Bucketlist Vietnam: The Ha Giang Loop & Halong Bay

Ten of you. Strangers on Day 1 in Hanoi's Old Quarter, a tribe by the farewell. This is the Vietnam adventure your friends haven't done, and the control stays yours the whole way. For three days you ride the Ha Giang Loop in a private car built for it, over Ma Pi Leng, the pass they call the Road of Happiness, with a boat gliding down the Nho Que river in the canyon below. Then you trade the mountains for the water: a night on a private-balcony cabin on Lan Ha Bay, kayaks at sunrise, the bay to yourselves. Every night's sleep, almost every meal, and every permit handled. You just show up.