Across the Mountain Passes of Ha Giang (Vietnam)

Eleven nights and around 876 miles from Hanoi on a Royal Enfield Himalayan, around the Ha Giang loop and the karst country on the Chinese border. It is the operator’s most reviewed trip anywhere.

Hanoi opens it in the Old Quarter by Hoan Kiem lake, then Vu Linh on Thac Ba lake among tea plantations with a homestay, and Hoang Su Phi for its gemstone market and the rice terraces cut into the hillsides above.

Quan Ba follows on the road to Heaven’s Gate at 1,500 metres, entering the Dong Van karst plateau geopark, with a night in a Dao village. Dong Van comes next, UNESCO listed, with a H’Mong hemp cooperative, and a full day covers the loop proper: the H’Mong royal palace from the early twentieth century, the Happiness Road carved out largely by hand in the 1960s, the Ma Pi Leng pass, and the Tu San gorge on the Nho Que river below, which is the deepest in Southeast Asia.

Bao Lake follows by way of the Sunday markets at Dong Van and Meo Vac, then Ban Gioc for the Pac Bo cave, where Ho Chi Minh sheltered on returning to Vietnam in 1941, and the terraced Ban Gioc waterfalls that straddle the Chinese border. Cao Bang comes next through the blacksmith village at Phuc Sen, then Ba Be with a boat trip on the lake, before the long ride back to Hanoi. Bike rental is included and the price is quoted per person. Very few roads in Asia photograph like Ma Pi Leng.