Ha Giang loop pt. 1

The meat and potatoes. I found this tour at localvietnam.com. It cost me 3.8 million dongs or USD 165. The staff was helpful and friendly in getting everything booked. The trip included travel to and from Hanoi to Ha Giang, all meals from breakfast on day one until lunch on day 3, fuel, motorbike rental, and sleeping accommodations. The booking agency considered the night bus to Ha Giang as day zero on the itinerary.

The whole trip for me started at 8 pm on Tuesday. I waited in the lobby of my hotel until a man showed up holding his phone and pointing toward my name. We walk outside toward a large group of people he waves to and says follow me. Everyone in the group seemed to be young backpackers. We walk about 7 minutes to what is referred to as Hanoi bus street by travelers or Hàng Mành street on Google Maps. Once we arrived, the organization seemed to fall apart. The trip organizers had a sleeper bus parked on the street, and the man that walked us there found one other guy in the group and me. He says, “VIP,” then hands us a blue lanyard and tells us to wait inside a small shop by the road. We head inside, and the other guy gets in line for the bathroom; once he is next in line to use the bathroom. The man comes in and points to us while saying, “You, and you, come with me.” The guy in line asks if there is a toilet on the bus, to which the guide says yes and waves for us to follow him. This man gets out of line, and we follow him outside to the bus parked out front. Once we get alongside the bus, we hand our bags to a man loading the storage compartment, and this guy motions for me to put the lanyard on my neck. I figure sure why not. If I have to wear the lanyard for the bus ride, I guess I will. I walk about ten steps from the storage compartment of the bus to the door, and the guy at the door has a handful of lanyards and points to mine, then points to his hand, so I have to take the lanyard off and hand it to the guy at the door. As we step onto the bus, the man at the door picks up a plastic bag and tells us to take our shoes off and put them in the bag. By now, I have learned this is common practice in Vietnam and have come to expect it.

As the other guy gets on the bus, he again asks if there is a toilet on the bus, and the driver says yes and points down the aisle of the bus. I climbed into my bed, and he headed toward the back of the bus. As he passes by and returns to the front, he tells me, “There is no toilet on the bus.” So he has to try to explain to the two guys that he has to use the toilet while they try to tell him to stay on the bus. They finally let him off the bus. Once he makes it back, we set off. On a sleeper bus, you would think that they want to make it as easy as possible to sleep. That does not seem to be the case. Multiple factors were preventing you from being able to rest. Some of these were out of control and happened because we were on a bus, like turning and bumps. Others were manageable, but I felt like there was a lack of organization which made things worse.

The driver or co-pilot kept turning the lights on and off while the co-pilot walked up and down the aisle counting passengers. Then after he got a count, he would call a lady on the phone who would yell at him loud enough that I could hear her through the phone while lying in the bunk. After receiving his verbal lashings, Mr. Head Counter would start counting again before calling her back. This process went on for at least 45 minutes, through which time we would stop on the side of the road before leaving the city, where I think another Van would pull up to let more people on. Occasionally during these counts and stops, the co-pilot seemed to time it perfectly so that if you fell asleep, he would wake you up to ask your name. It seemed that about the time the interruptions stopped was when we reached our first stop around 10 pm. We got off the bus and headed inside to use the bathroom. I have to say this bathroom felt exceptional since as soon as you walk in, you notice that the floor is sinking in like a sinkhole developed, and it was just left to follow its course.

Thankfully after that first stop, the counting seemed to stop with it, but this is where we started to go through the mountains, and if you have ever seen how bus drivers in Asia drive through the mountains, it feels like some Tokyo drift-style driving. It feels like the brakes have given out, and we are just along for the ride. Every turn is multiple honks to warn oncoming traffic that a large bus is coming around the corner. The honking feels more like a way to communicate to others that if you haven’t cleared the road, you will die because this bus is not stopping with the incline and speed we are moving at. Thankfully like every other bus I have taken up until now, there were no accidents. Sleep again felt unachievable. I lay in the bed half asleep, my body trying to take that next step into actual sleep, but as I got closer, I would hear about 3-5 horn honks followed by a sharp turn of the wheel rolling me into another position in the bed. Thankfully after one more stop and 5 hours of this, I made it to Ha Giang at 3 am. Now in the city, the bus began making stops to deliver the people to their designated group for their trip through Ha Giang. When we got to my stop, I was the only one to get off the bus where. I had to wait on a dark street for a few minutes until a guy approached me and held up a piece of paper with my name on it. There was no one else around, and he spoke zero English. So I followed him to the hotel, where he gave me a room key and pointed to a sign that said breakfast was at 7 am. I made my way to my room. I took a shower and fell asleep around 4 am. After my 3 hours of sleep, I definitely felt well-rested and ready to jump on a motorcycle for hours.

Once I got up and headed downstairs for breakfast, the hostess warmly greeted me and asked how I slept. Since there was no reason to complain, I just said good and asked the server if I could have coffee with milk. Once the server brought me coffee, she asked if I would like breakfast. I said sure and asked if there was a choice. She gleefully said yes and said scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or omelet. I inquired about what was in the omelet, and she said, “Ohhh, just egg.” It gave me a chuckle to realize that my options were eggs in different forms, and I chose scrambled. After breakfast, I headed to the road, where I briefly demonstrated my ability to ride a motorbike. I have to say that the short demonstration I gave was nowhere near adequate for the skill level you should have for this ride. The tour guides were happy with me, showing I could go to the street corner and back. Once everyone finished breakfast, we brought our belongings downstairs and packed three days' worth of clothes into our backpacks, and left our large bag in the back room. Now that we were all set to go, we all jumped on the bikes we would ride around the Ha Giang loop. We fired them up and set off. Part 2 is coming soon.