Thè Lé Van

Ha Giang Loop Day 2

In the morning I had some noodle soup for breakfast which might sound strange for the West but in Vietnam it's one of the most popular breakfasts and I'm starting to see why. I also had a coffee as it was free and I thought I might aswell give it a try - and you know what I actually really liked it.

We headed out, once again crusuing through stunning scenery and dodging police checkpoints wherever needed. We had a couple stops but our first notable one was at the Chinese border which was fairly anticlimactic as it just a few fences and a small shack on the other side but still interesting nonetheless. I picked up a couple Redbulls from the rest stop but they were nothing like the ones in England. The ones in South East Asia were made in Thailand and were in a small gold can. They were much nicer and also probably had some sort of cocaine in, but you can't say they didn't work to give me some much needed energy. I tried to get one for my easy driver Quin but turns out he's had food poisoning for a couple days and unknown to me was suffering quite alot yesterday and that's why he wasn't drinking with us last night. It's a shame but I can't blame him especially as he probably spends most his time on the road.

Our next stop was to this big ass tower on a hill with a massive Vietnam flag flying proudly, just across the border from China. If there's one things I love it's massive flags and this definitely fit the bill, being able to be seen from kilometers in all directions. We were able to park up and walk to the top of the tower and get all close and personal with the flag. After running back down the spiral stairs and getting super dizzy, we headed out once again.

On our way to our next stop there was another police checkpoint but this time they were checking the easy driver's licenses which meant that one of the drivers who didn't have a license tried to turn around and drive away but the police stopped him. We all waited for a while to see what happened to him and eventually he was let go with only a small fine but it was pretty tense stuff. Our next stop was not too far onward and was a little bit of a hike up a rocky hill. Most people went there because there was a nice little stone jutting out that was perfect for Instagram photos but I wanted to conquer the "mountain" and scramble my way to the top. There were little kids who were helping people find their way up then once they got to the top were asking for money, and honestly it seemed they were doing pretty well for themselves.

After we had waited for a while for the stragglers to get back, we made our way to our homestay which was much nicer than our other one. We were split into 2 groups for 2 rooms and we had some time to kill before dinner. We explored the homestay a bit which was massive and ended up finding a park with a swing and a see saw. After discovering what different languages call a see saw it was time for another family dinner... but not without some happy water first. I'll spare you the details but they ended up bringing out jugs and jugs of happy water and as the night went on I had more and more until I ended up being sick in a bush at God knows what time in the morning. I ended up going to bed at 6am feeling incredibly terrible but before that it was a great night filled with lots of singing and lots of drinking chants.Read more