Living on the Edge
The Loop Tour in Vietnam's Mountains
🎬 Sometimes the story keeps writing itself even after it ends – A behind-the-scenes moment is waiting at the end of this post, for The Secret Journey members only.
📍Ha Giang Loop, Vietnam
The landscapes of northern Vietnam are rushing past my eyes as I try to capture everything on camera. But the camera simply can't catch the real moments – that split second when the motorcycle drives through a puddle, splashing mud everywhere, or the elderly woman walking kilometers with a huge basket on her back across seemingly infinite expanses.
I wondered to myself how long she'd been walking like this. Days? Weeks perhaps? In the middle of a long road where the horizon is the only thing with an edge, and there isn't a house or settlement for kilometers around.
A father bathing a small child in a foam-filled tub. A mother patiently combing her little daughter's hair. Everyday moments that become magical when they happen in a landscape so different from my world.
The moments that particularly caught me were when we passed structures that can hardly be called "houses" – more accurately described as "shelters" – and I saw children sitting with smartphones. Suddenly I realized how the mobile phone has become a basic consumer product that almost everyone in the world has, even in places where things we consider basic, like toilets, cannot be taken for granted.
Suan, my driver, is incredibly sweet. Despite not speaking English, we somehow communicate, and I'm not even upset that he calls me 'Mai'. I feel like he's quite similar to me – there was a stage when he let everyone pass us and drove at his own pace, and I totally identify with that. Sometimes he overtook everyone while joking about his friends, the other drivers. He drives in his own lanes, not following everyone else, a bit of a rebel. And one thing's for sure – he lives on the edge.
It's amazing how we rode through the mountains, down into the valleys, and only toward the end of the day did I see a safety railing, which really surprised me. These drivers make this route so frequently that they already know it by heart – all the curves, all the sharp descents, all the potholes in the road (and there's no shortage of those) – and they sometimes really fly.
At first, it was quite stressful. I realized I didn't really have anything to hold onto, but after a few minutes of driving, I discovered I had a cushion that was actually my bag, so I couldn't fly backward. They made sure to protect us with hand and leg guards, like those used on professional motorcycles, and this seemed like an important added value that other companies we saw around didn't bother to provide.
Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere on the only road in the mountains, we passed a guy who had stopped at the side with his motorcycle and turned the rear cargo box into a juice stand. Wow. That's genius on another level. This is exactly what I call entrepreneurial thinking – finding opportunities where others see only a road.
This guy understood something important. He might be in the middle of the mountains rather than a busy city center, but he made lemonade from lemons. Living here and seeing dozens of tourist-filled motorcycles passing by every day, with absolutely no competition around – why not? This is the main road that 100% of travelers use, literally a Prime Location. It was so refreshing to see in the landscape, one of those moments that remind me that entrepreneurship and creativity grow especially from limitations.
Along the ride through the mountains, I saw women harvesting in fields, dressed in clothes with vibrant colors. When we stopped, I was interested and asked the guide about their traditional clothing. He told me that each tribe has its own unique colors, and they are bright to identify the person from afar, especially in harsh weather conditions. In winter, the mountains fill with clouds, and it's difficult to see in the distance, and the bright colors help with identification.
"Beyond that," added the guide, "the garment is embroidered and decorated by hand, sometimes taking months of work. A skilled woman demonstrates her talent and her family's status through it."
It was fascinating. The story reminded me of my visit to New Zealand and my acquaintance with the Maori, who also used visual communication to identify tribes. For them, it was in the form of tattoos on the skin, according to the raw materials available in their region. It's amazing how completely different cultures find similar solutions to the same basic problems.
Along the way, the scenery was simply amazing. Breathtaking. Mind-blowing. All the descriptions in the world would not suffice to illustrate, even the videos don't convey the feeling of my smallness against this vast nature. Especially for an urban girl like me, this is one of the few experiences where I simply surrender to nature, and it's definitely worth it.
We climbed mountains and reached perfect viewpoints, from which we saw the valleys of northern Vietnam in all their glory. The visibility was excellent, the weather was perfect (maybe even too hot, as I got quite sunburned). I know there are travelers who came all the way here to do the "Loop" and encountered disappointing weather – heavy clouds and fog that prevented them from enjoying the scenery.
So I'm simply grateful for these moments – for all the new people I met, who are now part of my story, and maybe I'm also part of theirs.
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