{"id":32209,"date":"2026-02-03T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T08:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=32209"},"modified":"2026-02-02T11:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:59:05","slug":"returning-to-vietnam-ha-giang-loop-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/02\/03\/returning-to-vietnam-ha-giang-loop-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning to Vietnam \u2013 Ha Giang Loop: Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Mike Huber<\/h6>\n

I had stopped at the perfect place for my morning coffee.\u00a0 Not only did the owner know of less chaotic roads, but the coffee shop was at the exact location to turn off to hit these mostly unexplored roads.\u00a0 I quickly finished my coffee and was out the door in minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\" This would be the Vietnam I was looking for. No congestion, no traffic stops, just miles of mountain switchbacks.\u00a0 This new chosen path didn\u2019t come without a bit more adventure, too.\u00a0 Over the next five days I didn\u2019t see one Westerner or tourist.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 The village homestays I chose were so far off the beaten path I don\u2019t even think many of the locals had ever seen a Westerner. Communication was strictly between my charades and some Google Translate.\u00a0 The more rice wine I drank at the end of the evening, the less I relied on Google and the more colorful my charades became.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The roads were beautiful as the paved switchbacks disappeared into the lush jungle mountains and became dirt.\u00a0 Some had precarious places with mudslides that consumed the dirt along these roads.\u00a0 On more than one occasion I would be filled with confidence as I successfully negotiated these obstacles, only to be put in my place as a 10 year old girl on a scooter would overcome the same obstacles (but one-handed as her other hand was busy texting). Talk about an instant ego check.<\/p>\n

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The days actually became very isolating with the empty mountain roads, and even emptier villages where I found myself staying. On more than one occasion I found myself alone in a rundown hotel room having ramen for dinner by boiling water from a tea kettle.\u00a0 Those moments were overshadowed by the adventure that always arrived the following day as I chose new mountain roads. It was exactly the experience I desired while motorcycling Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For the next five days I hardly saw pavement or even other vehicles. When I would stop for a break at a viewpoint or for a drink of water there was absolute silence.\u00a0 Even if there had been noise, the dense jungle would have absorbed it.\u00a0 The jungle even consumed the sound of my moto crashing into the rocks when I occasionally lost focus.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t dense enough to absorb my pain-induced swearing as I reinjured my broken rib from my Thailand crash.<\/p>\n

After nine days I returned to the sensory overload of Hanoi, which came in the form of massive traffic and chaotic roundabouts. I had completed the Ha Giang Loop.\u00a0 It was such an epic road.\u00a0 The greater accomplishment was leaving the tourist trap loop and experiencing the true, raw, and mostly unexplored roads of Vietnam.<\/p>\n

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Catch up with Huber’s Vietnam adventure ride:<\/p>\n

Ha Giang Loop: Part 1<\/a>
\nHa Giang Loop: Part 2<\/a>
\nHa Giang Loop: Part 3<\/a>
\nHa Giang Loop:\u00a0 Part 4<\/a><\/p>\n

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Coming up…more on Cycle Garden and their impressive work on Moto Guzzi and other Italian motorcycles!<\/p>\n

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More Huber? Check out\u00a0A Trip Into The Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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More Gresh and Berk?\u00a0 You bet!\u00a0 Check out A Cup O’ Joes<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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By Mike Huber I had stopped at the perfect place for my morning coffee.\u00a0 Not only did the owner know of less chaotic roads, but the coffee shop was at the exact location to turn off to hit these mostly unexplored roads.\u00a0 I quickly finished my coffee and was out the door in minutes. This … Continue reading “Returning to Vietnam \u2013 Ha Giang Loop: Part 5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[654,96,89],"tags":[4831,3204,2249],"class_list":["post-32209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-feel-good-stuff","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","tag-ha-giang-loop","tag-motorcycling-in-vietnam","tag-vietnam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1000036157-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32209"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32213,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32209\/revisions\/32213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}