Ha Giang Loop

The journey to Ha Giang was…. Unpleasant. From Ninh Binh I took a sleeper bus. They were 45 minutes late to pick me up, but luckily that wasn’t too stressful cause a bunch of other people were there waiting. Then I got on the bus which has 3 rows of bunk beds and 2 aisles. It’s very uncomfortable and I would not recommend it at all. I also didn’t know there is literally zero storage so I was holding my laptop and some clothes and snacks and stuff on my lap for the entire 7 hours. I finally arrived at Ha Giang at 4am… and nobody was there to let me in. The bus dropped me off on the side of the road 3 miles outside of town and told me I was in the right spot and to walk down the dark alley to my place. I began calling the tour company with my phone only at 20%, who were supposed to be waiting for me, since they booked my bus for me, but nobody answered. The alley had a large metal gate at the back and on either side were construction companies. I called and called with no answer and sent a number of angry text messages. I knocked on the gate getting dogs inside barking to no avail, wondering if I was going to wake up some random Vietnamese person who was going to be very angry at me for carrying on at 4:30am. I periodically knocked on the gate, yelled, and then went back to the steer to sit under the street light. I was more and more certain I got scammed. I signed up and paid a deposit for a tour that didn’t exist. Around 5:30-5:45 the door finally opened and they apologized profusely. They got me some water and I got maybe 2 hours of sleep before it was time to get up to go on the trip. They gave me a bunch of espresso, which later I learned other people had to pay for, I think they were just trying to make up for the whole disaster. They were so apologetic and kind, I forgave them the anger and stress they caused me, and was happy for some good breakfast of passionfruit and pancakes and bananas and lots of espresso. 

After a safety meeting we met our drivers. The tour is led by an American guy,

James, in his mid 20s, but the 17 other drivers are all locals. They are guys in their 20s who all grew up together and they are a riot. They clearly are very close from traveling and working and growing up together. Most of them previously had jobs as farmers and factory workers so are stoked to have a job driving a motorbike around the countryside goofing around with their friends and meeting foreigners. One I met used to work at a sweatshop in China, but got trapped there for 3 years unable to return home, held by the factory that employed him. Many had similar stories. The tour I went with went out of their way to make sure the drivers are fairly compensated, making double what the other employers in the area pay. Additionally, many of their family members are also employed as cooks and cleaners in the hostel owned by the tour group for people arriving in town. One bike driver invested in buying a car so he could be a taxi on the weekends, the tour company now supports his business by employing him first whenever someone at the hostel needs a taxi. All the drivers own their own bikes, and many have additional bikes which they rent to Flipside when guests book a tour where they want to drive themselves. As the drivers’ English improves they have opportunities for advancement in the company, being tour or safety leaders. Overall, the people who worked there seemed genuinely really happy and well taken care of by the company which really made me appreciate the company a bit more. 

My driver, Tuấn sang, was an absolute riot. He was 28 and very fun and charismatic. We had a lot of fun together. He couldn’t pronounce my name so he called me “Camera”, my good friend I met, Sophie, he called “Selfie”. So every time we were together all the drivers started yelling “Camera and Selfie” and we would all laugh and take imaginary photos together. I also couldn’t pronounce his name correctly so I called him “Dawn sun”. We had a blast together, playing around on the bikes, drinking, teasing, and laughing. Our broken conversational skills were funny and fun. 

The drive was so gorgeous, we headed into the mountains on our bikes. Only one person in our group had chosen to self drive, and he was clearly a very talented driver because while some of the roads were paved, many were not, or worse, broken pavement that was intended to be paved 5 years ago, began, but never finished. The skill of the drivers was incredible. We overlooked these limestone mountains unlike any I have seen before. They were steep and rocky. Beyond steep, many were nearly columnar. It was really beautiful. We overlooked waterfalls, rivers, mountains, and we could see the southern border of China. 

The ha giang loop as a tourist activity is fairly new. The roads existed, going to some of the villages, but in the last 8 years the Vietnamese government has put a lot of effort into turning it into a tourism attraction. A big part of that effort is related to border disputes with China. China claims a lot of the land as chinese, so to combat that, Vietnam has been working to develop the tourism industry in a way that the international community will associate it with vietnam, making the border dispute more difficult internationally. I think it’s a really clever move my the Vietnamese government, using tourism as a grounds for international acknowledgement. 

We visited some really cool caves, which are intended to be developed into a large attraction in the future, but for now are unknown to most of the tour groups. Our group is the only one that really visits and it was really beautiful. We did have to climb some barbed wire fences to get in, but I guess that’s fine? It was a cave the Vietnamese used to hide from the French in the war. It goes on for many miles. 

Despite the steepness of the slopes, all of the mountains here that are not entirely made up of rock are used for farming by the locals. The mountains are made up of incredibly steep terraces growing mainly corn and rice. It’s incredibly steep and watching people walk with bales of corn 3rd their size down the sides of these mountains is absolutely astounding. People have to do what they do, and food is scarce here, most families live off of their farm work and little money is exchanged in the region outside of tourists. Most villages don’t have water or electricity, although the growing tourist industry is bringing that to the communities as tourists aren’t often interested in staying in a place without electricity or water. 

We stayed in really lovely hostels each night, the beds comfy, some even were heated and so cozy. Every night at dinner we would eat with the drivers. The meals were family style and often rice with an assortment of grilled meats, tofu, and veggies, as well as some pickled veg and a soup base. We were encouraged to eat heartily, and the food was always phenomenal. Of course, the most important part of the meal was happy water. Vietnamese moonshine. Every family has their own version. It can range from 20-40% proof and can range from drinkable for straight liquor to very difficult to drink. Let me tell you, the drinking was not for the light of heart. Drinks were a pooled price, so not paying by the drink, we never paid more than $1 each, and the drinks were flowing. Some people probably had upwards of 30 shots. The drivers were very pushy, and liked to give you a hard time if you didn’t finish your shot or said no more. It was all in good fun, but it was pretty wild. Especially with one of the guests on the trip, Andy, an older guy from Northern England who could probably out drink anyone I’ve ever met. The chant of the trip (drinking or not) became “không say không về” which means roughly ‘no going home until we are drunk’. Every time we ate, drank, danced, got on the bikes, jumped in the river everyone would yell “không say không về!”  The drivers did have a hard out at 10pm though. While the rest of us stayed up chatting and (being relieved of drinking pressure) they would go to bed early to be ready for the day. Drinking began around 7 with dinner and we chanted, sang karaoke, and danced until 10 raucously, and then quickly everything quieted down to the tourists chatting around the fire. 

The first night we went out on the town to sing karaoke, but were home by 10. The police actually shut everything down at 11, although I hear that often bar owners will turn off the lights and the guests hide inside for 15 minutes until the police pass and then the party begins again because the police never come back after they shut things down.  

The second day was a big driving day. We took all these back roads with mud and rocks. Our tour focuses on taking the backroads and going places most tourists don’t get to visit so you can see more of the town. We stopped for coffee and great views along the way and drove quite a way along the chinese border. As you drive you see lots of people working in the fields. I was shocked at how common it was for people to wear the colorful traditional dresses of the Hmong people. Often I associate traditional clothing with tourism, but people genuinely worked and lived in the traditional garb which is beautiful and ornate. Many women also worked the steep terraces with a baby on their back, and often we would see small children walking along the roads alone. They would smile and waves and scream hello, and often tried to get a high-five as you passed. A few times I gave them high-fives and the group of children would descend into to fit of giggles. 

Our second night accommodation was beautiful and up in the mountains with heated beds and more incredible food. That night as we drank and danced some local kids came by to see what we were doing. They were quite shy, but we convinced some of the girls to dance with us and they loved it. So much infact they wouldn’t let us stop. After an hour of non-stop dancing I wanted to break and the little girls kept pulling me up to keep dancing. I finally got out of it by holding one little girl’s school books for her. She wasn’t joining in cause she was protecting her books, but I offered to hold them and she ended up giddily joining the rest of the group dancing. It was really sweet. It was such a wonderful night. 

The next day we continued on, making a stop in a local Hmung village to do a service project. The company has a local contact who watches out for the villagers and lets the group know who is in need. We bought a bunch of groceries (sacks of rice, noodles, live chickens, sauces, milk, candy, dried meats, and more) and brought them to the homes of a couple families in need. One of the families had just adopted 3 children and now had 8 mouths to feed, and the other family were an elderly couple without children to help them farm. The families there live entirely off the food they farm on their lands, which is mostly corn. The few livestock they have live in their house with them and their corn/food storage is above them on their second floor. The floor is dirt and the building is not very closed up so they really live in the elements. In addition to poor nutrition and living conditions, chinese mafia are known to come to the villages and steal children for human trafficking. Since they don’t have electricity or phones often that means children just disappear without a trace and there are no authorities to help because the Hmung people are not a recognized people and have no documentation or protection by the government. It was so sad and I wish I had known more before so I could give more money, unfortunately I didn’t bring enough cash to give more and that was a real shame. It was really a great experience though and they were so kind to show us their homes. They practice animalism, so when they kill an animal they smudge its blood on paper and hang it in their homes in thanks to the animal and on acknowledgement of its sacrifice. 

After the families, we worked our way back to the home base. There the 3 day people packed up and headed on their way. Our drivers went home and the rest of us rested and chatted into the evening. 

The fourth day we visited the town where the drivers live. We took a taxi to town and they took us swimming in a bunch of beautiful underground caves which was amazing. It was such a cool experience. Absolutely stunning. A few of the drivers who had a day off joined us too, which was entertaining. Afterwords we went to lunch at one of the drivers house. He showed us around and we ate and drank happy water one last time. It was a wonderful day. 

The trip did end on a sour note as a few of us took a stinky bus 6 hours to our next location, Sapa, but the trip as a whole was so lovely and fun. I’d absolutely recommend it.