Day 2:  Yen Minh - Dong Van – Meo Vac (B/L/D)

Morning: Have a soft breakfast before packing to continue with an 70km from  Yen Minh to Meo Vac, which is perhaps the most remarkable stretch of road in the country. From here, you will go clockwise on the loop, towards Dong Van. A steep pass takes you immediately into the limestone karsts. Trees are noticeably absent from the rocky slopes. Instead, you’ll see acres of soy bean plantations, punctuated occasionally by clumps of sweet corn and stands of bamboo. After cutting along steep, treeless valleys, the road winds up to what has become known as the ‘Nine-Turn Pass‘. A helter-skelter stretch of tarmac, this pass is a favourite photo-opportunity for any road-tripper. From the top, you can see the road snaking down to a ‑at valley encased by limestone karsts. After more glorious scenery, there’s another fork in the road at Sa Phin. In a dramatic valley, just after the fork, there’s a small settlement clustered around a large stone building. This is the former palace of the H’mong king. Well worth a visit, this attractive stone and timber structure was built by the colonial French to keep the H’mong king happy. The last 15km to Dong Van is an extraordinary ride through limestone pylons, each one casting a sinister shadow over the deep valley. The road is chiseled out of the mountains, gripping to the side of rocky clis. Sometimes there are no barriers; it feels likeying.The ­nal stretch from Dong Van to Meo Vac is a 22km ride along the Ma Pi Leng Pass, a staggering road clinging to the edge of a wall of limestone mountains, towering hundreds of feet above the craterous  Nho Que River valley. If any mountain pass in Vietnam deserves the title ‘epic’ it’s this one. After a short climb southeast out of Dong Van on Road QL4C, the ground seems to fall away, and you’re left gasping at the enormous chasm below.

Evening: Dinner and overnight in Meo Vac homestay.