CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 194 km round trip from Thành Phố Uông Bí - roughly 4 h 08 in the saddle. The stops in between: Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son, Kiep Bac Temple, Bo Da Pagoda and back through Kiep Bac Temple. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Yên Tử is the sacred mountain of Vietnamese Buddhism, rising to a little over a thousand metres above the coastal plain of Quảng Ninh province, and Hoa Yên Pagoda sits partway up its slopes, among old trees and stone steps, on the pilgrim route to the summit. The mountain's fame goes back to King Trần Nhân Tông, who defeated the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century and then, at the height of his power, gave up the throne, became a monk and retired to Yên Tử, where he founded the Trúc Lâm school of Zen. It became the only uniquely Vietnamese school of Buddhism, and the mountain has been a pilgrimage site ever since.
Read the complete Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster is where the day begins. Next is Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son.
In the late thirteenth century, a Vietnamese king who had twice helped drive back the Mongol armies gave up his throne, climbed the mountain of Yen Tu and became a monk. Tran Nhan Tong founded the Truc Lam school of Zen Buddhism there, a uniquely Vietnamese form that combined meditation with engagement in the world, and Yen Tu became the holiest mountain in northern Vietnam. Together with the pagoda of Vinh Nghiem, which preserves thousands of woodblocks used for printing Buddhist texts, and the Con Son and Kiep Bac relics, associated with the scholar Nguyen Trai and the general Tran Hung Dao, the complex was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2025.
Read the complete Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kiep Bac Temple.
Kiếp Bạc is the place where Vietnam remembers Trần Hưng Đạo, the thirteenth-century general who defeated the Mongols three times. In the 1280s, the armies of Kublai Khan's empire invaded Vietnam, and Trần Hưng Đạo, commanding the forces of the Trần dynasty, used guerrilla tactics, retreat and ambush to wear them down. The most famous victory came in 1288 on the Bạch Đằng river, when he planted iron-tipped stakes in the riverbed and lured the Mongol fleet onto them at low tide. He died in 1300, and the temple at Kiếp Bạc was built where he is said to have had his base.
Read the complete Kiep Bac Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Kiep Bac Temple. Next is Bo Da Pagoda.
Bổ Đà is a pagoda that was built from the earth up, quite literally. Its long perimeter walls are made of rammed earth, mixed with broken pottery and tiles, a traditional technique that has kept them standing for centuries, and inside lies one of the most remarkable features of any Vietnamese temple: a garden of more than a thousand stupas, the tombs of monks who lived and died here, standing in rows among the trees. The pagoda, on a hill in Việt Yên in Bắc Giang province, is also famous for its collection of wooden printing blocks carved with Buddhist texts, a treasure of Vietnamese woodblock printing.
Read the complete Bo Da Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bo Da Pagoda, about halfway. Next is back through Kiep Bac Temple.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kiep Bac Temple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kiep Bac Temple sits at 129 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son comes up about 164 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster closes the day.
Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster → Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son → Kiep Bac Temple is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kiep Bac Temple → Bo Da Pagoda is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bo Da Pagoda → back through Kiep Bac Temple is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kiep Bac Temple → back through Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yen Tu-Vinh Nghiem-Con Son → Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.