After the drama of Mã Pí Lèng, the road drops into Mèo Vạc, a district town in a narrow valley surrounded by limestone mountains, and the first thing that hits you is how ordinary it is. It is a working town, not a tourist town: concrete houses, government buildings, a market, schools and a few guesthouses and restaurants. After the cliffs above, it is a relief to slow down, eat a bowl of phở and watch the town go about its business.
Mèo Vạc comes alive on Sundays, when its market draws people from across the district, many of them H'Mông, Lô Lô and Dao, who walk or ride in from villages in the mountains. Cattle, pigs, chickens and horses are bought and sold at the edge of town, and the stalls sell everything from embroidered fabrics to plastic buckets and medicinal herbs. Like Đồng Văn, it is a place where tradition and modern life meet, sometimes awkwardly.
About twenty kilometres south, the village of Khâu Vai hosts a famous love market once a year, on the twenty-seventh day of the third lunar month, usually in April or May. The legend tells of two lovers from rival tribes who could not marry and agreed to meet once a year at this place. Today the market is a festival, attended by people from all over the region and by curious visitors, and it is said that former lovers who married other people come here once a year to meet again.
For riders, Mèo Vạc is a base for exploring the eastern part of the loop, and the starting point for the road south toward Du Già and back to Hà Giang, a quieter and rougher route through remote valleys. The roads around the town are narrow and steep, with endless hairpins, and the surface can be poor. The town has fuel stations, guesthouses, homestays, cafes and restaurants, and it is a good place to stay a night if Đồng Văn is too busy. The nights are cool, even in summer, so bring warm clothes.
The town is also a good place to try the local food: corn wine, smoked buffalo meat and mèn mén, a steamed corn flour dish that is a staple of the H'Mông diet. In the evening, sit at a street stall with a glass of rice wine and watch the mountains turn dark.