Hà Giang to Yen Minh

Near Vietnam's northern border with China is the Đồng Văn province. It is a very beautiful, hilly region and has many UNESCO world heritage sites.

Many international tourists land in Hanoi, rent a moped and ride a 1,100 km loop that includes Ha Giang. You can also take a luxury bus that takes 15 people in about 6 hours to Ha Giang and start riding from there. The bus costs only $20. It is super clean because as soon as you step on it, you are given a plastic bag to put your shoes in and asked to walk barefoot in the bus. The seats are plush thick leather, each person has a USB charging port, AC Vent and curtain to see or hide the beautiful countryside views.

The bus goes through very green areas, with paddy farms, villages, forests and mountains. It makes a few restroom and food stops enroute.

The Vietnamese currency value is about 23,975 dongs for one US dollar. The denominations of the currency are in thousands and usually people just ignore the thousands part or say K for it. Each denomination of the bank note has President Ho Chi Minh's picture on it.

As the bus traveled north, there was a huge rainstorm and it delayed the bus by a couple of hours. Finally, it reached Ha Giang late at night and dropped me off at the homestay.

Early the next morning, I could rent a motorcycle from the same homestay. The automatic version costs 250,000 dongs per day and the one with gears costs 180,000. For a cost of 300,000 dongs, one could be insured against loss or damage to the motorcycle. For four days with insurance included, I ended up paying $46 for the non-automatic version which is more fun to ride.

I looked at the map of the area and decided to go a 120km distance for the first day to stop at Yen Minh.

Before riding off, I ordered a Vietnamese coffee, which comes in a utensil that brews the coffee while you wait. The coffee is quite strong and usually is served black or white. The white version has sweet condensed milk in it.

Soon I started on my way and it was a beautiful day, the road was clear, many different shaped mountains started appearing. The non-automatic motorcycle was automatic in some ways. Usually, all the motorcycles I have ridden have a clutch that is to be squeezed before changing the gear. This one had no clutch. You merely pushed on the foot pedal to change gears and pushed the rear part of it to down-shift. Moreover, you could stop anywhere without worrying about what gear you were in. That made driving it very easy.

Soon I came across a dragon fruit stall where the big size fruit was sold for 20,000 dong, about $0.80. The seller cut the fruit in four pieces, keeping the skin attached, and when I asked for a spoon, she showed me how to peel each section and eat the fruit without needing any plastic spoon and avoiding plastic pollution.

The road was curvy most of the time and had green mountain vistas all around.

From the hill tops you could see the road up ahead far ahead in the distance.

Soon I am to a spot with lots of parked motorcycle and realized that many groups of foreign tourists are doing a ride in a group and were parked ahead as there must be a viewpoint ahead.

Sure enough, the gateway to heaven area is right ahead with sweeping views of the mountains, paddy farm terraces and dense forests ahead.

A placard describes this Dong Van Karst Plateau as the UNESCO Global GeoPark recognized in 2010, which encompasses Quan Ba, Yn Minh, Dong Van and Meo Vac regions. The average altitude of the region is over 3,300feet above sea level and has steep cliffs, rugged stone forests and deserts and breathtaking landscapes showcasing earthes half a billion years of history.

This region is home to 17 ethnic groups of Vietnam including Mong, Dao, Tay, Nung, Giay, La Chi, Lo Lo and Pu Peo. This region has endemic plants and animals belonging to the tropical karst area.

There is a cozy café frequented by tourists that serves freshly squeezed sugarcane juice.

Behind the cafe, you can see the local roads leading to the farms and homes of the natives.

The cafe has a delicious coconut coffee with real coconut cream and sweet fried coconut pieces.

There is another vista point you can climb up to see a more dramatic view.

As you continue driving, you see small conical mountains not that different from those seen in the chocolate hills regions of Bohol near Cebu in the Philippines.

Another half an hour and you can see Yen Minh in the distance with beautiful and colorful houses amidst myraid of hills.

You pass over a bridge crossing a river enroute to the upcoming pine forest.

The pine forest is several miles across and has a rest/picnic area that looked very serene.

Along the way, the views continued to be breathtaking with multi-levels of farms, roads snaking through the landscape and the green hills.

The hills had so many shapes that it was hard not to stop and take pictures every few minutes.

Finally, around 4pm, I was at Yen Minh and it was time to rest for the day after the massive sensory overload from extreme natural beauty.