Impressive bends on Happiness Road

The 4C highway from Ha Giang town through Quan Ba, Yen Minh to Dong Van rock plateau is especially attractive to tourists with its bends. 

Highway 4C with 185 km in length through the rocky plateau of Dong Van, Ha Giang is named Hanh Phuc (Happiness). This is the road which was formed by the effort and even the blood and bones of thousands of young volunteers from the 50s – 60s of the 20th century.

Impressive Happiness Road

For adventurous travellers and those who love exploring the highlands, Hanh Phuc Road is a special journey. The towering passes like Bac Sum, Cong Troi (Heaven Gate), Can Ty, Mau Due will bring them to cloudy Lung Cu, and especially the famous wall Ma Pi Leng, which will be always worthy for their effort.

Leaving peaceful Ha Giang city with the Km 0 landmark of Highway 2 to conquer the Hanh Phuc road on the rocky plateau, after 20 miles of relatively flat road is the Heaven Gate Pass. Standing on the peak of Heaven Gate, tourists will see Tam Son town in the heart of the valley, with villas and beautiful houses stretching to the foothills. The Quan Ba mount, which is in the shape of a young girl’s breast, looks striking amid the Tam Son vast field.

Impressive Happiness Road

Riding a motorbike through passes and hills, tourists will see peaceful scenes in the valleys. The villages of the highland ethnic groups in Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van, Meo Vac have changed. People have no longer grown poppies but corn on the arid rock.

Dong Van Plateau is not only a geological park of the world, but also a land containing the typically historical evidence of upland people of Ha Giang province. Before the Hanh Phuc Road was built, Quan Ba was separated to the plains by the Heaven Gate pass.

Impressive Happiness Road

Located adjacent to Hanh Phuc road and 14 km from Dong Van town today is evidence of the Wang clan. The King of H’Mong people Vuong Duc Chinh was the first who ruled the ethnic minorities here.

Commercial exchange between the H’mong King with the North is clearly shown in the architecture of the residences of Vuong family. The whole building is surrounded by stone walls of over 1m thick, with the height of 2.5 to 3 m. A huge volume of rare wood and blue stones was used to build this massive work.

When the Nho Que River is completely hidden under the canyon, Meo Vac town appears. The lives of the people in the North-most region of the country are still very poor but the bud of "happiness" is blossoming on the stones.

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA would like to recommend Motorcycling West to East Northern Vietnam tour.This motorcycling trip reveals a different route to get from Son La to Thac Ba. It offers adventurous riders stunning scenery and great tribal culture exploration. The route is not yet popular thus you do not share the roads with other tourist but mainly share the roads with the locals who are on their Honda to the farm. The perfect itinerary and the support crew ensure you get the most out of the trip in terms of comfort, enjoyment and adventure.

Highlights: 

• Stunning scenery
• Challenging roads
• Thac Ba Reservoir
• Colorful ethnic minorities

Mystical beauty of Y Ty offers adventure to ‘another world'

Y Ty, one of the poorest communes in Lao Cai Province's Bat Xat District, has become an attractive tourism destination in recent years due to its natural beauty.

Rustic charm: The fascinating earthen houses of Y Ty are unique architectural wonders

Nestled against 2,700m Nhi Cu San mountain, the commune rarely sees the sun and is often covered by dense white clouds.

Leaving Lao Cai train station and driving the 70km to Bat Xat along mountainous roads that stretch like wild snakes, you will reach this foggy land, 2,000m above sea level.

From the car windows, you can see zigzag tracks sunk deep in forest leaves and houses that appear and disappear in the clouds.

"Coming to Y Ty, I thought I was lost in another world," said 25-year-old Trinh Hai Yen.

Clouds cover the roads, villages and mountains, merging with the horizon right in front of you. No wonder visitors have the experience of entering a different world.

Terraced fields

Terraced fields rise and fall on the hills, beautiful all year round. According to Yen, May is "pouring water season" in Y Ty. As locals transplant rice seedlings, visitors are treated to the sight of glittering ponds. After that, the hills are covered by green.

Above it all: Clouds are seen everywhere in Y Ty.

"Terraced fields are full of glittering water running from high mountains. They pile up like stairs to the sky and co-ordinate with colourful clouds to create an awesome painting," said Yen.

Professional and amateur photographers welcome the chance to take stunning photographs.

"I am very interested in taking nice pictures of clouds and fields. This is the third time I have been here," said 30-year-old amateur photographer Tran Van Thuong.

According to user kynhong's post on nhiepanh.vn, when the sun appears, you can see colours in each field: the yellow of fields that have just been ploughed, the brown of land, the violet of mud and the green of new fields. After it rains, clouds swoop down to the surface of fields like white blocks of cotton.

Kynhong has gone to many places to take photographs such as Sa Pa, Mu Cang Chai, Bac Ha and Muong Khuong, but for him Bat Xat was the most attractive due to the imposing altitude. Terraced fields are typically 1,500m above sea level, but the terraced fields in Y Ty are over 1,600m.

Among the various ethnic minority groups in Y Ty, Ha Nhi people are known for making terraced fields. Despite variations in terrain, they still create wide, beautiful fields that fit the curves of valleys and high mountain slopes.

Earthen houses

A trek through the commune offers a fabulous view of earthen houses, which have unique architectural features. The houses have 40-50cm-thick walls made of clay and roofs made of straw grass. Their average area is about 60-80sq.m. They have only one main door and a small arched window for ventilation, retaining warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer.

Mud huts: Earthen houses look like huge mushrooms

Seeing the simple architecture of earthen houses, no one would think that people here have to spend around one month building them. The time to repair or build houses is after each crop. After choosing a suitable place, they begin to lay the foundation with stones. Then they build the walls. Soil is put into a mould and people use wooden pestles to jam the layers together, creating solid walls. Finally, they fit wooden beams and purlins together to shape the roof. Seen from above, the houses resemble huge mushrooms.

According to Yen, before leaving, you shouldn't miss the chance to visit the Saturday market, full of the agricultural products and colourful traditional clothes of Ha Nhi, H'mong, Dao and Giay people.

Source: VietNamNet Bridge

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA would like to recommend Motorcycling Northwestern Trails tour.Discover Vietnam’s rugged and scenic northwest and its people first hand. By taking to the roads and riding from the capital Hanoi to the remote area of the northwest we can see life as it truly is for the Vietnamese. The perfect itinerary and the support crew ensure you get the most out of the trip in terms of comfort, enjoyment and adventure. Along the way we encounter dramatic landscapes and sweeping panoramas as the rural population goes about its business. Highlights include the terraced valleys of Sapa, challenging roads, stunning scenery and many different colorful minority groups.

Highlights:

• Stunning scenery
• Challenging roads
• Stunning Pha Din Pass and Tram Ton Pass
• Terraced valley of Sapa
• Colorful ethnic minorities 

A Motorcycle Adventure in the Mountains of Vietnam

 By Joseph Ferris

My Minsk motorcycle

Vietnam is my favorite country. Lots of people “backpack” through Vietnam this way without ever actually strapping on a backpack. Of course, many people enjoy this style of travel and leave Vietnam satisfied, but if you would like to experience a more authentic, friendly and adventure, I suggest choose motorcycle tour through the mountains northern Vietnam.

In the countryside of northern Vietnam the Minsk motorcycles rule the roads. I went to Sapa, Lao Cai, the beautiful French Hill station. Sapa is a popular destination and most backpackers on the train to northern Vietnam will be heading there. Not to be missed are some smaller mountain towns to the east of Sapa. One rainy morning I visited a hillside market located only four miles from the Chinese border. The Minsk can easily handle the rough terrain of northern Vietnam. I swiftly passed by the stuck Land Cruisers and found them still waiting on my return. After spending a few days in the eastern tribal region, I drove to Sapa, and a few days later continued west along the Dien Bien Phu loop road.

The scenery on the trip is amazing. The town of Sapa sits perched on a dramatic mountain valley. A short drive from Sapa is Mt. Fansipan. With an elevation of 3143m, the peak of Mt. Fansipan was shrouded in the clouds as I drove over the pass.

Ethnic Minorities in your way

There are many colorful ethnic minorities living in the mountains along the loop road. In Sapa, the girls from the local ethnic minorities will offer to guide you on hikes to their villages. These girls speak English amazingly well, learned only by listening to the foreign tourists. I never went along on one of their hikes, but it was reported to me to be a great experience. You will encounter many other different ethnic minorities along the way, each with their own style of distinctive and colorful traditional dress. This area of Vietnam is well off the beaten track. As you travel through the mountains you can rest assured that the ethnic minorities will be dressed in their costumes not to satisfy the demands of a mass tourist industry, but because of tradition.

The southern half of the loop journey passes through the more industrialized hinterland of Hanoi. At this point there are more options for how to return to Lao Cai. I chose to go north of Hanoi, throw away the map, and navigate by the sun until I met with the northbound route back to Lao Cai. I reached the mountains south of Lao Cai with only minor trouble, getting lost only a few times, and enduring two days of rain. Although there is not much to see in this area, the people are very friendly.

I stopped frequently to dry off, warm up and drink coffee with the local people. At one rest stop, the owner of the small cafe served me tea and then ran off to fetch her daughter. The daughter was home on vacation from college in Hanoi, and would practice her English by acting as our interpreter. Initially I was not so sure if her husband felt the same. He later appeared dressed in his old NVA militarily jacket. Giving me a hard stare and a stern look he asked me that if being an American, I was afraid that the Vietnamese would kill me. Through his daughter I told him of course not, and that I considered the Vietnamese to be the nicest people I had ever met. He broke out in a big smile and proudly declared, “very good!” The rest of the family also seemed very pleased by my answer and we had a pleasant afternoon of talking, eating fruit, and waiting for the rain to stop.

The entire family rushed out clapping and cheering in disbelief. I assume they had given me up for dead and banked my deposit. That night they fed me, let me take a shower, and arranged my train ticket back to Hanoi. Those two weeks had been amazing, and probably the biggest influence for why I regard Vietnam as my favorite county and I continue to daydream about future trips.

Practical advice for a successful motorcycle adventure

For the perfect trip, you should prepare both the physical and mental carefully. To be back home intact, you should follow some rule of Vietnam like riding on the right of road, turn on the signal when turn right or left, move slowly at intersection, school, and hospital. You also can refer adventure tours of trust travel companies to be less risk such as ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA, which have 7 years experience in operating motor biking tour.

More information: http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/tour.php?op=detail&tourId=66

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA Launches “Big Save for Great Indochina Vacation” Promotion for Christmas and New Year 2013.

Christmas and New Year Eve is in air, ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA’s promotion now is available for all travels who book the adventure tour of ATA.

For the sight, the sounds and the taste of an unique and special Christmas and New Year Eve in Indochina (Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia) , ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA (ATA) has launched “Big save for great Indochina vacation" promotion for all invaluable customers who are going to book a tour from December 15, 2012 to Febuary 15,2013. From the bottom heart, ATA would like to express gratitude and appreciation to all customers who traveled with ATA in the past and would be in the future with huge discount up to 10 % off and the hundred surprise gifts, already prepared for you.

As a leading position of an adventure travel agent in Indochina and South East Asia, ATA always commits to bring unforgettable trip for travelers. Furthermore, ATA is a local expert, had 6 years experience in operating many kinds of adventure motorcycling, trekking, hiking, biking, kayaking tour which was designed suitable with all level of fitness.

So instead of a usual holiday, why do not you travel with ATA to discover a rich culture, history of Asia, enjoining amazing culinary, sightseeing a stunning landscape. And just one click booking you can get the ticket to the fantastic place for experiencing in new way with Asia‘s Christmas and New Year Eve style. This trip will be refresh your spirit, bring to you new inspiration and happiness for New Year.

Seem like Santa Clause’s gift, now travelers have more chance to achieve the best selling tours in 2012. Traveler will be enjoyable the rustic countryside, sightseeing the inspiring vitas, living with Muong ethnic minorities and joining in the outdoor adventure activities in “Cycling and home stay in Ba Khan 2 days 1 night” tour. 

Or taking the challenge by trekking the tough trail with awesome scenery, overnight at silt house of mosaic of minority groups in “ Different Sapa, Different Trek” And more best selling tours are waiting you explore. 

Please click the link below to get more information. 

To experience in Indochina, you can book online or booking directly at ACTIVE TRAVEL SHOP.

About ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA:

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA (ATA) offers a wide selection of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia adventure tours, including hiking and trekking, biking, motorcycling, kayaking, overland touring and family travel packages.

Telephone: +844 3573 8569

Fax: +844 3573 8570

Email: info@activetravel.asia

Website: http://www.activetravel.asia
Address: Level 2, No 17/167, Tay Son Street, Dong Da district, Hanoi, Vietnam