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.
A 271 km round trip from Đồi Ngô - roughly 6 h 02 in the saddle. On the way it passes Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster, Yen Giang Stake-yard, Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago and back through Yen Giang Stake-yard. The line favours views over speed.
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 late thirteenth century, a Vietnamese king who had twice helped drive back Mongol invasions gave up his throne, put on a monk's robe and founded a Zen school of his own. Trần Nhân Tông's Trúc Lâm school, the Bamboo Grove sect, became the most distinctly Vietnamese form of Buddhism, and the temples connected with it are scattered across the hills of the north-east, from Yên Tử mountain to Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc. Thanh Mai pagoda, on a forested slope in the Chí Linh area, is one of these places, associated with the early patriarchs of the school, and it belongs to the Yên Tử, Vĩnh Nghiêm, Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc complex that UNESCO listed in 2025.
Read the complete Thanh Mai Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Thanh Mai Pagoda 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 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.
84 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 168 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 210 km in. Next is Thanh Mai Pagoda.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Thanh Mai Pagoda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Thanh Mai Pagoda closes the day.
Thanh Mai Pagoda → Hoa Yen Pagoda relic cluster is 37 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 → Thanh Mai Pagoda is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.