Ba Vi - hiking to heaven

Last weekend I embarked on a motorbike roadtrip with my friends Ha, Đạo and Minh to Ba Vi National Park, which is about 50km west of Hanoi in the Ha Tay province. The park is spread over an immense mountain range with its peak at 1,296m. Along the way we had a little break in the town of Son Tay. We strolled around the ancient citadel to stretch our legs and had some coffee to revive us for the final leg of the journey. The Citadel - surrounded by a 20m wide moat - was erected in 1822 and has a series of gates around the perimeter, some of which are now engulfed by winding and intertwined tree branches. Ha told me that this is a popular place for newly-weds to come and take their wedding photos!


Keen to get back on the road we returned to our parked bikes and were soon all speeding away on the long straight road with clear views to our destination in the distance. Our motorbikes laden with BBQ supplies found it a little taxing to make it up the steep and winding path but after stopping a couple of times to take in the stunning views we made it to the summit.


From here we took a little downhill hike to find an idyllic location for our picnic, old church ruins which were set back off the main path and completely isolated. To our surprise we did encounter a small film crew who were doing some filming for tourism in Vietnam. They took some shots of us setting up our fire but soon left us in peace with only the forest around us. Ha and Đạo had prepared a massive feast for us of meats, fish, fruits and veggies, yum! We whiled away the hours eating, drinking, exchanging stories, exploring the ruins and trying to spot birds and other creatures which we could hear in the canopy above. Feeling rather full and sleepy we decided it would be a good idea to have a little nap before clearing up and hiking back up to our bikes.


The journey back uphill was rather more taxing than we had anticipated and resulted in multiple stops and lying down on the path. It was really surreal because we kept going through patches of really thick mist, it was almost as if we were inside a cloud. Just as we were all feeling we couldn't walk one more step we reached a point where the sun was shining through the trees and the mist giving the impression of a total enlightenment. It was like we had hiked to heaven and we all got very excited! After spending a little time lying down to fully appreciate our new found utopia we picked ourselves up and finally made it to the top.


We made one final stop off for some fresh sữa chua bò (yoghurt - translates as 'sour cows milk') a popular treat in this province and also tasted some milk candies, before slowly making our way home.