It was the first time I visited Ha Giang, back in September 2020. It was a perfect time to go to Hoang Su Phi, Ha Giang, which had long been considered as one of the top attractions in the north for enjoying golden rice terraces.
We began our trip with so much hope and expectation. Little did we know that it could turn out to be basically a “where-is-our-homestay” journey. It was so fun, adventurous and exhausted, and sure will be long remembered.
I have never thought it would be that hard to get to a booked homestay. To successfully book a homestay is one thing, to make it there is another.
We arrived at Ha Giang city in the early morning and rented bikes to begin our road trip. It was raining, not a very good sign. I should have known that it was a signal sent from the universe that our trip was going to be in so much trouble.
We headed up to the mountainous area and planned to arrive at the homestay, which was located in Luoc Village of Hoang Su Phi, in the early afternoon. Then we would have the rest of the day to chill out and spend the next day exploring paddy rice fields nearby.
The homestay was about 100km away from Ha Giang City. When I made my reservation with the host, he asserted that it would take 3 hours as maximum to go from Ha Giang city to his homestay (he noted that “3-hour riding is for a wimp tho, normally skilled travelers like us can make it 2 hours only”. Hmmm okay). But given that the mountain road was narrow and winding, although we’re no wimp 😅, we decided to take it slowly to have some kind of excursion on the way going up, too. So it is ok to get there at around 1 pm. That’s our plan.
The first trouble was that after just 30 minutes of riding, we got stopped. As the rain had triggered landslides, the locals needed about 30 minutes to clean up the road and make way for us to pass through. A sunny day would be better for admiring rice fields. But It’s was raining and foggy. No big deal, we were still so exciting.
We kept going and then got stopped again by police officers to check our licenses. Guess what? My friend forgot his license at home. We stuck there explaining about 30 minutes more and finally let go with a fine of $20.
Urghh. Not even one good thing happened since we started this trip.
The long way and the dreary weather soon made us exhausted all our excitement. It was 11 am already we still had halfway to go. Luckily, the further we went, the better weather was. It stopped raining and showed some sun lights shining through grey clouds. Our plan still seemed to go as expected, we arrived at the territory of Hoang Su Phi at 1 pm. Now we just needed to take about 20 kilometers more to reach Luoc Village and find the homestay, then we all could take a rest. Sound good, but it was not that easy.
People might not know why and how 20 km of distance could take us until 3 pm. And even when we already saw our homestay from the main road, it took us 1 hour more to make it there. But we knew exactly why, once we saw that so-called road, which we truly believed could lead us to hell. Lol.
It is 2 km long, but very steep, slippery (due to the rain), winding, extremely narrow, and of course, it is two-way, too. Lol. 3 hours as maximum? with this so-called road? No way in hell. You know what, at first we could not find the way up from the main road, so I called the host to come to lead the way. Seeing him riding, I knew why he could make it just 2 hours from Ha Giang city to his homestay. He was indeed a real racing man.
We were all exhausted because of the long way riding but we just laughed like hell. 1 hour struggling with this road was 1 funniest hour that we had in the whole trip. I tried to stay still on the bike at first, but I could not bear a surge of adrenaline so we 3 girls got down and walked to the homestay, while the boys still tried to ride on that road, like a rollercoaster.
I can’t help laughing while writing these. Lol. Flash right back to those moments when I saw the road and couldn’t say a word.
Eventually, it’s all paid off. At the end of the road, we know it’s definitely worth all our time and efforts. The whole scenery of magnificent curving terraces shined up like gold. A marvelous beauty, a masterpiece created by indigenous ethnic people was opened up in front of us. The location of the homestay was just perfect, right in a valley surrounded by paddy rice fields, and further away was a spectacular waterfall. (check out the video with bird-eye view from our drone).
We still had the whole next day to explore Hoang Su Phi, but at this point, we already had our own satisfaction.
I still don’t know if I should recommend this homestay, people may blame me for the road, but it’s likely that they will thank me for the view tho.
What is more chilled-out than a morning waking up but still too lazy to get out of bed, opening a window, listening to raindrop sounds while admiring this picturesque view? Could it be any more relaxed?
A bunch of amazing photos and videos of rice terraces in Hoang Su Phi is coming next post. My posts about Ha Giang is going to be series. Stay tuned!
▶️ 3Speak