I touched down in Hanoi, and at first had mixed feelings about cycling in Vietnam. The city and especially the air is still very polluted, and traffic seems to only have gotten worse from when I last visited a few years ago. Obviously I wanted to avoid any bigger cities on my route, and set off to cycle towards the Ha Giang province in the north.

Shortly after I left Hanoi behind me, I really started to enjoy my time in the countryside. The picturesque hilly landscape (Karst topography) filled with rice and corn fields, and super welcoming locals made for a fun ride. Finding campsites can be difficult in this terrain, but fortunately hotels are affordable and temples or churches would allow me to spend the night.

After a while I noticed some problems with my Rohloff Gear Hub, so I had to cut my time in Vietnam short and decided to head towards China again as it would be easier to fix there. Near the border I came across the largest water buffalo market in Northern Vietnam, a very interesting sight.

I didn’t take too many photos as I also filmed my journey, you can find the YouTube video here.