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Thac Ba Lake, which is located in Yen Binh, Yen Bai, is one of the three largest artificial lakes in Vietnam. It covers an area of about 20,000 hectares and is home to over 1,300 islands of different sizes. With a majestic natural landscape, Thac Ba Lake is attractive to a host of globetrotters, especially motorbikers due to its charming beauty with a poetic lake. It is known as not only the main source of water supply for generating electricity but also an essential fresh air habitat and an ideal spiritual place. This destination is regarded as a pearl of the Northwest region and compared to "Halong on land".
Thac Ba Lake is regarded as a pearl of the Northwest region and compared to "Halong on land".
Thac Ba Lake is in the Chay river basin in Yen Binh district and a part of Luc Yen district. From Hanoi, you move a distance of 140 km along Highway 2 to the west to get to the lake. Construction of the artificial lake started in 1962 and was completed in 1970. The primary purpose of this construction is to block the Chay river to create a lake serving water to the Thac Ba hydropower plant.
In addition to the Chay River, which is the main source of water supply, Thac Ba Lake gets water from a large canal system such as Hanh or Cat canals. The silt of the Chay River and the system of large canals contribute to raising the level of all the villages along the lake. Around the area of Thac Ba lake, there are up to 13 ethnic groups, including Tay, Nung, Mong, Dao, Phu La, Cao Lan, and many others. They live on the mountainside or along the lake and still retain the pristine features, unique cultural characteristics, customs, traditions, and festivals.
Enjoy the beauty of nature at Thac Ba Lake
Coming to Thac Ba Lake, you can take a boat, immerse yourself in nature and take in the cool air. After enjoying the majestic scenery of mountains and islands, you should pay a visit to Thuy Tien cave, Xuan Long cave, Cao Bien mountain, Chang Ro mountain, Thac Ong temple, and Thac Ba temple. Besides, you can explore primeval forests or go along Chay river and come to Ngoc Luc Yen to visit Sao cave, Dai Cai temple, Khai Trung plain. The discovery of these famous sites will bring you more knowledge of the distinctive culture of Tay and Yao ethnic groups.
With a length of 80 km, a width of 30 km, and an area of over 23,400 hectares, Thac Ba has a cool and pleasant climate. In the middle of summer, the temperature around the lake is always 1-2 ºC lower than that of other areas. The moisture from the water surface will bring you great comfort even in the hottest days.
There are many stunning attractions when visiting Thac Ba Lake by motorbike
If you are an adventure lover, it is highly recommended to travel by motorbike. Riding a motorbike will give you increased flexibility. Thac Ba Lake is 50 km from Yen Bai city. From here you can get to Ngoi Tu village easily by motorbike. After arriving in Ngoi Tu village and checking in your hotel/ homestay, you can spend time taking some rest and walking around the peaceful cultural village.
Motorbike is the best means of transport for traveling Thac Ba Lake
Homestay is an ideal type of accommodation for those who are fond of discovering the culture of new lands. When choosing to stay in a homestay, we will live with a local family instead of staying in a hotel or motel. This accommodation will help you to understand more about their lifestyles and cultures. You will go to visit the beautiful villages with traditional cultures, nature reserves, primeval forests, and golden terraced rice fields. This short trip will not take you too much money.
Stay at a beautiful homestay in Ngoi Tu Village, Vu Linh
Visitors to Thac Ba lake often choose to stay at a homestay right next to Thac Ba hydroelectric lake in Ngoi Tu village in Vu Linh commune. Ngoi Tu attracts tourists because of its ideal location, with a part as the mainland and the other one bordering the immense lake. What’s more, it is home to unique cultural and traditional values of ethnic minorities of Dao, Cao Lan, and Nung. Coming to Ngoi Tu, you will have an occasion to eat the local dishes, immerse yourself in the charming scenery, and enjoy folk songs and dances.
Thac Ba Hydropower Plant, which is located on the Chay River in Yen Binh district, is the first hydroelectric plant built in North Vietnam in the wartime.
Located on the tranquil Thac Ba lake, Ngoi Tu Cultural Village in Vu Linh commune, Yen Binh district appeals to a significant number of domestic and foreign tourists in the form of community-based tourism. Ngoi Tu is endowed with the dramatic landscape and has long-standing cultural values. With these unique features, Ngoi Tu is a potential land for developing community-based tourism.
Thac Ba Lake is an artificial lake that was made at the same time with the hydropower project of the same name. The area of 23400 hectares is surrounded by lush green vegetation. The blue lake brings cool air while the surrounding scenery is relatively poetic and charming. The best way for you to admire the spectacular beauty of the lake is to take a boat trip.
If you are interested in spiritual tourism, then don’t hesitate to explore Thac Ba temple. The temple comes with the unique architecture and the sacred and ancient space. Surrounding the temple are green trees and a magnificent landscape that give visitors a sense of peace and tranquility.
On the trip to Thac Ba Lake, Thuy Tien Cave is also worth a visit. The cave is associated with a love story in the old days. Legend has it that the towering mountain here is where the Mercury’s son named Trong Hai, and Jade Emperor’s daughter named Thuy Tien occasionally met and loved each other. After that, their fathers decided to build this cave for them to live together. It is said that all the strange images inside the cave are closely connected with their love story. When entering the cave, you will feel an air of mystery covering the whole space.
Near Thuy Tien Cave is Xuan Long Cave, which is hidden in rock mountains. When going deep into the cave for the discovery, you will be totally amazed at natural stones with strange shapes.
Dat O Do is the place to worship the Master, who taught people to have handwriting. The local people set up this temple to commemorate the Master. Beside the temple is a pagoda, forming a cluster of relics: Ong Do temple & pagoda.
Cao Bien mountain is located next to Thac Ba lake, in Phuc An commune. Quite a few tourists often like climbing up the mountain to see the whole lake. Besides, you can get more understanding of the culture and customs of the people living around the lake.
Thac Ba Lake has an output of thousands of tons of seafood per year. On the journey to discover Thac Ba Lake, you can not ignore delicacies made from fish. The fish of all kinds and weights are processed to create delicious foods with characteristic flavors. Fish are marinated with various spices such as cashew oil, honey, lesser galangal ginger, lemongrass, chili, and garlic before being grilled on charcoal.
The fish that are used for making fish salad must be the fish living in the lake. After being cleaned, they are sliced, spiced, and mixed with powdered grilled rice and types of chopped herbs.
The lake provides you with a rich source of shrimp of high quality. Shrimp on the lake are mainly caught by small-scale boats of the locals. After that, they take the collected shrimp to the market before transferring them to the plains for trade. The homestays around Thac Ba Lake usually serve you with fried shrimp in meals.
The main ingredients of this food include ant eggs and other traditional ingredients. This food has a special flavor while still retaining the distinctive taste of a rolled food. The greasy ant eggs wrapped in crispy rolls make a lot of tourists excited about. However, due to the limited amount of ant eggs in nature, it is quite difficult to collect the ingredients for processing this food.
Five-color sticky rice is a familiar dish in the Northwest region. The sticky rice here is especially glutinous and fragrant. Its color is created by kinds of forest leaves and fruits. While traveling in Thac Ba Lake, you should not miss the opportunity to try this food.
In the list of tasty foods in Thac Ba, bamboo-tube rice cannot be absent. The locals put rice in bamboo tubes before baking them on fire. Depending on the type of rice and the mixed ingredients, the food will have different flavors from region to region.
Chickens are raised right on the lands around the lake by homestay owners. If you want to enjoy this chicken dish, you ask the host to prepare it for you in advance. The chicken is grilled with aromatic litsea that produces the fragrant smell of resin. The addition of ginger, lemongrass, and Zanthoxylum rhetsa increases the aroma of the food. While the chicken is being grilled, its fat flows down the charcoal fire, bringing the aromatic flavor.
In addition to the above-mentioned dishes, Thac Ba lake has countless delicious dishes such as chicken cooked with sour bamboo shoots, banana inflorescence salad, dried buffalo meat, shrimp paste, and Dai Minh grapefruit. All of these dishes carry exquisite flavors of Thac Ba.
Check out our most scenic motorbike tours routes via Thac Ba Lake which are best for off-road riding. Just choose the one that suits your plan most and head to Vietnam in no time!
Motorbike Route: Hanoi → Mai Chau → Moc Chau → Phu Yen → Thac Ba Lake (Vu Linh) → Hanoi
Coming to Northwest Vietnam, you will have an occasion to immerse yourself in spectacular landscapes with rocky mountains, terraced rice fields, and magnificent waterfalls. This mountainous region also leaves tourists with a considerable impression of local cuisine. The Northwest Vietnam Motorbike Tour from Hanoi to Thac Ba Lake - 4 days will give you a chance to experience as much as possible.
Check out the detailed itinerary!
Motorbike Route: Hanoi → Phu Yen → Mu Cang Chai → Sapa → Thac Ba Lake → Hanoi
Northwest Vietnam offers expansive and picturesque views of typical rice terraces fields. Traveling among these cool majestic mountains and featured terraces will be a memorable experience for tourists. The number of visitors interested in enjoying the peacefulness, ready to leave the bustling cities and get close to nature has gone up obviously. Only with 149USD/day/person when signing for a group of 4 people, you will get good motorbikes, kind services, and best opportunities to experience the real travel life. Let’s do it!
Motorbike Route: Hanoi → Thac Ba Lake → Sapa → Bac Ha → Ha Giang → Dong Van → Bao Lac → Ba Be → Ba Khan → Hanoi
What type of tourism you are into among environmental tourism, historical tourism, cultural tourism, and adventure tourism? Regardless of which one you like, an off-road adventure can offer you most of the aforementioned types with the unforgettably thrilling experiences and feelings. Let’s get onto two wheels passing through the untamed nature and the landscapes as beautiful as a water-color painting. Our 9-day North Vietnam Motorbike Tour from Hanoi to Ba Khan is sure to bring you to some of the most mind-blowing natural wonders and the heaven of serenity that are hardly found in somewhere else.
Motorbike Route: Hanoi → Mai Chau → Phu Yen → Mu Cang Chai → Than Uyen → Sapa → Bac Ha → Hoang Su Phi → Ha Giang → Dong Van → Meo Vac → Bao Lac → Lago Ba Be → Thac Ba Lake → Hanoi
The 11-day North Vietnam Motorbike Tour from Hanoi to Thac Ba Lake is one of the most remote tours in the whole country. However, that intact and pristine area is home to several glorious destinations that are naturally preserved and almost intact by humans. They range from limestone mountain, rice terrace, river valley, and green meadow. By exploring the north of Vietnam by motorbike, seeing the diversity of nature and people and witnessing their daily life in the remote area, you can get out of your comfort zone and explore the other aspects of life and somehow understand the voice of the mother nature.
Motorbike Route: Hanoi → Mai Chau → Phu Yen → Than Uyen → Sapa → Bac Ha → Ha Giang → Dong Van → Meo Vac → Quang Uyen → Ban Gioc Waterfall → Cao Bang → Ba Be Lake → Thac Ba Be → Hanoi
Northern Vietnam is a magnificent spot that has enchanted a large proportion of tourists annually by its various geographical features and topography; high mountains, forests to plateau. The 12-day North Vietnam motorbike tour from Hanoi to Thac Ba lake hosted by BM Travel Adventure will bring you out of the hustling Hanoi to the heavenly pristine regions of northern Vietnam, such as: Mai Chau, Phu Yen, Mu Cang Chai, Tu Le, Than Uyen, Sapa, Ha Giang, Dong Van, Meo Vac, Quang Uyen, Ban Gioc and Ba Be Lake where your heart must beat faster with the breathtaking scenery and thrilling adventurous experiences.
With breathtaking landscapes and a range of outstanding destinations, Thac Ba Lake is seen as a wonderful destination that any biker cannot miss in the trip to Northwest Vietnam. Thac Ba Lake mainly develops community tourism, so the expense of the journey to explore Thac Ba Lake is relatively reasonable. In short, with the poetic and magnificent landscape, Thac Ba is regarded as one of the most beautiful artificial lakes in Vietnam. Traveling from Hanoi to Thac Ba Lake by motorbike certainly will give you memorable experiences. If you intend to take your next vacation in Northwest Vietnam, then spend time visiting Thac Ba Lake for the most enjoyable experiences.
You may also like to read more Vietnam Destinations
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