The sleep in the dormitory was quite comfortable as we choose the room with air conditioner, probably the only down side of it was those scary flying cockroaches that keep on flew over the area out of sudden to scare the hell out of us! After a while, we truly were too tired and just ignore them and have a very deep sleep throughout the night. End up, we were late to wake up for our plan to visit Du Gia waterfall to experience the freezing morning swim. Anyhow, we still thought it will be good to went over for a quick visit. The distance over to the waterfall from our dormitory wasn't too far away, but the route might be very tricky, do ensure you get the correct direction from local, or just referring to MAPS.me like what I did, never disappoint me!
We parked our bike on a spot with few motorbikes and walk for around 5 minutes to reach the main area of the waterfall. The area wasn't too big but it very clean and with absolute cooling water that perfect for swim. There was also a jump spot from the top of the waterfall, probably with height of 10 Meters or more, which looked terrifying even looked from the foot of the fall. We met few westerners guys that wasn't hesitate at all to make that adventurous brave jump, except one of their friend who try his very best to make the leap, but step away at the very last second for few times. We keep on giving him encouragement for him to make that leap, and finally he manage to make a successful jump out of sudden and everyone was just screaming out loud happily! I guess a return to Du Gia in near future just for that leap will be cool enough!
The Du Gia waterfall.
Scary jump spot even higher than the fall it self!
It definitely more than 10 meters all the way to the water surface.
If it was me, I guess I will hesitate like he did as well....
Glad that he overcome his fear with courage and successfully complete this leap! Well done pal!
We back to dormitory to pack our stuff, and have a quick breakfast from a local restaurant just opposite, before continue our journey to Hoang Su Phi as plan, which required to went pass Ha Giang city. It will be a very long ride today hence the plan was to depart early from Du Gia, and expected to reach Ha Giang by afternoon for lunch as it was only 70 KM away, but we never thought one thing, the road condition. The DT176 & QL34 route all the way from Du Giang to Ha Giang was in super terrible shape, with endless holes and rocks all the way. The ride was also full of dust, and not to forget to super hot sun on that afternoon, we can only barely move with speed of less than 20 KM/H along the way. It truly takes lots of courage and stamina to went through this terrible path, if we were to knew it earlier, we would take the route through Yen Minh to get back to Ha Giang. Lesson learned, always get opinion from local advice.
We were few hours late than our expected time to reach Ha Giang, after a quick lunch, we spend some relaxing time to enjoy some milk tea drinks and ice cream to charge up before continue the long journey to Hoang Su Phing.
After another 100 KM of up hill ride all the way from Ha Giang to Vinh Quang, we were glad we able to reach our destination before the sky turn to dark totally. After getting a good hot shower and have a simple but nice dinner on nearby shop, I continue to finalizing downhill route through the ethnic village and heritage paddy terrace with reference from a printed map from hotel lobby and immediately call it a day. It was truly a very tiring day for us, with almost whole day on the bike under super hot sun.
The journey from Du Gia all the way was around 170 KM.
Noodle soup before the unexpected long drive under hot sun.
Another yellowish paddy terrace on the way.
Peaceful village by a river.
Q ordering dessert before continue long ride to Hoang Su Phi, anything cool is fine for me.
Our milk tea and coconut ice cream for refreshment, not bad at all after exposing to sun for a very long time!
Simple dinner at Vinh Quang before call it a day after a hectic long ride.
We wake up on time after a very early rest the night earlier, and the plan was to check out from hotel directly, and slowly descend down hill by going through series of ethnic villages and heritage site, then back to Ha Giang before our night bus back to Hanoi. We follow our plan to ride through small route into Ban Luoc village, and the road condition was way better than what we were expecting, it was truly dilemma from the experience a day ago! We take a sub route to Suoi Thao village to visit the heritage paddy terrace in Suoi Thao village, but due to rain during midnight, the clay road was super slippery and there was few times we almost fell down from our bike whenever I try to press on brakes. To prevent from falling, I even push the bike over on some of seriously dangerous path slowly, with safety first all the time! We manage to reach an absolute superb view points on these spectacular paddy terrace and decided to take the same route back as it seem the route was getting worsen as we went deeper into the village. Challenging but definitely worth it!
The best reward throughout our journey over Hoang Su Phi!
Emm.... I can't understand a word here....
Truly astonishing scenery around the area.
Dream home with a river on your doorstep.
If our plan wasn't that rush, we probably can ride through small road down there to explore these beauties close by.
Various colors of paddy across different terrace, absolutely artistic piece of works.
Endless layer of cakes like terrace.
The clay road to the left that getting worsen really was a big factor we decide to retreat.
Hopefully I have another chance to re-visit for a deeper explore around the area.
On the way back to Ban Luoc village, we accidentally drop our printed map and we have to continue our journey based on our memory as even MAPS.me does not have much details at this area. We supposed to travel through Nam Hong ethnic village but we seem to be lost and the path lead us back to Nam Dich on the main road, well not a bad situation as we were both hunger for some food as we yet to take our breakfast. We turned back into the sub route again to explore but totally lost direction to Nam Hong village, hence we decided to follow our own instinct and just remember we need to back in Ha Giang before night time. We probably miss the ethnic village, but we manage to find few unexpected waterfalls along the way before connecting back to main route and have a quick lunch at Tan Quang, a small town at the foot of Hoang Su Phi before the ride back to Ha Giang.
The distance covered today was around 130 KMs.
Unintentionally back to Nam Dich village, let's have a quick meal before proceed with the exploration.
A small waterfall explored by the road side.
From the road side, it was kinda hidden.
Another waterfall, which was much higher than the one earlier!
Scenery along the road back to Ha Giang from Hoang Su Phi.
After few days of local delicacies, we decided to go for Korean style dinner which was unexpectedly good, before proceed to return the bike back at Johnny's shop. We thanks Johnny for his great service and excellent condition bike and proceed to board the night bus to get our-self back to Hanoi.
It was truly a great experience exploring Ha Giang through bike and it might be great to explore it once again during different season! If there was a chance to re-schedule our plan, I would decide to drop Hoang Su Phi from the loop and probably spend another comfy day at Du Gia and explore its surrounding. Hoang Su Phi was nice but the plan was to short to truly explore the area, it probably better to plan our separate journey for few days just to explore Hoang Su Phi in my opinion. But nevertheless, great overall adventure!
Great Korean style dinner to celebrate the success of our adventure safely!
Waiting for our bus at Johnny's shop.
Very comfy flat seat on the bus that you can sleep on the road.
The only down part of it, was the length....
