Andre and Wendy: Ha Giang Loop Day 1

We aren't meeting in the lobby until 8am this morning , a late start for us!

Breakfast this morning is served to us, choice of eggs, bread, cucumbers, and tomatoes along with a plate of fruit. Andre I think misses the lunch for breakfast option, maybe tomorrow.

Mr. Hung has arranged this part of our trip for us. Many people do it by motorcycle, I knew I would not do well on the back of a bike for 2 or 3 days so we have a driver and guide. We realize quite early that there has been a little breakdown in communication somewhere. We meet Mr Hung at breakfast and he says his cousin will be our guide for the next 4 days, his name is Mr. Phuc. Yep, I asked Mr Hung to write it down for me, I wanted to make sure I understood correctly, we are off to a wonderful start, I refuse to make eye contact with Andre.

Mr Phuc thought he came for easy rider so was dressed to be a safe rider on a motorcycle, not to be walking around in the heat. Our driver thought it was a day trip so hadn't brought any change of clothes. We are driven to the coffee shop at the top of the mountain outside town for the views while our driver runs home to pack for a 4 day trip.

All sorted and we are off. It is quite misty/foggy/hazy so we don't see all the mountains but still spectacular views. There is not much rice in the terraces at the moment, mostly corn. This area must be fantastic when these terraces are full of rice, the terraces are much bigger and dramatic than what we saw in Pu Luong.

Today we gave stops at Heavens Gate, Quan Ba Pass, Yen Ming, a visit at Vuong palace, plus a couple of roadside stops for pictures and spend the night in Dong Van.

Mr Phuc tells us we are stopping for lunch at his bosses, we have no choice. I ask if it is his cousins. He had no idea what I was talking about, turns out Mr Hung is not his cousin, made even more clear when I asked if it was his mother's or father's side that they were related.

Lunch done, Andre and I go for a little walk, Andre is on the lookout for a Kem sign, the word he knows best in Vietnamese, ice cream. Yep, he found some.

Lots of picture stops along the way until our final destination of Dong Van for the night. We were supposed to stay in a homestay tonight but the phone rang during our drive and Mr Phuc said the homestay is really busy and there would be lots of happy water so they want us to stay in a hotel, fine with us.

We arrive in Dong Van, Andre and I go exploring a little. The market is right behind our hotel but pretty much closing up now, it is 5pm. We follow the signs for old town, find somewhere for a drink and sit and watch the locals come out now that it is cooler and the sun is setting. Many women playing volleyball, kids jumping rope, little ones just running around, it was just fun to sit and watch.

Meet up with Mr Phuc and our driver for dinner, he takes us to a place that is pretty much full of young people doing motorcycle tours. He orders dinner for us all to share, rice, chicken, spring rolls, tofu and chick peas. He showed us in a field below us chickpeas growing, we have never seen chickpeas growing, and we still haven't, they are green beans he has been calling chickpeas. We wondered why we had never seen chickpeas in anything Vietnamese we had ordered for food.

There is another couple we saw at breakfast this morning, again at lunch, and supper tonight. They are closer to our age and we also shared the elevator with them tonight, they are also on a 4 day trip. They were also switched to this hotel from the homestay. Tomorrow night we are supposed to be in a nice homestay and our guide says we will all eat together if that is OK. We did find out they are doing a boat tour tomorrow, we are doing some trekking. We are going to visit a traditional home that our guide promises it is not set up for tourists, it is real life, we shall see.

On our tour today we see many many women and children dressed in traditional clothing, more than we have seen anywhere since we got here. We were also driving when primary kids were let out of school, amazing to see how far they walk, and not an adult in sight, some of them were very young.

Supper done, Andre and I go for a walk, they sure like neon lights in this city.

Tomorrow we were told will be our most beautiful day of the 4, really looking forward to it.

Todays Pictures:

Ha Giang from the lookout