On the past Christmas and New Year holidays, I vacationed to northern Vietnam including to go to Ha Giang Loop. In my opinion, Ha Giang Loop deserves to be one of the bucket lists that must be done at least once in this life.
What is Ha Giang Loop? Basically this is a road trip route in Ha Giang province in the northern Vietnam region near the border with China where our eyes will be spoiled by the beautiful scenery of mountains, valleys and rivers. Called Loop because the route is rotating. We are not going to a particular tourist spot because the tour itself is along a small winding road up and down the mountain. So the journey itself is the destination.
The Ha Giang area is still natural and dominated by mountains with various forms of mountains. To come here, first you must go to Ha Noi first and after that leave a minimum of 5 days to run Ha Giang Loop including a round trip from Ha Noi. The first step is to take a bus from Ha Noi city to Ha Giang city which will take around 6-7 hours. There are 2 bus options, a sleeper bus where you can sleep or a VIP bus which is more like a limo minibus.
The adventure of Ha Giang Loop starts from Ha Giang city towards the Chinese border (and there is a kind of tradition for travelers to break into China's borders illegally - I enter China about 15 minutes illegally hahaha) then take a detour route to return to Ha Giang city . Generally this route requires a minimum of 3 days by driving around 8-9 hours every day.
On average backpackers choose to use motorbikes to do Ha Giang Loop. If you feel able to ride a motorcycle continuously for 3 days with a route that is quite dangerous, then please try. There are many motorbike rentals in Ha Giang. If you go alone / solo, I suggest joining a group (which can be found in the ngha nghi or homestay (inn) in Ha Giang and I suggest using a tour guide. There are other options too, for those who want to ride a motorbike but don't want to wear a motorbike yourself, you can ride with the tour guide, make sure your ass is ready for combat, huh?
Well because I did Ha Giang Loop during the winter with temperatures of 9-15 degrees Celsius, I felt unable to use a motorcycle because I was not used to cold air. I chose to rent a private car driver, which is actually not too expensive as long as it's not included in the English-speaking tour guide. So I chose a car and a driver who can only speak Vietnamese with limited communication via Google Translate on smartphone.
For my trip, assisted by people from Vietnam who can manage all of the Ha Noi - Ha Giang buses, 4-night lodging in 3 locations, car rentals and drivers, to eat during the trip in 1 package which I think is reasonable.
Highlights of this road trip are when passing "Ma Pi Leng Pass", dubbed The Road To Happiness. When you get here, you will realize that this is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. There is a friend of mine who asked me, is it not boring to spend 3 days in the car alone with a driver who is difficult to talk to because of language problems? I replied that I didn't even think because throughout the trip I enjoyed washing my eyes and being busy with wow, wow, wow seeing cool scenery. My driver also knows all the good points so he will stop the car in certain places, take me a little trekking and it turns out wow, in a remote place far from the main road there is a very cool sight.
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