Bac Ha and Motorbiking the North of Vietnam – February 25th – March 2nd, 2017

Fear of fatal injury without insurance, we opted for riding pillion on two motorbikes through the far northern region of Vietnam. In addition to maintaining our travelers insurance by riding legally, the major advantage to this approach was an English speaking guide and a one-way route rather than round-trip (eliminating a full-day of bus travel, WIN!). We started the tour in Bac Ha, home of the infamous Sunday market. Arriving on Saturday evening, we found ourselves at a dirty and dank hotel which was ran by an enthusiastic 12-year old. Once in the decrepit room, we pushed the single beds together for warmth (it was about 40 degrees with 100% humidity inside and out) and quickly discovered the used condom and clean-up tissues which had been “thrown away” under the bed. At least they were using protection…?

Early and eager to put the hotel stay in the past, we set out to tour the Bac Ha Sunday Market. It was massive and riddled with different ethnic minorities, each dressed in traditional colorful clothing (side note: there are 54 different ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, all with different languages and traditions!). At the market, we grabbed some fried sticky rice pancakes, fresh pineapple, and Vietnamese coffee (for Andy) and spent a couple of hours in the cold drizzle wandering through the market. In addition to the typical fruit, vegetable, meat, and home goods, the market also included hardware, traditional hand-made clothing, handicrafts, and a livestock section with live (for now) animals. In the livestock market, buffalo, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and puppies were being sold. Although some were being sold as pets (the puppies), most were doomed to die, for it is cheaper to buy a live animal and butcher it yourself than buy the meat. We recognize that this is part of life, but watching the pigs being stretched for the buyer’s examination and hearing them squeal with terror was gut-wrenching. Live animals were being jammed into tiny wicker cages, held upside down, dragged through the mud, and transported on the back of motorbikes. It was tough to see (and hear), but the reality that this is likely humane compared to what we don’t see was even harder to swallow.

Bac Ha Sunday Market. Sugar cane, red peppers, and tobacco were among the hoards of stuff for sale.

Livestock market.

Decked out in plastic (included bags on our feet) and wearing all of the clothes we own (I was wearing 3 layers of pants, 1 t-shirt, 2 long sleeves, and 3-jackets), we met our guide / driver (named Ky and Cuong), loaded-up the bikes, and took off through the freezing rain. Apparently, the scenery leaving Bac Ha was beautiful, but similar to Sapa, we wouldn’t know because we couldn’t see anything except fog. Along the way, we stopped at two local Flower Hmong markets, where we were able to ask Ky all of our pressing market questions: “What is that?”, “Are the puppies for sale to eat?”, “What is that?”, etc. At the second market, we stopped for Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and I had the fun-experience of using the bathroom, which turned out to be an abandoned building with the floor literally covered in shit. Since it was impossible to actually enter the bathroom, most (including me) ventured behind the building, stepped carefully to avoid human landmines, and squatted instead (not to brag, but after Nepal my outdoor bathroom technique is pretty much flawless). In the afternoon, we stopped at a waterfall before arriving at our homestay in a Tay village. The family was absolutely incredible! They invited a few neighbors over, butchered a rooster in our honor (we know he was a man chicken because they ate the testicles), and prepared a feast for dinner. We ate, drank, and laughed for hours! The host must have refilled our small rice wine shot glass 20 times! Each time, everybody raised their glass and said, “Cin nau” for cheers. After a while, I was unable to drink the entire shot, so they started saying, “Cin met” instead, which means 100% (aka drink it all wimp). The good thing about being liquored up is that the shyness evaporated and we spent the evening learning (and subsequently forgetting) Tay and Vietnamese words and phrases. I also discovered that the home owner was learning French so we were able to communicate some without having to use Ky as our translator.

Day 1 photos showing the foggy scenery, local market, a mud house with a satellite dish (and likely high speed internet). 

More day 1 photos.

As promised, we woke up headache free (Mr. Thuy makes quality rice wine), bundled up in the same clothes as we wore the previous day (minus the plastic because a small miracle had occurred and it was only cloudy and not raining), and set off. During day 2, we stopped for pressed cane juice, walked around a park with astrological statues, and convinced Ky to do some breakdancing for us. He was very good, we were not. The views were slightly better without the rain, but they were still hindered by low clouds. It did clear enough for us to see two green hills called the “fairy breasts” because they look like two perfectly shaped boobs. After a very long day of riding (thanks to a landslide that caused a 2-hour detour), we stopped for the night at a homestay in a Dao village. Here, the family also prepared a feast, but we declined the onslaught of rice wine this time around.

Day 2 photos showing the Tay homestay, hanging with our zodiac statues (I'm a tiger and Andy's a dragon), and playing on the exercise equipment in a park. 

More day 2 photos showing Ky breakdancing (our "stall" didn't last long enough to get a photo), scenery, Ky helping a guy driving a motorbike loaded down with piglets, propaganda, and the boob hills (bottom-right).

Before heading out in the morning, we took a walk through the village. We didn’t make it far before we realized that we had a shadow: the family’s adorable two-year old granddaughter had followed us and joined for the walk! Afraid of being accused of child abduction, we reluctantly returned for another frigid uncomfortable day on the motorbikes. Over the next eight-hours we meandered through Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark, stopping at viewpoints along the way. Once again, we had to use our imagination to picture the stunning volcanic scenery. Ky was nice (or not nice) enough to show us a photo of what the view looked like on a clear day. Oh well, the 100 feet of visibility we did see was pretty incredible. When we arrived in the small town of Dong Van, we were blessed with warmth for the first time in almost a week! - a heating pad in the hotel room and hot coals warming the space in the restaurant we went to for dinner. 

Day 3 photos. The top row shows us with the Dao family that owned the homestay. The fire on the side of the mountain is not a wildfire, but the farmers burning their fields. This happens every winter/spring on every farm throughout SE Asia, so smoke is constantly in the air.  

More photos from day 3. Visibility was shit, but we did meet a local who had done far too many drugs and a bug-eyed cow. The picture with the phone is supposed to show what the view looks like without the clouds.  

More day 3 photos. We visited a historic White Hmong king's palace from the 1800's and played some pool in seemingly the only heated space in North Vietnam. The middle-right photo shows a "display" in the palace - the artifacts were literally just dumped into a display case. 

On day four of the motorbike trip, the clouds parted and the sun proved to us that it hadn’t burnt out! It turned out to be a stupid long day on the motorbikes, but the scenery was spectacular. Since we missed out on so many of the views the first three days, Ky decided to take a different, more scenic route. Our eyes appreciated the gesture, but our rumps (and nerves) could not get off the unpaved bumpy roads soon enough. We stopped for breaks in some minority farming villages where we conversed with the friendly locals. In each village, an older woman would eventually come out and compare their height to ours: the tallest barely came up to my chest height! By the time we made it to our stopping place for the night, we had rode for two hours in the dark. It was a very long day, but well well worth it.

Scenery on day 4.

More day 4 photos. The botttom-right photo shows Ky singing karaoke - a favorite pastime of the Vietnamese.

More photos of the incredible scenery on day 4. The bottom-right photo shows Chung and me exhausted from driving/riding.

Before departing in the morning of our last day of the trip, we walked through the large weekly market in Bao Lac. Although not as expansive as the market in Bac Ha, we were the only white people there and received a lot of attention. We made an effort to avoid the livestock market this time around though. A half day of driving landed us at the beautiful Ba Be National Park where we said goodbye to Ky and Cuong. Stay tuned for our exploits in Ba Be in the next blog post.

Day 5 photos including the Bao Lac market, red leaved trees, and very friendly rice farmers.

More photos from day 5 showing the beautiful farming scenery, ingenious irrigation equipment, and the "after" picture. 

To give context, the Ha Giang province
is highlighted. It looks so small,
but ~500 km on the back of a
motorbike felt like a long haul.

Map of our route through Northern Vietnam. Blue dots are where we slept for the night and green dots show lunch stops. 

Considering that the weather was shit for the first three-days, we had an incredible time and were glad that we went through with the trip. Although we had pretty much nothing in common with Ky (he was 22 and into video games, online gaming, and breakdancing), he was friendly and tried his best to answer our endless stream of questions. Cuong on the other hand, was a complete troll (albeit a friendly troll most of the time). A slob, easy to anger, and childish, Andy and I reluctantly traded off riding with him. Not only was he about double the size as Ky, making the ride inherently more uncomfortable, he drove in an unpredictable, terrifying way. He would be going along fine, and then the troll in him would surface out of nowhere and he would floor the motorbike, passing and taking turns way too fast! Although we were glad that we were not driving (road conditions were well beyond our ability), we could have done without Cuong. We also could have done without wearing the same clothes for five-days (and nights) straight. Since it was so cold, wearing all the clothes we owned was the only option. Making matters worse, these clothes were already dirty from freezing for two-days in Sa Pa before starting the trip.   

Now having been in Vietnam a week, a few differences really stood out compared to the other countries in SE Asia. For one, there is high speed internet literally everywhere! Whether it be in the middle of nowhere, at the home of an ethnic minority group, at a small local restaurant, or in a big city, the internet is consistently good, always available, and free! Another thing that is ever-present in Vietnam is government propaganda. You cannot drive a mile without seeing a red and white government sign with propaganda. Many of the signs that Ky translated for us seemed to be about how contributing to society makes you happy. Regardless of (or perhaps because of) the propaganda, the majority of people seem to be pretty satisfied with the Vietnamese government (wish we could say the same). There is definitely no shortage of Vietnamese flags and patriotism. Lastly, as we initially feared, being a vegetarian in Vietnam proved to be quite the challenge. We literally ate the same local food for five-days straight: fried tofu with tomatoes, oily fried morning glory, and all the rice you can eat.  

A fine example of chinglish from my knock-off Arc'teryx socks. After a five-day trial period I can without a doubt confirm that the socks "have good arranging the sweat, do characteristic rapidly" and are "dry and comfortable and comfortable."