Apr 23-25 2024 |
Section 5 of my north Vietnam journey. Here's an update on the ride from Dong Van to Ha Giang, along with details on my 2-day stay in Ha Giang town.
The ride to Ha Giang town
While this is part of the Ha Gian Loop, this ride didn't seem any more exciting than other stretches of road in north Vietnam. At 150km and 5 hours of riding, it was decent track and good views.
The first 120 minutes or so
The second half of the ride follows a narrow river valley, very little traffic along this road, great scenes.
The second half of the ride looked like this
I crossed paths with many large groups of tourist riders in long snaking lines. Rode by one of their pit stop places, it was completely overrun with bikes and people - yikes.
Break time for Ha Giang Loop riders, Khao San Road on wheels
2-days in Ha Giang town
Given that the Ha Giang Loop backpacker ritual these days, I had high expectations for Ha Giang town, thinking it would be a tourist hotspot with the usual trappings of a backpacker hots[pot. But I didn't seem to have much going on (or maybe I just didn't find it?). When I arrived around 2:30 pm, the place was like a ghost town - restaurants closed, few people out and about (something I later saw everywhere in Vietnam; there is a daily siesta time). I booked at Royal Hotel Ha Giang, by far the most posh place I had stayed thus far in my trip, was there for 2 nights. Got my pizza fix at highly-rated Pizza Here (honestly, I don't give it a very high rating). Tried Ban Cuon for breakfast at a shop next to the hotel, decent. Honestly, Ha Giang town didn't do much for me, 2 nights seemed like 1 too many. After I departed Ha Giang town I realized I handn't taken a single photo of the place...
One strange discovery was that the many (all?) of the bike tour operators are outside of town, in what looked like self-contained locales where riders park, eat, sleep, drink, etc as one big moving mass.
Ride: 150 km / 5 hrs
Stay: Royal Hotel Ha Giang $16 / 5/5
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