Vietnam’s mountainous north is one of the country’s most awe-inspiring destinations for local and international travelers, and the best way to see it is on two wheels. Due Hanh reports.

Tam Son town – Photo by Jorge Macedo

My friends and I board a night bus at My Dinh Bus Station in Hanoi with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. It’s a long haul from here to get to Ha Giang in the northeast of the country – about 320km – but we know that sometime tomorrow driving through some of Vietnam’s most spectacular scenery.

From Ha Giang city, we plan to rent motorcycle and explore. The benefit of renting your own transport is obvious. You can go at your own pace, stop wherever you like, and everything seems a little more intimate – no guide or no middleman; just you, the locals and the precipitous slopes of Ha Giang.

You can find accommodation in Ha Giang city easily. When we arrive the next day we amble around and find a decent mini-hotel with simple but clean rooms. The city is quite modern nowadays and you can find plenty of restaurants serving mountain and forest specialties. On the advice of a friend, our group heads for a small eatery called Hoa Tue – Com Binh Dan (common meals) on Tran Hung Dao street, where we can order up lots of delicious local dishes and vegetable soup served with plain white rice.

The next morning we wake up early, check out and find a motorbike rental shop, where you can find plenty of mopeds. We choose the simplest, cheapest models and head off to the petrol station to fill up.

The roads out of the city are immediately steep and zigzagging. We rise up into pine tree forests and yellow terraced fields that surround the city, driving 46km directly north toward Quan Ba district. Here you enter a magical realm of rocky limestone mountain ranges and thick misty air. We stop our engines and stand around speech-less. Clouds drift through the valley to reveal the most astonishing mountains, a sight that never fails to leave me overawed.

Quan Ba Twin Mountains (Co Tien), photo by Xuan Tran (ActiveTravel Asia)

The area is home to a double-peaked mountain called “Co Tien”, which means “Fairy” in Vietnamese. My mischievous friend cracks a joke that German’s Triumph bra should use this Image to advertise their charming products. At an elevation of 1,000m above sea level, Quan Ba district’s topography is surrounded by rivers, sheer faced mountains, and deep abysses. Here and there a dispersed population dwells. The climate has two distinct seasons: rainy and dry.

Tam Son town, in the centre of Quan Ba district, is often referred to as “Dalat of Ha Giang” as the climate is temperate and suitable for intensive farming of vegetables and flowers. There is also a mix of tribal groups peppered around the town with Hmong, Dzao, Tay, Pu Y, Lo Lo, and other ethnic groups abiding in the environs.

The town is famous for Thanh Van corn liquor, which is made with cardamom, herbal leaves and roots – as you might guess, its alcohol content is high!

Passing the “gate”, we drive down into Tam Son valley. The town is small but tidy with three to four storey buildings. There is a hotel and several guest houses around town with reasonably priced rooms. After lunch, we overhear some locals talk about the early Sunday market, so we decide we will check it out the next morning.

We also take a short trek to some of the surrounding villages, which feature beautiful but simple wooden and earthen wall houses. These communities don’t seem poor. There are cows, pig and poultry all around, and rice, corn and beans aplenty. It’s certainly a far cry from the commercial vibe you will encounter in Sapa, but some of the locals are busy making brocades and other embroidered works, which you can purchase.

The next day, the Tam Son market starts at five in the morning. We do our best to get up as early as we can. A layer, or two, of warm clothes are needed at this time of year, but soon we are in amongst the hubbub of the market. It’s not quite as colorful as other markets mainly because the H’Mong tribes here prefer less elaborate outfits than what you would see at Bac Ha or Can Cau market. The busiest corner is where you will find stalls selling corn alcohol. Groups of men and women stand around 20 liter plastic cans of liquor in what might be described as a Ha Giang-style “wine tasting”. There is much discussion over which one is best and many red faces amongst both buyers and sellers.

Women sit behind large piles of cloth, clothes, brocades and embroidery. Young women debate what to buy for their next occasion. Elsewhere, you can find farming tools, herbs and livestock. It’s not all traditional. You can also find western style jean and shoes at reasonable prices. I’m told the rule is no bargaining but everything appears cheap compared to Hanoi prices.

Not that we’re here to buy anything. We explore the market and head back to the guest house, ready to plot our next route further up into the mountains. Tam Son market in Ha Giang is less colorful than other well-known markets in northern Vietnam but still highly enjoyable.

Source: Timeout – Vietnam’s leading lifestyle magazine

TO GET QUAN BA:

Tam Son town in Quan Ba district is 46km from Ha Giang, 320km north of Hanoi.

 ADVENTURES TO HA GIANG on two wheels:

• Motorcycling North Vietnam from Mai Chau to Lang Son: http://activetravel.asia/motorcycling-adventure-in-northern-vietnam-t245.html
• West to East Vietnam Biking Exploration: http://activetravel.asia/west-to-east-biking-exploration-t286.html