On the road to Ha Giang: an unexpected trip to North Vietnam

What was supposed to be a relatively leisurely day, with around 80 km to cover between Vinh Quang and Ha Giang, quickly turned into a much longer expedition than expected. In the end, nearly 150 km were covered, with unexpected detours, and that slight feeling of moving forward without ever really arriving...

But how did we get here?

A story of landscapes too beautiful to be ignored, of "promising" alternative routes (thanks to GPS...), and of that guilty pleasure we can have when traveling: letting ourselves be carried along, even if it makes the journey a little - a lot - longer.

Round 1: Frontier Area, hello China!

Today's journey took us to Ha Giang, an important stop on this motorbike trip to the north of Vietnam. Important because this is normally where we had to obtain the famous authorization to travel further north, as we entered the areas close to the border with China (even if we had already touched on it in Lao Cai…)

This authorization is particularly mandatory for sleep in hotels covering the northern area between Ha Giang and including cities like Dong Van or Meo Vac.

Like every evening the day before, I checked the route to take for the next day, this in order to avoid having to stop too often to check the route (even if in the end, I needed to stop regularly anyway, whether it was to fill up with gas, take photos / admire the view, or simply have pity on my sore buttocks).

We took the time to eat in our great restaurant from the day before in Vinh Quang, then we filled up before hitting the road.

After 2 or 3 km, we come across a junction, convinced of the route to follow, I continue, not without having checked first on Gmaps…. The road in question offers us beautiful landscapes and we progress gently, that is to say not really quickly, because it remains small mountain roads.

So I had only travelled about ten kilometres when we arrived at a checkpoint, and when we saw me arrive, I was immediately arrested...

At the time, I just thought it was to check my driving license… I quickly became disconcerted when I understood, despite the fact that they didn't speak English, thatwe couldn't go any further, for lack of possession of a Chinese visa or the authorization mentioned above…

Because yes, by taking the wrong road, I headed straight for China (well, “straight”, so to speak, given the bends and the road in question), where we were very close at that time…

We had indeed come across a sign indicating that we were entering border zone (Frontier Area, see photo below), but I wasn't particularly worried about it, since this whole area, including Vinh Quang, remains close to China (once again, I had only done about ten kilometers from our starting point).

Having therefore missed it miserably, I knew that I had to go back down to this famous junction… I had already extended the day by almost 30 km and lose almost 2 hours… (It must be said that we are also dragging our feet a bit… But after all, we are also here to enjoy the scenery!)

Round 2: Thanks Google Maps!

Or not… Because if Google Maps is a great tool overall, it can sometimes catch you out... And that was the case today, do the test yourself, by looking at the route between tt. Vinh Quang and tp. Ha Giang, you will see that Google gives you a default route of 80 km, passing through the middle of the mountains.

Except that in reality, this road becomes a impassable path after a few kilometers... And that the only valid route to reach Ha Giang is the one returning to the main road, extending the initial journey by a good 20 kilometers (and in the mountains, that counts).

See the map below, in red, the shorter route that I thought I would take and which I started to progress on for this round 2, in blue, the one that I had to take in the end:

So concretely, after having already made a detour of almost 30 km, I had, while trying to take this road which is not one (well yes, at the beginning…), done about ten kilometers, one way.

We were already afraid of getting soaked given the clouds (in the end, we only got a few drops), so now we had to deal with a significant delay? Arghhhh!!

At the time, seeing that the road was becoming unpaved, I remained calm, telling myself that perhaps it was being worked on further away and even so, it was still passable. I tried to ask some locals, surprised to see us here (obviously) if we could join Ha Giang by this way…

Not really sure of the answer, due to lack of mutual understanding, I continued on my way. But barely 300 m further, things became drastically complicated… The ground was no longer flat and became rocky (and since it had just rained, muddy…)

Still passing some motorbikes, I ask again because I panic a little at the idea of ​​going back to Vinh Quang. And there, the verdict fell, NO, it is not possible to reach Ha Giang from there.

Ha Giang, here we are anyway!

With all that, it was almost 16pm when we went back down to Vinh Quang, since we had no other choice!

And so, we literally started from scratch, I had to absolutely reach Ha Giang by 19pm, before nightfall, because driving on a mountain road that I don't know, at night... Well, it's not great (I have already given in Bali), 3 hours to do 100 km. Said like that, it seems feasible…

But even despite the delay, I took regular breaks. I enjoyed the scenery, where I could finally see some rice fields that were already green.

From time to time we passed a few locals, few houses, and also few other vehicles of any kind. But knowing also that it was a bit of a "race" against time, as I saw the sun descend towards the horizon, I had to at least stay on course.

At the end, after being blocked for a while by trucks, we found ourselves a whole group of motorbikes following each other. It felt rather good to no longer be alone on the roads and it made me take a good rhythm, while night was falling.

At 19 o'clock, I arrived at the bottom of the mountain by joining the main road. But there were still about 40 km to go, at night, to reach Ha Giang. We arrived there shortly before 20 p.m., 4 hours late therefore…

On the way to eat, we noticed the relaxed atmosphere in the streets of Ha Giang and families with children were out in the park, before a storm hit a little later... I was very happy when we finally settled down at the hotel (rather classy considering the price), already sheltered when the wind got up furiously.

We stayed at the Cao Ngyuen Hotel, so as to be close to immigration to get the authorization we needed for the next day. Great comfort for an unbeatable price! (400 Dong, or €000!)

The next day's stage was going to be exciting as we were arriving at the part I was most looking forward to, the Dong Van region.

Have you ever been lost while traveling? How did you react?