Since making my decision to leave Vietnam I have decided it is also time to cross a few things off my Vietnam bucket list. On top of that list was to visit the northern province of Ha Giang, where the stunning landscapes and ethnic traditions are unrivaled by any other place in the country. There are 22 ethnic minority groups in Ha Giang, mainly the H’Mông, Tày, Dao, Nùng, and Lô Lô and I had been wanting to visit this area for several years now, but had just never got around to it. Luckily for me a friend had arranged a quick weekend up there and invited me to tag along, so last weekend off we went to explore the mountains.
After skipping out of work a couple of hours early we flew from Saigon to Hanoi and headed straight to My Dinh bus station. We had pre-arranged tickets on an overnight bus to the provincial capital (also called Ha Giang) and leaving Hanoi we travelled the 320 kilometres north on the sleeper bus. There is no luxury here and it’s not exactly comfortable since they cram in as many people as possible – so much so that people were sleeping in the aisles. Despite this I managed to get a couple of hours sleep (my friends were not so lucky).
Arriving in Ha Giang before 4am we hung out until our driver Tuyen dragged himself out of bed and met us at the station, and then we started our little road trip. As the sun came up the landscapes came into focus and we started to pass through little villages. We arrived just in time for some early morning markets.
Once the early morning mist lifted we were rewarded with stunning views. We stopped in Đồng Văn for lunch, which is only 3 kilometres from the Chinese border, before continuing on along one of the most amazing roads I have been on.
It was eventually time to leave Mèo Vạc as we had to head back to Ha Giang in order to catch our overnight bus back to Hanoi. The drive back was spectacular and one of the advantages of having our own car is that we were able to take every opportunity to stop along the way.
Most tourists to Vietnam think of Sapa when thinking about the Vietnamese highlands and to be honest, that is fine with me, let them go there. Ha Giang is relatively untouched and the traditions of the ethnic minorities remain largely intact and it would be a shame to turn it into another Sapa, which has been over-run (and ruined?) by the tourism industry. Travel to Ha Giang is not exactly easy – there is very little English spoken, limited transport infrastructure/options and only a few hotels are allowed to take foreigners. Even the overnight buses to and from Hanoi needed to be booked in advance and if you can’t speak Vietnamese this could be very difficult. But what these difficulties mean is that maybe, just maybe, Ha Giang will remain off the main tourist path for a little while yet.
Source: travellingamandablog.wordpress.com
