CURVESCOUTThursday Ride #4 · 3 December 2026
Hanoi · Ha Giang Limestone Loop Stage
A loop from Ha Giang base · Vietnam
- 416 km
- 8 h riding
- 5 stops
- loop
This Thursday: Hanoi · Ha Giang Limestone Loop Stage. 416 km as a loop from Ha Giang base in Vietnam, about 8 h in the saddle. December is a fine month in the tropics: ride early and late, and let the midday heat pass.
Keep this if you want a multi-day adventure through limestone mountains and can sort the paperwork first. The Ma Pi Leng Pass is about 20 km of road through the UNESCO Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark, above the Nho Que River, usually ridden as part of a three- to four-day loop from Ha Giang. Pass on it if you lack the right documents. Foreign riders need a regional travel permit, a home motorcycle licence and the matching International Driving Permit; without them most travel insurance will not cover a crash.
- Kenji, CurveScout scout
The map loads with the stops and the ride's road.
The ride, stop by stop
1Ha Giang base
Ha Giang is the last real town before Vietnam runs out of road and turns into limestone, a small, busy provincial capital on the Lo river, about as far north as you can go without crossing into China. About thirty thousand people live here, in a grid of shops, cafes, homestays and motorbike rental places that exist because of the ride that begins at the edge of town. This is where riders sleep, sort out their kit and eat a big bowl of pho before the mountains, and it is a sensible base for exactly that purpose.
The Ha Giang Loop is the draw, a few days of tight, steep, foggy mountain road through the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark. The road climbs from the valley through the Heaven's Gate pass at Quan Ba, past terraced rice fields and villages of the Hmong, Dao and Tay people, to Yen Minh, Dong Van and the border country at Lung Cu, where a flag tower stands at Vietnam's northernmost point. The highlight is the Ma Pi Leng Pass, a narrow shelf cut into a cliff above the Nho Que river, which runs a startling jade green at the bottom of one of the deepest canyons in Southeast Asia. The tarmac is mostly decent but narrow, with sharp hairpins, sudden potholes, mist and the odd buffalo. Take it slowly, and avoid riding at night.
2Quan Ba Heavenkm 76
The Heaven Gate, Cổng Trời in Vietnamese, is the pass above Quản Bạ, where the road tops a ridge at about fifteen hundred metres and the whole Dong Van Karst Plateau opens beneath it. Below, a valley of green rice terraces and small fields is dotted with the humped outlines of limestone hills, and in the middle sits the pair of round green mounds known as Núi Đôi, the Twin Mountains, which local people call the Fairy's Bosom. On a clear morning, mist lies in the hollows and the hills float above it.
This is the far north of Vietnam, a few kilometres from the Chinese border, and the country is mountain, rock and weather. The Dong Van Karst Plateau is a UNESCO Global Geopark, recognised in 2010, a high landscape of grey limestone, deep gorges and ancient fossils, and it is home to a mosaic of ethnic groups, including the Hmong, Tay, Dao and Lo Lo. Villagers farm every scrap of soil, planting maize between the rocks, and weekly markets bring colourful traditional costumes. The nearest big town is Hà Giang, about twenty-six kilometres back, where you should fill the tank and check the bike.
3Dong Van plateaukm 209
The Dong Van plateau is a landscape in which almost nothing is flat. In the far north of Vietnam, in Ha Giang province near the Chinese border, a vast area of limestone has been uplifted, cracked and worn into jagged grey ridges, deep valleys and pockets of terraced fields, and it is protected as a UNESCO Global Geopark. The rock is old, much of it hundreds of millions of years, and in places it is full of fossils. Maize is grown in little pockets of soil between boulders, with farmers building stone walls to hold the earth in place, so that whole hillsides look like handmade quilts.
People live here, too, in a way that seems impossible. The area is home to several ethnic minorities, including the Hmong, Lo Lo, Tay and Dao, and each has its own dress, language and customs. Villages are built of stone and clay, with thick walls against the cold, and the Sunday market in the little town of Dong Van is a riot of colour, with traditional clothing, livestock and food. In autumn, usually October and November, the buckwheat fields bloom with pink and white flowers, a gentle contrast with the grey rock.
4Ma Pi Leng Passkm 227
Mã Pí Lèng is the great pass of the Ha Giang Loop, a road cut along the side of a vast gorge on the way between Đồng Văn and Mèo Vạc, and it earns its reputation in the first minute. At about fifteen hundred metres, the road clings to a cliff hundreds of metres above the Nho Quế River, which winds through a sheer, green-black canyon far below, often described as one of the deepest in Southeast Asia. The sides drop away on one hand, the mountain climbs on the other, and the colour of the river, a clear jade turquoise on a good day, is unforgettable.
The road has a story that matters. It is known as the Happiness Road, and it was built by hand between 1959 and 1965 by thousands of young volunteers and local labourers from many ethnic groups, who hung from ropes to drill and blast the cliff face with little more than hammers and dynamite, working for months at a time. A monument at the pass recognises their effort, and some of those who built it died in the work. Today it is a paved, if narrow, road, with viewing points, tea stalls and small cafés where you can sit and look across the gorge.
5Ha Giang basekm 416
Ha Giang is the last real town before Vietnam runs out of road and turns into limestone, a small, busy provincial capital on the Lo river, about as far north as you can go without crossing into China. About thirty thousand people live here, in a grid of shops, cafes, homestays and motorbike rental places that exist because of the ride that begins at the edge of town. This is where riders sleep, sort out their kit and eat a big bowl of pho before the mountains, and it is a sensible base for exactly that purpose.
The Ha Giang Loop is the draw, a few days of tight, steep, foggy mountain road through the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark. The road climbs from the valley through the Heaven's Gate pass at Quan Ba, past terraced rice fields and villages of the Hmong, Dao and Tay people, to Yen Minh, Dong Van and the border country at Lung Cu, where a flag tower stands at Vietnam's northernmost point. The highlight is the Ma Pi Leng Pass, a narrow shelf cut into a cliff above the Nho Que river, which runs a startling jade green at the bottom of one of the deepest canyons in Southeast Asia. The tarmac is mostly decent but narrow, with sharp hairpins, sudden potholes, mist and the odd buffalo. Take it slowly, and avoid riding at night.
Before you go
416 km loop, about 8 h of riding. Check the weather and any road closures before you leave; mountain and coast roads change with the season.