Northern Loop Part 8 - Na Hang to Ha Giang

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

Northern Loop Part 8 - Na Hang to Ha Giang

On the previous day, we got lost and ended up in Na Hang. After a good night's sleep and some tasty food, we were ready to finish our riding. It was around 140km to Ha Giang and we wanted to get there in time to catch a ride back to Hanoi on the same day. We wanted to avoid spending the night in Ha Giang.

The first half of the ride was very pleasant as we rode through beautiful farmland. We spotted a coffee place and stopped for a break. The place was closed, but the owner opened it for us and joined us at our table. The place was covered in sunflower seed shells from a big party the night before. The restaurant owner was super nice and kept inviting us to his family's home for lunch. He used Google translate to tell us that it would make his parents happy if we had lunch at his house. On any other day we would have taken him up on his offer, but we had a Steemit meetup to get to in Hanoi and couldn't risk being delayed. We regretfully declined the warm invitation and got back on the road.

Some buffaloes.

Nice farms with a mountainous backdrop.

More farmland.

A quick stop for photos.

Flooded fields

@doctorcrypto checking his bag.

The second half of our ride was fun, but I didn't get any photos. We were on QL2 which is a pretty busy highway. We rode our fastest on this road, and we had to stay extra alert for all of the buses, vans, and trucks that were trying to pass us and each other.

We made it to Ha Giang sometime after noon. I was surprised by how quickly we got there. We talked to the good folks at QT Motorbikes and they arranged for a VIP van to take us back to Hanoi. I don't remember the price, but I know that I would have paid double to avoid the sleeper bus.

We had a few hours to kill before our van arrived, so we went across the street for some food. I took a few photos out of the restaurant's window when I went to the bathroom.

There's something about this little farmhouse that I love.

A farmer bringing home some wood, probably to cook with.

When we came back to QT Motorbikes, we saw that they had completely stripped one of our bikes. They removed all of the plastic and were cleaning and adjusting everything on the bike. Even before I saw this, I knew that the guys at QT took good care of their bikes. Seeing them strip down the bike to its frame and motor just proved to me how seriously they look after their bikes. We didn't have any complaints with the bikes for the whole trip.

After a short wait, the van came and took us to Hanoi. It still took close to 8 hours, but it was a few thousand times more comfortable than the sleeper bus. We didn't have a hotel booked in Hanoi and ended up spending a night in a horrible place. That night I booked us a better room for the rest of our time in Hanoi. I've already posted about the Hanoi Meetup that we attended.

That about does it for our big motorbike trip. I may post some of the other photos and videos later.

Vlog

Our vlog for our 7th day of riding.

Route

Our route for the day.

This trip was a lot of fun. I'm not used to traveling with other people, but traveling with my brother is pretty easy. There's something about riding in Vietnam that's indescribable for me. It isn't that the riding is so awesome, which it is, it's something else. The real magic of our trip came from the random encounters with the locals. The locals are very proud of where they are from and they seemed thrilled that we were enjoying their country too. I was afraid that Vietnam wouldn't live up to my fantasy of it. After my first trip to Vietnam, I fell in love with it. I was afraid that I would return and it wouldn't live up to the images in my mind. My second trip to Vietnam was everything I could have hoped for, and more. I had hoped that it would calm my desire to return, but I think it has only added fuel to that fire. I hope to return to Vietnam later this year. Until then, ride safe!