Bac Quang to Xoi Farmstay. An obscure rural back road wends its way through beguiling rural valleys, over hills and suspension bridges, past tea plantations and sublime rice paddies.
It’s only Day 2, but I’ve found cycle touring bliss, cycling all day on silent and sometimes muddy back roads and ending in the Luc Yen ‘secret valley’ at one of the North’s best up-and-coming homestay areas.
Cycling Bac Quang to Lam Thuong Valley, Ha Giang Province
The route started with a slight detour, but one that was worth it to stay at the Truly Bac Quang homestay. ‘Homestays’ are a dime a dozen in Vietnam (the word usually just means a more characterful type of guesthouse) but this one was the real deal – sleeping and eating in the family stilt- house.
After finding coffee and breakfast in the main street I was whizzing down the smooth, scenic tarmac of Highway 279. My only mistake was not to pick up some food for lunch – there’s not a restaurant to be found along this route.
Soon, however the route turned off only a suspiciously muddy and steep goat track. But this soon morphs into a relatively smooth strip of concrete winding endearingly around the edge of a picture-perfect rice field.
Little did I realise that every valley I would come through today would look just as gorgeous as this. Cruising along, the path comes through valley after valley, some filled with brilliant green rice fields, corn or tea crops, others with a flowing river. I laughed out loud as I came to a an impossibly cute suspension bridge. I love suspension bridges.
There are no concrete homes here, and (for the first part of the route) no shops.
All the houses are wood and thatch, with villagers were getting about their business and buffaloes wandered about.
A small problem soon emerges, in the form of lunch time. Any eateries selling noodles obviously close when the morning market is over each day.
At into a grocery store to check out the snacks and sat down ready to tuck into a hearty meal of wafer biscuits, dried fish snack and soy milk. But… as so often happens a lovely shop owner came to the rescue, offering me a sticky rice cake filled with mung beans and pork.
Villages, hills, rice fields, striking tea plantations and river valleys followed.
There were a couple of rough patches where concrete paths turned to dirt and dirt turned to mud.
Past the 30-40km mark the route became more and more hilly, and tea plantations replace the rice. I coast down the last crest with satisfaction, speeding past giggling teenage girls and fluttering red flag.
One more coffee-and-selfie stop later (now realising these things go together) I was on the home stretch, taking a turn to the north to loop back into the Luc Yen valley.
Excited to get to the homestay, I pedalled faster on smooth concrete paths, looping back around a range of jagged limestone peaks, and passing an archway declaring this a special cultural area.
Lam Thuong valley – Xoi Farmstay
Caked with mud, exhausted, but happy, I arrived at the adorable Xoi Farmstay, even more delightful than in the pictures. The tourism potential here is obviously huge, with the feeling of a ‘secret valley’ that wouldn’t be secret for too much longer.
Run by a Tay ethnic minority family, the decorations were more reminiscent of Laos than Vietnam. Chickens roamed about and herbs, vegetables and flowers rimmed a large fishpond, and the portions of home-cooked are huge.
I order the ‘family rice’ dinner and share with some new found traveller friends who just happen to be filmakers for the National Geographic. This is one of the locations they are scouting out for an upcoming film.
I explore up the valley and buy some dragonfruit to have with my breakfast the next morning. was the perfect end to an (almost) completely magnificent day.
