Stage 5 / Ha Giang Loop Tour / April 2026
95km. 2,905m of climbing.
A cow auction, a legendary pass, wheelbarrows of sweat, thankfully few tears (ok, none), and handmade pasta at the end of it all.
Stage 5 was a doozy.
We got Ma Pi Leng’ed, good and proper.
We rolled out of the hotel in Ba Lac into the kind of morning that northern Vietnam does so well — soft light, a bit of haze on the hills, the road ahead quietly singing its siren song.
Come on, she whispers, today you will glide, smooth as the leather on a ten year old Brooks, over my humps and lumps, even over the 22 kilometer Big Lump in the middle that you’ve been dreading since dinner last night when you opened the profile… that’s right laddo, today is the day you ride as you never have before… so yeah, why not push a little or even way, way too hard at the beginning, and suffer later? You know it makes sense…
Let;s admit it, we all do it!
The first 50 kilometres were in fact quite mellow, with our KOJO guide maintaining a friendly pace, the feed snd refuelling stop well placed, and we had another little top up for cold water at the bottom of the climb.
Hydration is very important here, especially this trip where the usually coolish temps have slipped away, and we find ourselves dealing with heat up to 35 degrees.
Before the bottom of the climb though, we passed through a small Hmong town.
Friday, it turns out, is market day, and not just any market. A cattle auction. Bulls and cows being haggled over in the street, men arguing and laughing and shouting bids, the women dressed in the most vivid traditional clothing you'll ever see — greens and pinks and anything else with a high enough luiminence to sear the retina for a sec - this seems to be the aim: sway, sashay, stun, stroll on - not a bad mantra for life - and patterns that seem to belong to another world entirely, with small sequins adorning every possible millimeter of surface area that dance and sing in the sunlight like a million little universes.
It's alll too chaotic for our eyes but - wait - that’s too lazy of a description - this is in fact life, their life, their lives, so different to ours, so essential and flowing and beautiful and you could sit down with a cup of iced Vietnamese coffee with a dollop of condensed milk and watch it unfold for hours.
But then, hang on, there’s a mountain to climb, quite literally. Now, here’s the thing about Stage 5 in a KOJO MegaTour (trademark not pending) - what you learn by now that your concerns about getting through these stages, overs these hills, up these killer passes, is that if you keep pushing, one pedal after another, you will get there.
It’s as simple as that. You could call it a metaphor for life if you were feeling tired and emotional but…. ok it’s a metaphor for life.
A word too on our support crew, whom, as ever, were and are fantastic. Minh Viet — our host partner on the ground in Hanoi — is one of those people who makes everything run smoothly without you ever quite seeing how, pre-empting issues, adjusting on the fly, all that stuff that makes such a difference. Then there's the other Minh, driving the second van, and Wi in the first, and their support operation is constant, warm, and quietly exceptional.
They take care of everything so that we can focus on the riding.
Lunch was a proper spread. Beef, pork, rice, and then the shakes, watermelon, fresh tangy orange juice, and lest we forget, the ice cold velvety smooth coffee, we swear it’s Michelin level stuff in so many places out here, and it don’t half give you a kick.
Then we left, pedaled 15km, and there she blew… the legendary Ma Pi Leng Pass.
Before this climb we didn’t say much, because, you can’t describe it in words, not truly.
There are places in this world where language just gives up. Throws its hands in the air, sits on its arse and contemplates joining a monastery, taking a vow of silence and getting its kicks from one glass of 10% monk-brewed beer each evening, as it ponders what coulda been…
Ma Pi Leng is simply indescribable.
You look down and there's the Nho Que River — this impossible shade of emerald jade — winding through the gorge below, tiny wooden boats on it like something from a painting.
You look further down and there are terraced fields falling away in long green steps, people working them, small as ants from up on the road. Above, framing the sky, the karst peaks are stacked up impossibly high, gargantuan, brutally impressive, limestone giants that have been standing since, you sense, time began.
Ancient and magnificent, all of it.
You've seen the photos online.
You think you know what it looks like.
But no. You were not ready for this.
The real highlight of the tour so far — and this tour has had some moments.
Then the descent.
Long, gentle, beautiful late afternoon light doing everything right, lulling, cajoling, murmuring sweet nothings into the shell-like. We rolled into Dong Van feeling weary yet wholly satisfied - dare we say - we rolled in feeling like champions?
And then, dial it in, head outta the clouds, post—ride routine commences:
Shower. Ibuprofen. Copious liquids. Stretch. Handmade pasta.
Yes, handmade pasta, hand-tossed pizza, a cheeky beer and a glass of el vino, in a tiny mountain town near the Chinese border.
Brilliant. Roma Pizza, recommended fully, by KOJO and the crew.
After dinner, a walk through the town. Dong Van on a Friday night is lively and warm and that good feeling from earlier persists, and it will for a good while.
Tomorrow is the queen stage.
135 kilometres. 3,380 metres of climbing. Dong Van to Ha Giang.
Hope you enjoy the photographs, the best of which are by Mark Stocker.
Thank you, for reading.
Onwards.
Images by KOJO and Mark Stocker.