Day 2 of the Ha Giang

Today starts off with a visit to the Chinese border which was
pretty unimpressive to be honest. A
A massive fence and a set of gates you couldn’t get within 200 meters of.
Then on to Lung Cu Flag Tower. It is a massive 33.15-meter-tall monument topped with a 54-square-meter national flag (representing Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups) perched on the summit of Dragon Mountain.

Once again about 300 steps up to it just to kept the lungs and thighs working. And then a climb up the tower itself, I don’t know how many steps, it seemed endless. Gorgeous 360 degrees views from up there of the karst mountains, terraced rice fields and the border into china. so it was worth it.

Next stop was a little coffee rest with a view down into a valley of flooded rice fields. Amazing place to have a rest and a salted coffee. It poured rain for about five minutes while we were there, but had cleared up by the time we headed off again.

Tuong took us somewhere with a special fried rice and beef lunch today. The riders all seemed to love it but It wasn’t a winner for many of us.

The afternoon was filled with the magic of travelling up and down to the Nho Quế River over the Ma Pi Leng pass for a boat ride along the gorge. This ride is just indescribably beautiful. I would have loved to have taken more photos but it was a wee bit scary. So many twists and turns and a vista around every corner.

Any heavy shower of rain on the way down and we had to stop beside the road and get our wet gear on. That was fun on the side of a mountain with cars and bikes whizzing past and a massive drain to fall into if you put a foot wrong.

The rain was gone again by the time we got to the river. The boat ride along the gorge was lovely. Very busy with quite a few boats out but the gorge is huge so they all disappeared pretty quickly.

Back up the mountain with more views of gorges, rice fields, corn fields, and waterfalls. I would have liked to stop at every vantage point.Read more