Lying dragon sunrise hike, Ancient pagoda built into cliffs, Sleeper bus fun

The day started early with a sunrise hike and kept our expectations low about actually seeing a sunrise since it is monsoon season. The mountain was Hang Mua - Lying Dragon. After court hike, we checked out more lotus fields, an 18th century pagoda, ate a great meal while planning our Ha Giang motorbike trip, and experienced a sleeper bus.

Before heading out for our sunrise hike, we filled out motorbike up with some gas. You can just by gas from people selling it in random bottles along the roadside.

Statues of dragons are super common all over VietNam. Dragons are symbolic creatures in Vietnamese folklore and mythology. According to an ancient origin myth, the Vietnamese people are descended from a dragon and a fairy. The dragon was symbolic of bringing rain, essential for agriculture. It represents the emperor, the prosperity and power of the nation. Similar to the Chinese dragon (which has also influenced and appeared in Japan and Korea as fierce but benevolent serpentine dragons alike), the Vietnamese dragon is the symbol of yang, representing the universe, life, existence, and growth

A dragon statue at the beginning of the hike

The silhouette of the dragon statue at the top of the mountain 

We have already gotten lots of mileage out of this translated sign. According to the sign "children and old people need to be supervised", so Fallon has been supervising me.

This is what sunrise looked like - a bit anticlimactic, but it was much nicer to hike early in the morning to beat the heat.

Lots of stairs to the top

At the top, we had fun taking lots of photos with the dragon statue and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Doing our best dragon impersonation 

A good example of why "old people" need to be "supervised

The dragon statue at the top of Hang Mua 

Layers of karsts

Looking down on rice fields and karsts

A wooden walkway through the lotus fields - a cool looking design from above 

The are two viewpoints. This is one of them taken from the other one.

When we got to the bottom, I couldn't resist going out to the lotus fields. I love these flowers. We saw women working hard in the fields before 6am.

Check out the vibrant colors of this flower

Women working in the lotus fields before 6am

A view of the sleeping dragon mountain 

The were some caves in the area, so we checked them out too. 

On our ride back, we ran into a duck roadblock. At 1st our brains couldn't figure out what in the world we were seeing.

Breakfast back at our homestay 

Our next adventure took us to Bich Dong pagoda. A stone bridge spanned a large lotus pond, which explodes with bright pink blossoms. We followed the stairs up and around the mountain where we saw good views and two other temples embedded in the mountain, dating back to the 18th century.

More dragon statues

Check out the white tooth

A woman selling goods outside of the pagoda 

A bouquet of lotus flowers 

Vietnamese women near the entrance to Bich Dong Pagoda 

There are rice fields everywhere in different stages of the growth cycle. You see people bent over working in them all of the time. It looks backbreaking.

Rice fields along the drive 

Our sweet ride

A duck hanging out in the rice fields 

Planning our Ha Giang motorbike trip while eating delicious vegan food. Papaya salad, where have you been my whole life?

Check out how colorful the fresh spring rolls were.

After figuring out our route for Ha Giang and making reservations at homestays along the way, we packed up our stuff and prepared for the 11 hour sleeper bus. It is almost impossible to describe a sleeper bus until you have experienced one. There are only places to lie down and there is no where to put your stuff. Depending on what size you are and which bus you are on, you may or may not fit. This bus was perfect for me - I'm the perfect size for traveling in VietNam (which means most of the folks I know are not). We only took 1 bathroom break the entire trip and there is not a bathroom on the bus. Apparently, if you really need to go, you can ask the bus driver to pull over on the side of the road.

The bus driver put us on the top bunk. It is not easy getting up or down.

You take off your shoes before getting on the bus 

Even though it is a sleeper bus, they keep the lights on all night. The bus was packed. You can see Fallon trying to climb over a person sleeping on the floor.

After arriving in Ha Giang around 3:00am, the bus dropped us off on the side of the road near what we thought would be Mama's Homestay which is where we were planning to rent our motorbikes. Needless to say it was not near it, so we called the homestay and they sent someone to get us. We just had to have faith that the guys on motorbikes that pulled up to us on a dark road not near anything were from the homestay. So, we each hopped on the back of a motorbike with a complete stranger. And after lots of hours of traveling, we made it to Mama's Homestay in Ha Giang. Fallon needed more sleep (I was able sleep better than her on the bus), so she crashed on a bunk, but me, once I'm awake in the morning, I'm awake. The next step in our adventure will be motorbiking the Ha Giang loop. 

Inside Mama's Homestay