Ha Giang ATM and Cash: What to Bring on the Loop
Ha Giang ATM and Cash: What to Bring on the Loop Finding a Ha Giang ATM is not difficult in the city. Finding one in a village at four in the afternoon when you have run out of small notes is a different situation entirely, and it is the one this guide is written to […]
Ha Giang SIM Card and Internet on the Loop
Ha Giang SIM Card and Internet on the Loop Most travelers ask about a Ha Giang SIM card for one of two reasons. Either they need to stay reachable, or they have heard the mountains are a dead zone and want to know how cut off they are about to be. The real answer sits […]
Quay Son River: Cao Bang’s Emerald Water
Quay Son River: Cao Bang’s Emerald Water The first time you see the Quay Son River, you will probably assume the photo you saw beforehand was edited. It was not. On a good morning in Trung Khanh the water is a flat jade green, the kind of colour that looks wrong next to the brown […]
Ha Giang Corn Wine and Happy Water: A Traveler’s Guide
Ha Giang Corn Wine and Happy Water: A Traveler’s Guide Somewhere on your second evening in the mountains, a small cup will appear in front of you. Nobody will announce it. The host will fill it from a plastic bottle that once held cooking oil, raise their own cup, look you in the eye, and […]
Hanoi to Ha Giang: Limousine vs Sleeper Bus, and Which to Book
Hanoi to Ha Giang: Limousine vs Sleeper Bus, and Which to Book The question is not which is more comfortable. It is what state you want to be in on your first morning. There is no airport and no railway in Ha Giang, so every visitor arrives by road from Hanoi, roughly 300 kilometres. The […]
Truc Lam Phat Tich Pagoda: The Ban Gioc View Most Visitors Miss
Truc Lam Phat Tich Pagoda: The Ban Gioc View Most Visitors Miss Everyone photographs the waterfall from the bank. Almost nobody climbs the hill behind it and looks down. Truc Lam Phat Tich Pagoda sits on a hillside above the valley at Ban Gioc, in Trung Khanh district, Cao Bang province. Most people arrive at […]
Pac Bo Historical Site: What Happened Here and How to Visit It Well
Pac Bo Historical Site: What Happened Here and How to Visit It Well Two things are true at once. It is a place of real national significance, and it is a genuinely beautiful valley with a clear stream running through it. The Pac Bo historical site sits in a quiet limestone valley in Ha Quang […]
Ha Giang Homestay Guide: What to Expect, and How to Be a Good Guest
Ha Giang Homestay Guide: What to Expect, and How to Be a Good Guest You are not checking in. You are being let into somebody’s house. A Ha Giang homestay is the part of the trip guests talk about afterwards, more often than Ma Pi Leng and more often than the markets. It is also […]
Northern Vietnam vs Ha Giang Loop: What Each One Actually Is
Northern Vietnam Loop vs Ha Giang Loop: What Each One Actually Is One of these is a route. The other is a section of it. Most articles comparing them have not noticed. The Northern Vietnam Loop and the Ha Giang Loop get compared constantly, usually as though they were two competing options you pick between. […]
Ha Giang vs Cao Bang: How the Two Provinces Actually Differ, and How to Choose
Ha Giang vs Cao Bang: How the Two Provinces Actually Differ, and How to Choose They are two hours of driving apart and they look like different countries. Ha Giang vs Cao Bang comes up constantly from travelers planning the far north, usually phrased as which one is better. That is the wrong question and […]