Hà Giang Province, Vietnam

Hà Giang has to be hands down my most favorite part about Vietnam. I had the pleasure of spending four days traveling around the northern province on a 125cc dirt bike with two friends I made along the way.

To set the stage honestly, at the beginning of my Vietnam trip I was disappointed with what I felt was mostly tourist traps. Seeking to get more ingrained with locals and their culture, I went to /r/motorcycles on Reddit to get some advice about some off beaten paths potentially involving a motorcycle and was suggested to check out Ha Giang. Now a disclaimer; while driving from south to north of Vietnam on motorbike is pretty basic (everyone does it...), practically NO westerners do the Ha Giang circuit which is located in the northern most tip of Vietnam. It is often considered to be the last frontier of adventurous travel in Vietnam where the road conditions have improved enough recently to take a motorbike tour on.

- Full Google Map route can be found here

I arrived in Ha Giang around 4 in the morning on a overnight sleeper bus from Hanoi and slept for a few hours in a local hostel. When the morning came, I quickly gathered my things and went to QT Motorbikes to pick up my bike (Yamaha XTZ 125cc as I was looking at covering about 8 hours of road on my first day. Everyone at the shop was super friendly and incredibly helpful. The owner sat me down with a map and pointed out things that I should be checking out while doing my trip these next few days. While getting an overview, a pair of travelers Zion and Catarina were listening to the advice with me. Within 5 minutes of meeting we decided to do the circuit together. I'm really glad to have spent the trip with these two, as it would not have been as much fun.

The scenery was out of this world; pictures and video I captured don't do it justice. The roads, while at times a little dicey with pot holes, gravel and livestock had some fantastic twisties. I originally wanted to rent a 250cc for this trip but glad I settled for the 125cc as anything more powerful would have been suicide.

You'll see many different types of minority villages along the way, with all the women dressed in very bright colors carrying unimaginable loads on their backs.