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By Root 1524 0

China’s Pearl River in the north. Over the col lie the Ngan Son Mountains, which are the domain of several ethnic minorities, among them the Nung, Dao and San Chay (whose women typically carry a broad, curved knife tucked in the back of their belts). There are few villages in sight on these wild uplands, just the occasional split-bamboo hut selling wild honey (mat ong) beside the road. In fact, apart from Ngan Son, lost in a vast, treeless valley, there’s no settlement of any size between Cao Bang and journey’s end, 80km later in Na Phac, a small market town 200km from Hanoi. If you’re here on market day – held at five-day intervals, starting on the first day of the lunar month – you’ll be treated to an arresting display of minority dress. From the Na Phac turning on Highway 3 a road threads west across country to Ba Be (47km) via CHO RA, another small town that comes to life on market days (every Sun). If you’ve got your own vehicle, you can take an interesting alternative route on a back road through stunning rural landscapes: just north of Phu Thong on Highway 3 (near the 174km marker), turn left and after 30km you’ll come out beside Cho Ra’s Ba Be 1 hotel (See "Accommodation and eating").

Public transport to Ba Be is also possible – buses leave from Gia Lam bus station in Hanoi and pull up in Cho Ra, from where a xe om to Ba Be Lake will cost around 30,000đ. If coming from Ha Giang with your own transport, enquire about the condition of Highway 279, which cuts across from Viet Quang; if this road is not passable, you will need to go back down Highway 2 to Tuyen Quang, then head east on Highway 37 to Thai Nguyen, and follow Highway 3 north from there.

The far north | The northeast | Ba Be National Park |

Information and itineries

On arrival, first stop for independent travellers should be the park headquarters (entrance fee 11,000đ), which is located a couple of kilometres from the boat jetty on the east side of the lake. Here you can get information about two- to five-day tours (from $25 per person), the most popular of which are boat trips to the caves and waterfalls. Most trips are in spacious, covered motorboats, but it’s also possible to row (or be rowed) around parts of the lake in a narrow dug-out canoe – a more appropriate way to move about in such a tranquil environment; daily rental for both motorboats and canoes is from $35 a day.

The Ba Be itinerary usually begins with a boat trip along the Nang River to Hang Puong, where the waters have tunnelled a three-hundred-metre-long, bat-filled cave through a mountain. From here they go on to the Dau Dang Waterfall, a stretch of beautiful but treacherous rapids. Take care if you walk on the slippery rocks around the falls as there has been at least one tourist fatality here. Next up is a visit to a Tay village on the lakeside, and on longer trips an overnight stay in a stilthouse. A road around the south end of the lake has made Pac Ngoi less of an isolated Tay community than it used to be, but several other villages in the area, such as Buoc Luom, Ban Vang and Bo Lu, can accommodate visitors too. Few Tay wear traditional dress these days, and you’re most likely to see it at a minority show at the National Park Guest House(See "Accommodation and eating").

The far north | The northeast | Ba Be National Park |

Accommodation and eating

The most convenient and comfortable place to stay is the National Park Guest House or Vuon Quoc Gia Ba Be (0281/389 4136, 0281/389 4126; US$21–30), located next to park headquarters, which offers fifty pricey rooms, a restaurant and occasional minority shows. In the summer months (June–Aug) it is often booked out by party cadres, who find it a good location for meetings, so it’s best to reserve ahead. For added privacy you can stay in cottages located 100m away, opposite the guesthouse, which are newer though slightly more expensive. Alternatively, you can spend a night in a stilthouse in Pac Ngoi, a lakeside Tay village 7km from the park headquarters; home-stays here or in other nearby villages can be arranged through