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.
From Kinh Môn it runs 251 km to Kinh Môn; allow about 5 h 54 of riding. The stops in between: Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster, 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.
In the delta country east of Hanoi the land is mostly flat, a patchwork of rice paddies and ponds, so when limestone hills rise abruptly out of it they feel like a different world. Kinh Môn, in Hải Dương province, is one of those places, a small range of karst hills pitted with caves, and the Kinh Chủ cave, which I have placed under the name on the map, is one of them. Caves in northern Vietnam are often turned into shrines, with Buddha statues and incense in the dim light, and visitors come both for the religion and for the cool air inside.
Read the complete King Chu Cavern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
King Chu Cavern is where the day begins. Next is Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster.
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 comes up 41 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.
82 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 164 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster comes up 205 km in. Next is King Chu Cavern.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete King Chu Cavern write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
King Chu Cavern closes the day.
King Chu Cavern → Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster → Yen Giang Stake-yard is 34 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 Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster → King Chu Cavern is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.