Blogs from Ha Giang, Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

24th Mar - Today we went on a five hour walk where we walked through villages, giant boulders, rice paddies and houses. We saw a massive place seperated by a river and it was China. It was very dry and had loads of massive hills. There were people in black and their tribe was the Tay. The colourful tribe was the H'mong. We went to a view point and we were like 20 metres high. There was a school and you could see inside. One class had been doing English and the other Maths. The market earlier, was really busy and the men dealt with different things from the ladies. Men = birds, buffalos, and dogs. Ladies = pigs, cloth and wine. The birds were in such small cages and the pigs were getting dragged along. ... read more

22nd Mar - Today we went on a long car journey through Vietnam. On the way there we went to a local place where lorry drivers stopped off. We ate sticky rice, long beans, pork, omelet, cucumber and mint. I went to the toilet but met 4 dogs as big as me on the way so thought that was a bad idea so I didn’t go. When we got to the village we stayed in a stilt house. Jonathan We had a long drive to Ha Giang. The problem was our driver, Mr Thanh, was so slow. We were meant to pick up our guide at 11:30am. Our lunch was horrible it was spinach, pork with loads of fat on, and tofu. Everybody dropped their fat on the floor and there were bones everywhere. I put ... read more

Het is al even geleden dat ik nog een post geplaatst heb. Dat heeft ook een goede reden, er is de afgelopen week weinig spannends gebeurd. Nadat ik een dikke week geleden terug ben gekeerd uit Ha Long Bay naar Hanoi ben ik voornamelijk bezig geweest met het zoeken naar respondenten voor interviews met NGO's of organisaties onafhankelijk van de overheid. Hun perspectief in verband met mijn thesisonderwerp is namelijk net zo belangrijk als dat van de overheid en lokale bevolking. Veel mailtjes later heb ik dan eindelijk één iemand gevonden die met mij wou spreken. Iemand die gewerkt had voor UNESCO nog wel. Het interview was heel interessant en zal zeker veel bijdragen aan de resultaten van mijn onderzoek. Ondertussen wacht ik nog op antwoord van de andere organisaties die ik heb aangeschreven, maar dat ... read more

4 October to 8 October 2012 – This was my third trip to Hà Giang province. On my last trip to this province 6 months ago, I traveled on a tour. I also wanted to visit Hoàng Su Phì and Xín Mần, but I didn’t bring enough cash for the trip, as these places were not included on the tour. I decided I would go back during the rice harvest. The travel companion and I took a 5:30am bus from Hà Giang city to Xín Mần. We arrived at Xín Mần town 5 hours later, although the distance is only 145km (mountain road). It was foggy, so we couldn’t view the terraced rice fields on the way. We spent our first day relaxing, visiting market and drinking tea with the locals in the town. Next morning, ... read more

15 & 16/4/2012 – Day 2 & Day 3 of the 5 day trip to Hà Giang (the northernmost province of Vietnam). We arrived at Đồng Văn town at 5pm. Next to our hotel there were 3 big motorbikes which we saw when our mini bus had problem on the pass. It turned out that these motorbikes were owned by 3 Thai travelers. Anyone would dream of having such a comfortable motorbike to travel in this wonderful mountain region. The Thai men were passing by us very fast, so we only guessed based on the Lao and Thai flags on their bikes. The first thing I did after arrival in Đồng Văn town was to walk along the main street. When we had dinner at a restaurant opposite to our hotel, I saw 3 Thai men ... read more