CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
273 km from Neo to Neo, about 5 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Nham Duong Pagoda, Yen Giang Stake-yard, Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago and back through Yen Giang Stake-yard. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 55 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
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.
Kiep Bac Temple is where the day begins. Next is Nham Duong Pagoda.
Out in the hills of Chí Linh, in Hai Duong province east of Hanoi, the land crumples into low forested ridges after the flat Red River delta, and this is where Nham Duong sits among the trees. The pagoda belongs to a cluster of temples tied to the Trần dynasty and its home-grown school of Zen, the Trúc Lâm tradition, whose three patriarchs taught in these hills during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Thanh Mai, the other pagoda on the same ride, is part of that story too.
Read the complete Nham Duong Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nham Duong Pagoda comes up 42 km in. Next is Yen Giang Stake-yard.
Twice in Vietnamese history, the tide at the mouth of the Bạch Đằng river decided the fate of the country. In 938, Ngô Quyền defeated a Southern Han fleet by planting iron-tipped stakes in the riverbed, hidden at high tide, then luring the enemy ships upstream and waiting for the water to fall. In 1288, during the third Mongol invasion of Đại Việt, the general Trần Hưng Đạo used the same trick against the fleet of Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty, trapping and destroying it. In the fields around Quảng Yên, archaeologists have found rows of those ancient wooden stakes, still standing in the mud, and the Yên Giang stake yard is one of the sites where you can see them preserved.
Read the complete Yen Giang Stake-yard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
85 km in you reach Yen Giang Stake-yard. Next is Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago.
Ha Long means descending dragon, and the legend says a dragon family came down from heaven to spit out jewels that became the islands, which is as good an explanation as any for nearly two thousand limestone towers rising from green water. UNESCO listed the bay in the 1990s for its scenery and its geology, and the Cát Bà archipelago to the south joins the same landscape of steep karst islands, hidden lagoons and floating fishing villages. The scale is hard to describe: islands shaped like teeth, like ships, like sleeping animals, all standing in a calm, jade-coloured sea.
Read the complete Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago, about halfway. Next is back through Yen Giang Stake-yard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yen Giang Stake-yard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yen Giang Stake-yard sits at 169 km, about halfway. Next is back through Nham Duong Pagoda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nham Duong Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nham Duong Pagoda comes up 212 km in. Next is 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.
Kiep Bac Temple closes the day.
Kiep Bac Temple → Nham Duong Pagoda is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nham Duong Pagoda → Yen Giang Stake-yard is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yen Giang Stake-yard → Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago → back through Yen Giang Stake-yard is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yen Giang Stake-yard → back through Nham Duong Pagoda is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nham Duong Pagoda → Kiep Bac Temple is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.