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Published: November 15th 2006
Dancing
Local girl dances through a field of rice We recently wanted to head off & explore the 'remote' northwest area of Vietnam. The region, which borders China & Laos, is known for its multitude of colourful minority groups & endless stunning scenery. Kylie, Amy, Amber & I hired a 4wd, a local driver & set off with a carefully planned route mapped out before us. There's a standard loop that people take, but just to be different we chose to do it backwards.
The trip didn't turn out quite as any of us really expected. We'd planned for time spent meeting hilltribe villagers. We expected time to explore the villages we were visiting and to have stories to tell & photos to show from our unique & remote 4WD adventure. Perhaps we could have all done more research; perhaps we could have been warned. As it turned out, we spent the vast majority of our 4 night, 5 day trip in the car, speeding through remote villages, gawping at locals through our 4wd windows rather than meeting them & forging friendships.
We had the option to stop wherever & whenever we wanted,
Greens
Locals come & go, early morning at morning at Sapa market but there's only so many times you can stop the car, jump out, take a photo of a local & speed off again. You generally gain little but guilt from snapping away at people with no interaction at all, although because of the circumstances we did still take lots of photos from the window as we sped past. It was often that or nothing. My memory may be mistaken, but from what I remember, all but one day was spent in its entirety in the car (save for a few photo op's & lunch). Most evenings we arrived too late to really explore - it's dark by 6pm & with no street lights in villages it's not easy to wander off into the darkness.
Despite all of that, there were of course still a few magical experiences along the way:
We stopped in one village where we seemed to have enough time to walk around for awhile & share a few moments interacting with the locals - mainly kids. There's around 50 minority groups in the area, the people in this village were Black Thai, & I soon realised that I could understand the odd word of what
they said. I don't know much Thai, but I can count pretty well & I can say a handful of other randomly useful things. Although we were far from Thailand, the Black Thai speak a variation of the Thai language & thus I was able to utter a few words that were mutually understood. There's something quite satisfiying about realising you can communicate where you least expect it - even if it isn't much.
We spent awhile amusing & being amused by the kids & looking around the village. It was built on a river with beautiful views as far as the eye could see. In most of the villages woman (& children) carry babies in a very basic kind of backpack, really just a piece of material sewn together in a special way. We were keen to buy one, perhaps as a present, perhaps for us someday. At a market stall there was a baby, but no sign of the backpack things. I know I said I can speak a little Thai, but hard as I tried to describe what we waned to buy, it was soon apparent that they thought we wanted to buy the baby. The
Anyone for Eyeball Soup?
We asked who's eyes; 1st they pointed at a tree. Then they said Vietnamese. So either giant bird's eye or Vienamese person's eye woman who's baby it was ran out of sight, perhaps in fear. Eventually we all made sense of each other & there was laughing all around. This simple interaction is what I craved from the whole trip.
Our first night was spent in Sapa, a famous & popular tourist resort not far from the Chinese border. On the way we stopped at the border crossing & looked on - we were in the exact same spot as we'd been when we arrived from China four weeks ago to the day. Somehow we'd travelled so far yet not really progressed at all.
We hadn't heard good reports of Sapa so chose not to stay any longer than absolutely necessary. It seemed a pretty pleasant place, the people friendly & some of the food delicious. In the 'Friendly Cafe' (which it was), we ordered some vegetarian spring rolls. We suspected that they had meat in them, so asked the woman there if there was. She went to the kitchen & came back with a hunk of fresh meat.
'This' she said,
'is what meat looks like' - it was as if she thought we had never seen meat before &
needed a visual demonstration of what meat really looked like.
Sapa is very close to Mt Fansipan, one of the tallest mountains in South East Asia. Apparently the whole area is surrounded by lush rice terraces, mountains & hills. Sadly all we saw was rain & cloud. Fortunately some kind of weather forcefield exists just round the corner from Fansipan & although the views on the far side aren't so stunning, the weather normally is.
Mr Binh, our driver spoke very little English. I forget the reasoning behind it, but when we made the car & driver arrangements, I'd been assured that it was actually better to have a driver that didn't speak much English. He did seem to speak various local languages which was useful & I guess what's really most important is that he's a good driver anyway (& he generally was, the only incident being when we ran over a child's foot).
On our second day we were planning to spend the night in Lai Chau, an anticipated 8 or so hour drive from Sapa. So when we passed through a place called Lai Chau after about 3 hours we were slightly confused &
Dog Restaurant
'Thit Cho' means Dog Meat. I suspect the two dogs outside know that too concerned. Mr Binh was determined to keep driving even though we all knew that the signs said we'd just passed through Lai Chau. He pulled over & drew imaginary maps on the windscreen. We had no idea what he seemed to be going on about & he drove on. As it happens they've decided to change all the names of the places in the area. This place had been the
newLai Chau, the
old one was still many hours away.
Old Lai Chau is a small one street town in a long valley, with yet more stunning views all around. It was here that we realised just how much they are into eating dogs in Vietnam. Cho (or Cay in the south) means dog in Vietnamese, and once we'd worked out what it meant, we saw it just about everywhere we went. People are fond of dogs, almost everyone seems to have a pet dog, although normally something small & cute like a Pekinese. It didn't take long to realise however that most of the bigger dogs in Lai Chau were not cute. Neither were they very friendly. After an interesting walk just out of the town into a
peaceful & friendly village, I found myself contentedly walking back alone to meet the others in the absolute pitch black. Two dogs came for me, big white salivating jaws clearly visible; their barking the most ferocious I've heard in years. Eventually a local scared them off. Early the next morning on peaceful stroll through another village we were confronted with more unfriendly barking & ready to bite dogs. They must know that some day soon they will be someone's dinner. If only they knew I was vegetarian.
From Lai Chau we drove via Dien Bien Thieu to Son La for a night, & then on to Mai Chau. Over the course of the four days we passed numerous villages & hundreds of locals. Each minority wears a different style of clothing & many villages live in differently designed types of hut. The clothes are almost all very colourful, with headresses & jewellery. Although in Mai Chau they no longer dress as they used to, they live in stilt houses, raised a few metres above the ground, and they've created quite a good little business by opening their homes to travellers. This is no rustic hilltribe experience, they have electricity
& running water these days, but it still makes a change from what we are used to.
We slept in a large open shared room with a beautiful view that looked out directly onto the rice fields. Finally we had time to relax & explore too. For the second time on the trip, I found myself at some kind of kindergarden or school. Again these small moments are what make the trip worthwhile. In the first place Amber & I had been invited in & took lots of photos that we promised to send to them. Before we left I picked up a very cute toddler. She was perfectly happy to be held & decided to amuse myself by pretending to leave with her. She didn't resist & the staff just nodded as if to say
'okay, take her' Much as I was tempted, I didn't but I've no idea how far I would have got before someone would have stopped me.
In my previous travels through Asia I've come across many many villagers & peasants, and the one thing that always seems to be constant is that however poor these people are, they appear to be happy.
Multicoloured Thread
On sale at a market They live with their families, they live off of the land around them. They have no desire to drive big cars, eat at McDonalds or shop at big supermarkets. Yet for some reason it's assumed that this western idea of happiness is what everyone really needs.
Soon enough we were back in Hanoi again. We had a few more things to do. We bought train tickets - such a simple & enjoyable task compared to China. Afterwards we walked back along the railway lines, past food stalls, homes & people coming & going. A simple pleasure, one of those things that seems you've spent your whole life being told you must never do.
We needed laundry doing & having followed a random sign that led up an alley & then some stairs, found ourselves in the house of an elderly Vietnamese couple. They spoke no English, but we worked out that the man spoke a little French. I last studied French about 18 years ago, but still seem to have a few basics. It's very rewarding to find it's still there when you need it. Their house was fascinating; their family shrine was huge - on it are
photos of deceased parents, as well as offerings to them. All around were interesting old photos, & the man tried to explain something about being in prison, perhaps after the war. On our return to collect the clean clothes we were sat down & shared a pot of tea.
We were in Hanoi for the mid autumn festival, which coincides with the autumn full moon. The festival is for kids & much like our Christmas involves decorations & presents. Children dress up with lion headresses & run about banging drums, while parents buy the presents. Back in Hoi An we'd seen preparations for the festival some weeks ago. We'd heard that in Hoi An masses of lanterns are set off down the river, giving the impression that the river is on fire. Being in Hanoi, a big city, we hoped the celebrations would be even bigger. Sadly apart from lots of people buying presents on 'toy street' there was almost nothing to speak of.
Time to head south once again, to the coast in the centre of the country. Another train, this time a sleeper cabin. Perhaps five times the cost of the tourist bus, but worth every
Cleaning Off & Cooling Down
Water Buffallo leaves a trail as he washes off & cools down dong. We were heading for the beach, to Hoa's Place, a place I'd last stayed at 7 years ago. A place known as one of the friendliest in the country. A typhoon had passed through just days before so we didn't know what to expect. Hoa is a legend, I was looking forward to seeing him again. Would he remember me? When we arrived in Danang we needed to get on a motorbike to get to Hoa's. The driver told us Hoa was long gone - the new road that we'd seen a few weeks ago, the road that we already knew had carved up the local settlements, had forced him away. I was devastated.
I know not everyone has as much spare time as we do these days, so we appreciate it if you've made it to the end of the blog.... hopefully it brightens up a day at work, or makes a change from watching tv. Once again, I've added quite a few photos & they are spread across a few pages Wellington - Sydney - Bangkok - Khao Lak - Chaweng (Koh Samui) - Lamai (Koh Samui) - Bangkok - Macau - Guangzhou - Yangshuo - Guangzhou - Zhengzhou - Guangzhou - Shanghai - Huang Shan - Shao Lin - Beijing - Xi'an - Chengdu - Leshan - Kanding - Tagong - Litang - Xiang Cheng - Zhongdian - Lijiang - Kunming - Hekou/Lao Cai - Hanoi - Cat Ba Island - Ninh Binh - Hanoi - Hue - Hoi An - Hue - Hanoi - Sapa - Lai Chau - Son La - Mai Chau - Hanoi
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Casey
non-member comment
Hey there
Just wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading your blog entries!! Sounds like you guys are having the time of your life and the photos are great!! Looking forward to the next one.