O Quy Ho Pass

The car crawls slowly up the slope. Outside the window, the valley has gone, and the trees no longer show clearly. There is only cloud. It is not overhead but right alongside and straight ahead, wrapped around the car like a huge white blanket. When the car stops at a rest point near the top of the pass and you step out, the cold arrives at once. It is the particular cold of air 2,000 meters above sea level.

This is Ô Quy Hồ Pass, the road the car is climbing now.

Ô Quy Hồ lies on National Highway 4D. The road links Sa Pa in Lào Cai with the province of Lai Châu. On the way it crosses the Hoàng Liên Sơn range. The pass runs for nearly 50 kilometers, and it lies about 15 kilometers from the center of Sa Pa. The summit stands somewhere between about 2,000 meters and more than 2,070 meters above sea level. Whatever the exact number, the height is easy to feel. It shows in the cold, in the low cloud, and in the slight pressure in the ears as the car climbs.

Many people call Ô Quy Hồ the Cloud Pass, because cloud covers the summit almost all the time. That is a name from tourism, not an official one. Still, it captures the spirit of this road.

Ô Quy Hồ is also often counted among the four great passes of northern Vietnam. Two of the others are Mã Pí Lèng and Pha Đin. The fourth is Khau Phạ. All four are famous for their length, their height and the bends that hug the mountainsides. But Ô Quy Hồ and Khau Phạ are two entirely separate passes. Ô Quy Hồ is on National Highway 4D, while Khau Phạ is on National Highway 32. They are two roads in two mountain areas, with two different landscapes. What they share is their beauty and a place among the best-known passes of the Northwest.

People in the area usually explain the name Ô Quy Hồ with a story. The legend says that long ago a bird called from the mountaintop. It cried again and again, as if it were calling someone. The cry sounded like "Ô Quy Hồ, Ô Quy Hồ", echoing through the mist and the rock. The details change from one area to another. Some versions tie it to a love story, and others to a person who died in the mountains. Either way, this is a folk legend, not a verified historical event.

There is a little-known detail about Ô Quy Hồ. A weather station once stood at the top of the pass. That station is linked to the setting of Lặng lẽ Sa Pa, a short story by the writer Nguyễn Thành Long. The title means Quiet Sa Pa. Its central figure is a young man who works alone on a mountaintop. He takes weather readings and records the figures, quiet and diligent amid the vast landscape. The story is fiction, but the mood the writer describes can truly be felt on this very pass. Low cloud, cold wind, the sound of a vehicle fading away, and now and then a bird call slipping into the silence. This road crosses the Hoàng Liên Sơn range. It links Lào Cai with Lai Châu. Up here among the clouds, a weather station once stood quietly.

The Lào Cai side and the Lai Châu side of the pass feel different in climate. The Sa Pa slope is usually damper, with thicker mist, and cloud often clings to it all day. Over on the Lai Châu slope it is often sunnier and drier, especially in the dry season. For a traveler coming over from Sa Pa, there is a moment when the wind changes, the light changes, and the air feels a little warmer. That is when the car is crossing the line between the two sides of the mountain.

On a clear day, valleys and small villages lie far below the road. They look like pieces of green and brown set among the mountains. On a day of low cloud, the scenery comes and goes in the mist. One stretch of mountain appears, then sinks away again. Both kinds of weather have their own beauty. Ô Quy Hồ does not need sunshine to be beautiful. The cloud is already part of who it is.

In the late afternoon, the sun begins to lean toward Lai Châu. Then comes the sunset over the top of Ô Quy Hồ. Many photographers and travelers describe it as one of the most unforgettable moments of a trip through the Northwest. There is also a tourist area on the pass called Cổng Trời Ô Quy Hồ. The name means Sky Gate, and it does sound close to the clouds. Anyone driving by can stop for a while, stand in the cold wind and watch the evening sky.

Clouds roll, mountains stand, and the wind blows through every bend. Then the car crawls on up the slope, and the cloud closes in behind it.