Jay and I landed in Hanoi from London (via Kuala Lumpur) around lunchtime and immediately found our hostel to dump our bags and go in search of some delicious Vietnamese food. We had planned three days to achieve three main objectives; get reacquainted with Hanoi (coincidently we had both last been here in 2015), stuff ourselves with as much food and drink as possible and find a pair of motorbikes to take riding into the north of Vietnam. We got a bit sidetracked and so scrambled to find bikes on our last day, but being Hanoi, this didn’t take too much effort. 

We were a bit hesitant to leave what we’d already established as our favourite haunts around Hanoi; a few grungy local eating places and a café that spilled mostly out onto the street to watch the people passing by and serving the best coffee we’ve had in Vietnam but off we went, braving the cold and rain we knew was awaiting us in the north.

Our first target was to make it to Cao Bang over two days and then from here take a day trip to the Ban Gioc Detian Falls that straddle the border between China and Vietnam. Over the next few days we made our way west to meet up with the Ha Giang loop and riding the Ma Pi Leng Pass and getting to Lung Cu, the northern most point of Vietnam. From Ha Giang we continued to make our way further west and into Sapa where we spent a very cold couple of days hoping the cloud would lift long enough for us to see the stunning scenery, which it didn’t unfortunately. The 11 days were spent exploring the north of Vietnam were filled with many highs and lows. We delighted in delicious warm bowls of pho for breakfast and as many other meals as possible as well as some sublime views and extremely enjoyable stretches of road. The lows included some raining days and cold weather (especially Sa Pa which was hovering in the low single digits) and jays many motorbike issues. But at the end of the trip we had arrived safely back into Hanoi with nothing but happy memories and saddle-sore bums.

From there we spend two days selling our bikes and then took an awesome £18 flight to Hoi An to meet up with Dean and Alecia and have some much-deserved beach time.