Journey 01 · Vietnam
Four Days in Third Gear
The Ha Giang loop on a rented 150
Published 30 May 2025 · Travelled 14–18 Apr 2025
- 9 moments
- 5 days
- 227 km
- Spring
- Vietnam
- 23.1180° N, 105.0350° E
- Thẩm Mã pass
- 09:10
- 24°C, haze burning off
The man who rented me the bike watched me ride one lap of the yard, said something kind to the bike, and let me go. An hour later the road stood up on its hind legs at Thẩm Mã and I understood why every rider I passed was grinning inside their helmet. Third gear, lean, repeat.
the fuel gauge is decorative — you go by kilometres and faith
- 23.0630° N, 104.9860° E
- Quản Bạ
- 17:50
- 21°C, clear, gold
I stopped for petrol above Quản Bạ and stayed forty minutes for free, because the sun was doing something to the terraces that no throttle could improve. A kid on a bicycle went past downhill at roughly my average speed for the day. Nobody in this valley is impressed by a motorbike.
- 23.1160° N, 105.1440° E
- 23.1160° N, 105.1440° E
- Above Yên Minh
- 11:20
- 16°C, fog, then none
The climb past Yên Minh went into fog so thick I could read my own headlight beam like a wall. Twenty minutes of second gear and one honest prayer, then the road dropped out from under the cloud and the whole canyon was just there, waiting, as if it had been arranged. I pulled over with both brakes and my heart somewhere around the top of my jacket.
- 23.2770° N, 105.3630° E
- Đồng Văn old quarter
- 07:05
- 9°C, cold, clear
Phở, a bánh mì for the pannier, and coffee sweet enough to reset a heart. The woman running the stall in Đồng Văn's old quarter had the broth going before the street lights went off and did not look up when three bikes backfired past. I ate with my gloves still on because the morning was nine degrees.
the coffee comes with condensed milk whether you ask or not
Overheard · Hà Giang city
"Horn first, brakes second." He tapped each lever in order, twice, and then put my deposit in a drawer full of other people's deposits. It turned out to be the only rule the road actually enforces.
- 23.2320° N, 105.4110° E
- Mã Pí Lèng pass
- 11:40
- 19°C, high cloud
They call it one of the four great passes and for once the brochure is underselling it. I cut the engine at the skywalk and the silence had a river in it — the Nho Quế, a green thread six hundred metres down, making a sound like distance itself. The GoPro got thirty seconds of me saying nothing.
- Moving image
- Nho Quế river
- 14:30
- 26°C, still, warm in the gorge
Nho Quế · 14:30 · looking back up at the pass
You can ride the pass and then take a boat under it, which is like being shown the trick twice and still falling for it. The canyon walls went up until my neck gave out. Chin mount, 2.7K, and the only stabilisation problem was me turning around every four seconds.
- 23.1650° N, 105.4110° E
- Mèo Vạc market
- 08:20
- 18°C, overcast
Sunday market and the town was three deep in motorbikes better loaded than mine. I bought grilled things on sticks without successfully identifying all of them and a woman gave me change and a look that said the price had been adjusted, but gently. Best transaction of the trip.
- Du Già road
- 17:55
- 22°C, clear evening
- Last frame
Last day, the quiet road, the one the tour buses skip. Two riders ahead of me all afternoon that I never quite caught and never quite lost. When the sun finally went down behind the karst I stopped on the shoulder and let the bike tick itself cool, and that sound — hot metal, evening, nothing else — is the whole loop in one noise.
- 22.9210° N, 105.2110° E
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Five days, nine stories
- Kilometres ridden
- 584
- Petrol stops
- 7
- Times overtaken by a woman carrying a wardrobe
- 1
- Favourite moment
- Cutting the engine at the top of Mã Pí Lèng and hearing the river from six hundred metres up
- Best food
- Phở at seven in the morning in Đồng Văn old quarter, broth first, questions later
