Ha Giang motorbike trip - day 1

This morning I started a four-day motorbike trip into the mountains. I left Ha Giang, following the river, until the road started climbing over the first mountain pass. As I got further into the mountains, the landscape got more and more impressive. After two hours, and the first steep descent, I arrived in Tam Son. Although it was only 11.30am, I decided I’d have a break and some lunch.

A few kilometres after leaving Tam Son I got to the junction where I had to decide which direction to ride the loop in. Having tackled the first steep part of the road I felt confident enough to take the smaller road and headed for Du Gia. There was hardly any traffic on this road which was good. It was all hairpin bends and steep gradients. There were places where there’d been landslides and a few stretches where the road was just rocks. I passed more villages than I’d expected. I’d been a bit worried that there might be nothing for miles and miles and if I had a problem with the bike, it’d be difficult to find humans. But I was regularly passing farms and people.


There was about 20 minutes of rain. It was light mountain rain rather than a monsoon downpour. I arrived in Du Gia around 4pm and found the hostel. It started raining heavily almost immediately so I was lucky to get there without getting soaked. Later when it was dry I went for a walk around the village. The extra is of one of the kids. It’s not a great shot, and she’s doing the weird finger-pointing thing so many of the kids here do, but I just loved her choice of footwear!