A motorbike tour to Moc Chau is a short-day riding option. This gives a great opportunity for those of us who don’t have much time while still love to embrace the joy of riding.
Moc Chau is in a district of Son La province, and it lies 204 km to the east of Hanoi. Being an area of some 300 meters above sea level, Moc Chau is a hilly region. Here, the locals make a living from growing tea along with breeding cattle. The place is a shelter from Hanoi’s heat in the summer while providing scenic nature and the thrill of motorbike riding.
The highlights of Moc Chau motorbike tour
The riding route
From Hanoi, there’s more than 1 way to ride to Moc Chau. Our favorite is to firstly take AH13 to Dong Lac. From here, follow DT12B to bypass Hoa Binh city before joining QL6. Starting from here, the road becomes scenic as you start going uphill. The road goes up higher, and you start to see forests, hilltops, green valleys and minority communities dotting along the way. At some points, misty clouds might shroud hilltops, making the scenes more photogenic.
For motorbike riders, when you are 50 km from Mai Chau (and still in the direction to Moc Chau), there’s a left turn leading to Hang Kia. This is an “off-the-beaten-track” route, taking you right though a valley with villages of the H’mong people on the way. This route is extremely scenic as the trail becomes a thread winding its way along the mountain side, then through a valley.
Where to stay on your Moc Chau motorbike tour?
The town of Moc Chau provides a number of accommodation. However, 16 km from the town is home to the scenic tea plantation. You can book an accommodation here and go riding amidst the tea plantations for some photography. So, places to stay should be:
Places to visit on your Moc Chau motorbike tour
Taking your hotel as a base, here are the places to ride to on your Moc Chau motorbike tour:
Moc Chau tea plantation
First and foremost, the tea plantation is what originally makes Moc Chau famous for. And they are beautiful. Many local couples choose Moc Chau to be the place where they have their wedding album shot. These plantations spread out on a large area. At most time of the day you can see workers picking up tea leaves in their traditional Vietnamese conical hats:
Na Ka plum valley
This is an extremely romantic part of the drive as you will be riding through a vast plum forests. Every January – February period, the whole valley booms in a pure white color of plum flowers. Your motorbike tour to Moc Chau now becomes a fairly tale with incredible flower landscape. If you arrive around May, you will have the chance of tasting the best plums of northern Vietnam here.
Son Moc Huong cave and Ngu Dong Ban On cave
For motorbike riders who like to explore caves, there are 02 options:
Son Moc Huong cave
The cave lies in the town of Moc Chau, only 165 m off from the main National No. 6 road. The cave is also a commonly visited site on our North Vietnam motorbike tours. There’s a staircase of 240 steps to hike up to the cave mouth. The cave covers an area of 6.915 m2 inside a limestone formation. It’s altitude is 100 m from the ground. The cave stretches 80 meters long, 20 meter high and 25 meter wide. There are 03 separate chambers inside. Another name of the cave is Bat cave – due to the amount of bats that used to live here once upon a time.
Ngu Dong Ban On cave
This is in fact a system of 05 caves. Each has the name of one of the 05 elements among: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. The stalagmites and stalactites inside are fairly amazing as they sparkle when contracting lights. There’s a rough road leading you to the site, suitable for some adventure motorbike riding. However, one needs to have proper equipment to explore the cave since visiting it is mostly self-reliant.
