Tham Ma pass
Tight hairpin bends.
NKSTTSSHNVN — CC BY-SA 4.0 · NKSTTSSHNVN — CC BY-SA 4.0 · BacLuong at Vietnamese Wikipedia — Public domain · NKSTTSSHNVN — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Benjamin Smith — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark covers 2,357 square kilometres of limestone highland in the far north of Vietnam, on the border with China, about 256 km north of Hanoi and 56 km from Ha Giang city in a straight line. It joined the UNESCO Global Geopark network in 2010, the first geopark in Vietnam to do so. About 80 per cent of the plateau is limestone, at an average height of 1,400 to 1,600 metres. Its rocks hold more than 500 million years of Earth history, including fossils of ancient fish, corals and trilobites; the oldest, found at Lung Cu, is dated to about 540 million years. Seventeen ethnic minority groups live on the plateau, among them the Hmong and the Dao. The landscape is a sea of grey rock pinnacles, with small maize fields and stone-walled houses tucked into every pocket of soil. Hairpin roads such as the Tham Ma pass zigzag down the slopes, and in October and November pink buckwheat flowers colour the valleys. Most visitors cross the geopark on the Ha Giang Loop, staying overnight in Dong Van town or Meo Vac. Sa Phin valley, the Quan Ba viewpoint and Ma Pi Leng Pass are the usual stops along the way.
Tight hairpin bends.
Fields among the peaks.
October and November.
Dong Van, Meo Vac, Yen Minh and Quan Ba area, far northern Vietnam
Two to three days on the Ha Giang Loop.
In Dong Van town or Meo Vac.