Day 1: Hanoi - Mai Chau, 160 km, 5 hr ride.

After breakfast, we take a taxi to get to the starting point at the outskirt of Hanoi, from here you take the bikes and start your first day ride to Mai Chau.
Leaving Hanoi and breaking out of the delta plains, we pass through endless limestone karst scenery as we travel up to the Northwestern region, the extensive farming lands comprising a sea of paddy fields split by tree-lined roads. Arrive in Mai Chau in late afternoon. Here we stay overnight with friends of the White Thai minority in a traditional stilt house. In the evening, after feasting, we can enjoy a cultural show of Thai dancing and a range of special local liquors. Overnight in Mai Chau.

Day 2: Mai Chau – Phu Yen, 170 km, 6 hr ride.

We backtrack on the main a few kilometres before embarking on a new road which drops down the side of a huge valley, steadily falling all the way back down to the Black River Reservoir. The spectacular paved road 43 rides us to an area inhabited by Kinh and both Black and White Thai ethnicities. Depending on time we can complete another side road which rises up the opposite side of the valley, offering impressive views over the area on a clear day. Just before the reservoir we breach a final steep ascent and pass by communes of Dao people, before the descent to the banks of the reservoir and a ferry crossing. Once across we follow the banks of the reservoir past village all relocated before the flooding of the valley. On easy paved road, we approach the delta settlement of Phu Yen, set in the middle of a vast valley floor of paddy fields. Overnight in Phu Yen.

Day 3: Phu Yen - Hanoi, 170 km, 5 hr ride.

Easy ride back to Hanoi by taking a small paved road going down along the central mountain range. Stop for lunch in SonTay. Arrive in Hanoi in the early afternoon