This morning our leader Kien made sure we set off nice and early which caused a few grumbles in the group. However we were all so thankful, as when we arrived at Du Gia waterfall, no one else was there apart from one 8 year old Vietnamese kid. The water wasn't too cold and the waterfall was beautiful. We were debating wether you could jump from the rocks at the top, and before anyone could answer, the kid throw himself off headfirst and confirmed that we definitely could. He was very entertaining, and was able to scramble up the middle of the waterfall, through the water, was doing flips, diving sideways and all sorts. He lead a guy in our group called Tom up the the top, who was the first to brave the jump. After that we all joined in. 20 minutes into our fun, other groups doing the loop started arriving, and as we left there was over 50 people there with more arriving, so we were so grateful to get there early.
Mid morning we stopped off at Duong Thuong viewpoint, enjoyed a coffee with 360 views, and walked over some sketchy rocks to get a little group photo, which nearly slipped off!
Lunch was at Tam Son town, which is where we sadly said goodbye to one of the group members, a lovely French lady called Cari as she had a flight from Hanoi the next day!
The loop isn't actually that long and can easily be done in 3 days two nights, so we had someone from another group join us as he wanted to switch to the longer trip we were doing.
In the afternoon we visited Lung Tam village, a place famous for hemp weaving! We'd stopped off earlier in the day next to a field of hemp which everyone thought was weed. However it's dried, massaging, stretched out, dyed them woven into brightly coloured patterns clothes, bags and all sorts of items by the surrounding villages. I didn't really need anything, but bought a little woven keyring to put on my bag.
Our homestay in Nam Dam village was a little rustic, the walls seemed to be made of clay and weren't quite connected in some places. However it was right out in the country side, so much so we were next to some sort of 'milatry' base which we could hear explosions from!
We were greeted by the lovely family who owned the palace when we arrived, and given homegrown cucumbers as a snack. Before dinner we were introduced to Vietnam's national sport, foot badminton. Which is basically how it sounds. The shuttlecock has feathers on but is weighted by metal disks which rattle as you kick it. The drivers definitely showed us up, but it was so fun. We played for over an hour, working up a sweat before our last dinner! As usual, the food was accompanied by many shots of happy water, with each driver stating it was his last, before another guy coming to the table 2 minutes later getting us to do another! We were at the homestay with another small group doing the loop with the same company and joined forces for evening karaoke and reluctant dance routines. Our group leader Kien gave very much Dad energy, and was sat in the corner cheering us on and filming, he was very cute. He then sat waiting for us to go to bed so he could put away the karaoke machine, so we didn't continue on too late as we didn't want to keep him up!
Most of the drivers have families who they rarely get to see, so lots of them go off to facetime them every evening after dinner. Danny was saying he gets to see his family a few hours on the final day of the loop, then goes back to Ha Giang the next day to start it again with another group! A different driver was saying he was driving 3 hours along a section of the loop everyday to go to the mines for work. Being a driver was the same pay as in the mine, but he says it's much more enjoyable even if he does see his family less.
These guys look after us so well, and even though a lot of their English isn't the best, they're so kind and fun to be around, it definitely makes the trip!Baca lagi
Wunderschön. [Mama]
Wow. [Mama]
Nochmals wow. [Mama]
super schön😍🤩 [Birgit]