Tùng Tạo

A 350km journey on motorbike over 4 days and 3 nights through some crazy vietnamese mountain roads, sometimes there's tarmac, sometimes there's not, sometimes it's stones or mud or water or a quarry or a dirt track, or anything inbetween.

The hairpin bends didn't stop, the steepness of the inclines were insane, then there was the downhill parts and more often than not, no barriers to stop you plummetting to your death, and the brakes weren't amazing either!

Every corner was an experience and an achievement as you never knew what was around the next. Would it be a motorbike? Would it be a cow? Would it be a motorbike with a huge pig strapped to the back? Would it be a dog? Would it be a motorbike with a ton of chickens strapped to it? Or gas bottles, furniture, copious amounts of vegetation, eggs, boxes, welders, or just anything really.

We did our tour with Ha Giang Adventure and it was well worth it, the research definitely paid off. Lots of the other tours were like converyour belts, 15 people all on the back of bikes just doing the motion. Because of dates and flight prices we really only had one day we could start and it turned out that we would be the only ones on our tour which sucked as you make good friends on these small tours, but nevertheless we pursued and had Li as our guide for the forthcoming adventure.

7 Hours a day on a bike is not too fun, even less so when 40% of the roads were tarmaced and those that were, were full of potholes! The first night we stayed in a village with locals in a homestay, lots of lovely food, 'happy water', and Uno, not bad to be honest.

Considering what was thrown at the bikes I'm surprised they did so well, I had a 110cc Honda Wave and Angela was on the back of Li's 150cc Honda. These bikes just keep on going whatever and wherever you take them. Yes a little gutless, but more time to enjoy the scenery.

We set off early and started by having a wander in the weekly market. So much fresh produce and so cheap! After many more bumps, a torrential downpour and storm in which the wet weather gear didnt really work, we made our stop for the night, dinner was DIY Hotpot, and plenty of 'happy water'.

The final x2 days had barely any tarmac and were non stop shaking. We had to wait for over an hour for them to blast rock from the quarry before we could drive through it all, and drive through lots of sludge, mud and water, so glad we didn't fall! It got a bit tiring in all honesty, non stop aches and the feeling of here we go again, and we were glad we had made it through and not injured like so many tourists do.

Li was great, a good person, didnt drop Angela and liked 'happy water', I was semi-tempted to do the tour on our own, but glad we didn't as we would've missed so much!Read more