In the middle of a COVID lockdown, six police officers, two soldiers, a doctor, and a man in a full hazmat suit surrounded our tent in a remote valley in northern Vietnam - because they were terrified we’d infect an empty rice field. I’ve lived and guided tours in Vietnam for years, and this is still the wildest night I’ve had here.
Why Did We Pitch a Tent in a Valley Nobody Was Supposed to Reach?
We were riding motorbikes across northern Vietnam with no fixed plan - just chasing whatever looked good that day. At one point we turned off the paved road, followed a narrow trail deep into a valley, forded a shallow river, and set up camp a couple of kilometers from the nearest road. By evening we’d had a few beers around the fire, celebrating the spot.
What Happens When Vietnamese Police Think You Brought Covid to the Mountains?
After dark, I noticed a flashlight moving along the ridge above us. I remember thinking, “please don’t be for us.” It was for us. Two police officers climbed over the hill, then a third, then a doctor and a soldier. They genuinely believed we could infect the area around our tent with Covid - an area that was, in fact, an empty rice terrace with no one else within miles.
Backup Arrives: Three More Officers, a Hazmat Suit, and a Campfire That Wouldn’t Die
About three hours in, reinforcements showed up: three more police officers, two soldiers, and a man in a full hazmat suit who methodically sprayed disinfectant on the ground around our tent - in case we’d infected the soil itself. We ended up talking with them for roughly seven hours. The officers kept feeding our campfire with wood they collected themselves. Tense, weirdly friendly, and completely absurd - somehow all three at once.
Nobody in that valley spoke enough English to explain what was happening, and we didn’t speak enough Vietnamese to talk our way out of it - a seven-hour standoff a local guide could have resolved in ten minutes. That’s exactly why the groups I run through these same mountains always travel with someone who can. If you’d rather see this part of Vietnam without negotiating with the local police at 2 AM, message me on Telegram and I’ll walk you through the route.
Why Did We End Up at the Only Hospital in the Region at 2 AM?
Around 2 AM, a woman from the group talked us into coming with them. We pushed back, but there was no real choice. We packed the tent, forded the same river again - in the dark, on motorbikes, both of us still not sober - and somehow neither of us went down. We reached the regional hospital, the only one serving the whole mountain area, at around 2:30 AM. Staff immediately started moving already-hospitalized patients from one ward to another, worried the two of us - visibly foreign - would infect the Covid ward. They gave us the security guard’s room instead: hauled out the furniture, brought in two beds and fresh sheets. When I asked where the bathroom was, the guard walked off and came back with a 40-liter bucket. I stared at him in silence for a solid thirty seconds until the absurdity landed on his own face, and he finally said, “there - that’s the toilet.”
What Did This Teach Me About Traveling These Mountains Solo vs. With a Group?
The next morning, the province’s mayor showed up with his wife and daughter, no masks, completely relaxed. He asked if we were enjoying our trip through Vietnam - we said yes, it’s beautiful here. We signed a couple of papers, shook hands, and rode off. The whole thing had run its course in one night: a tent in a rice valley by dusk, a chat with a provincial mayor by breakfast. Ten out of ten as a story. I still wouldn’t want to do it alone again.
If you want these same mountains and rice terraces without staring down a 40-liter bucket at 3 AM, here’s where to find me:
- Message me on Telegram - I’ll tell you what I’ve actually seen and build a route through these mountains around it
- Follow @vietnam_samurai on Instagram - photos and video from these exact mountains