384km on a motorbike

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in! 💌 

btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: on a motorbike for 384km 🏍️

more than any country i’ve been to up until now, i wish i could have spent more time in vietnam.

instead of my original 8-day plan, i ended up only spending 4.5 days in vietnam because of the whole immigration + delays fiasco. 3 of those 4.5 days were spent on the 384km ha giang loop while on the back of a motorbike.

this loop easily became one of the best experiences of my life. dare i say top 3 alongside kilimanjaro & speaking on a stage in denmark. 🇩🇰 

for some quick context, the ha giang loop is a motorbike route through northern vietnam’s mountains and rural villages. i went with an agency (qt motorbikes) and had the option of driving myself, but i wanted to focus on the scenery and didn’t trust myself with my own life on those steep cliffs and narrow roads so i opted for the “easy-rider” option. we covered 100-180km per day for 3 days, stopping at view points, for coffee/drinks or lunch, hiking spots and small villages along the way.

we were on the road from 8am-5(ish)pm, but it didn’t feel long at all. i was actually disappointed whenever the remaining distance dropped below 20km, especially on the very last day. i mean, why wouldn’t i be? the rush of speeding past other group members while looking out at the unbelievably beautiful mountains was exhilarating. my driver was the youngest in the group (20 years old) and his habits were so compatible with what i enjoy: speeding & “beating” the other drivers, and blasting drake. 😁

my life was in the hands of a 20 y/o that i could only communicate with via papago’s translator. it was great. i did, however, make the humiliating mistake of not waiting for the app to finish translating and answered “chín” for my age. i was trying to say 19, which i later learned is actually mười chín.

i told him my age is ripe. chín is ripe.

yeah, i was mortified and then figured out why he was laughing so hard. 💀 i laughed a lot too. not just with my driver, but with the other guides, new friends i made in the group, and with the locals we met at each stop. my favourite part was always when we would drive past little villages and the children would rush out of their homes to wave hello with the biggest smiles ever. i couldn’t help the equally huge grin on my face each time i waved back. it was just so lovely.

this was something i noticed with locals throughout my time in vietnam. i had the most positive interactions with locals in vietnam compared to any other country. i only spent half a day in vietnam outside the ha giang experience (it took a day just getting to ha giang LOL), but just within 4 hours i had already gained 2 memorable encounters. the first was when two kids walked up to me and pointed at a pin on my tote bag asking, “america?” the next 20 minutes were spent explaining where i got each of my pins as we sat together by the hoan kiem lake. ⛲️ the next encounter was when i hit up a café for cake. 2 older women took a candid photo of me, and tapped me on my shoulder saying, “we took this photo. we think you will like it!” i liked it a lot.

they airdropped it to me, and i helped them with their own little photoshoot. :)

biking the ha giang loop, and my time in vietnam as a whole, was like visiting your cousins as a child: you finally find your rhythm and have so much fun, but by then it’s time to leave.

i need a motorcycle license now, perhaps an extended vietnam visa too. 🇻🇳

daily opportunity + resource drops 🔍️