It always takes longer than you think...

So we are about 30 km behind what we were hoping, but we headed off early for breakfast and to see the sites of Lung Cu including the fake and real most northern points of Vietnam and to see China! Its funny, when someone said we could see China I had this idea in my head that it would look completely different and there would be a Chinese flag etc. Nope there was nothing... Just another mountain on the other side of the river 😂

We went back to the homestay packed, filled up petrol and even though we got up for 6am it was somehow 10:30am already! The original plan at the start of the journey was to do a very big loop which incorporates the famous Ha Giang loop, Ban Gioc Waterfall and the beautiful Ba Be Lake. The owner of our first hostel said it was easily doable in 6 days. Today was decision day whether we did the big loop or just the Ha Giang loop. So we had a quick look at the map and realised it was completely impossible. The Ban Gioc Waterfall was over 300km away. We were averaging under 100km a day so if we did everything it would take us about 8-9 days and Svenja only had 6. So we took the decision to do the smaller loop which was still going to take us 4-5 days. We had about 113km to drive today... The aim was to get to Du Già via the famous, beautiful, but most dangerous pass, the Mai Pi Leng Pass. So off we went via a few sights and we finally got to Dong Van and had lunch. It was now 2:30pm and we still had 90km to drive...

We carried on to the beautiful Mai Pi Leng Pass and wow. Round every corner it got more and more spectacular. I just can't describe how stunning it was! It was a bit hazy so the photos might not do it justice but just wow!

We finally got to a little town Meo Vac which was the last town/ place for accomodation until Du Gia which was still 72km away and it was now after 3:30pm. So we decided to stop here and find a hostel instead. It was a really lovely evening. We met lots of other people who were also doing the loop. Will chatted and drank with the guys and me and Svenja went for a wander and dinner out of the hostel. It was a nice and relaxing evening what felt like quite a tough day.Read more