Travel Guide Sông Ma

From Son La, the sông (river) Ma road can be an alternative to the classic route to Diên Biên Phu. This variant involves a long detour (250 km and some 8 hours of road versus 155 km and 4 hours of road for the normal road via national roads QL6 and QL279). It drives in some of the most remote regions of the country, completely away from tourist circuits.For most of the journey, the road runs along the Ma River. It originates in northwest Vietnam and flows south-east for 400 km through Vietnam, then Laos (Houaphan province), then Vietnam again, before finally flowing into the Gulf of Tonkin at the city of Thanh Hoa.This route includes portions of the road that are still unpaved. It crosses very beautiful villages of the Thai Dam minority (Black Thai) where the houses on stilts have kept their original character.