Chin Khoanh slope

Chin Khoanh means "nine coils", and when you see it from above you understand the name. The road stacks back and forth up the hillside in a series of tight U-bends, each one folding neatly above the last. From the top, looking down, the whole thing looks like a ribbon someone dropped on a slope and it happened to land in perfect loops.

The slope sits on the road from Pho Cao to the Sung La valley, a side route that many Loop itineraries include on the way to or from Dong Van. It is shorter and steeper than Tham Ma, the other famous set of bends on the plateau, and the bends are tighter — which makes it more dramatic to look at and more demanding to ride.

A local saying has it that a couple who walk the whole slope together will marry. Whether or not you believe that, walking part of it gives you a sense of the road that riding past does not. The stone walls along some sections, the terraced fields on either side, the sound of a motorbike engine echoing off the hillside as someone climbs below you — these are details you miss at speed.

The classic photograph is from the top, looking down on the bends. There is space to pull over and park at the top, but not much. Don't stop on the bends themselves — this is a working road with trucks and buses, and drivers coming around the corner cannot see a parked bike. And if you walk down the road for a different angle, stay on the very edge and face oncoming traffic.

Chin Khoanh is easy to confuse with Tham Ma slope, which is the more famous set of switchbacks on the main Yen Minh to Dong Van road. Both are worth seeing, but they are in different places and on different roads. If you have time, ride both — they feel different.

The light is best in the morning, when the sun is lower and picks out each bend individually. By midday the light is flat and the turns lose their depth. In the rainy season, the slopes are often clouded over, and the road surface is slippery on the tight turns — take them slowly.