of cold weather gear. I had forgotten to put my sweatpants on underneath my pants and my legs got uncomfortably cold. I ended up putting on my rain pants to keep some of the cold wind off of my legs.

Taking a photo stop. We took a lot of these.

Riding next to rivers is awesome. The roads are generally flat and curvy which makes for some great riding.

The river got clearer as we gained elevation.

This is me.

A nice valley-view with some rice terraces.

I love the fading silhouettes of the mountains in the distance.

@doctorcrypto enjoying the view.

We gained some elevation and started getting into the mountains. The lush, rocky landscape had a mystical quality to it in the cool haze of the morning.

When we got to the top of a mountain, there was an overlook cafe that looked inviting. We stopped for some coffee and a few photos.

Some people carrying heavy loads down a long, steep road. It's amazing how much walking and work the locals do every day, just to make ends meet.

One of the cafe's plants.

We played a little shuttlecock with some locals to get warmed up.

The cafe didn't serve food, so we decided to ride down the mountain and stop at the next town for lunch. We had been in Vietnam for 2 days and still hadn't had any pho yet. So pho was what we were looking for.

A view of the town we stopped in for lunch.

We saw a Pho sign and stopped for lunch. This is what the street in front of the restaurant looked like.

@doctorcrypto anxiously awaiting his Pho.

We had chicken pho, and it wasn't very good. The soup and everything was fine, but the meat was tough and didn't taste very good. We would have excellent pho on the next day, so it wasn't a huge loss. This place did have some great spicy paste to add to the soup. It had a great smokey, spicy flavor.

After warming up with Pho, we got back on the road to make our way to Yen Minh. The day's route was pretty short, so we took our time and stopped for photos when we felt the need.

The amount of cargo that people carry on bicycles and motorbikes is incredible.

A little bit of sunlight trying to shine through.

A nice big valley.

We made it to Tom's Homestay in Yen Minh without any problems. We unloaded our bikes and went downstairs for a few beers.

@doctorcrypto and @fronttowardenemy

We were some of the first guests to arrive, but soon the place was filled with people from all over the world. We had some good conversations and spent a lot of time marveling with the others at how amazing the riding, the land, and the people in Vietnam are.

@doctorcrypto and I went into town for dinner and he went with meat-on-a-stick. I'm not a fan of the meat in Vietnam, so I stuck with beer and bought some snacks from a store.

@doctorcrypto waiting for some meat!

After a few beers in town, we went back to the homestay. We spent some time hanging out with the other guests and Tom, the owner, but we didn't stay up too late.

We've made a little vlog about the trip. Here's episode 1.

Northern Loop - Episode 1

The video is pretty rough. I'm not much of a video editor, but it should give you a feel for some of what we experienced. The videos should get a little better as the series progresses.

Our route for day 1. We were mostly going north.

Stay tuned for my next post where we ride from Yen Minh to Dong Van. I'm going slow with my posting because I've got all the photos to touch up as well as the videos to edit. Until next time, ride safe!