Ha Giang
18 December 2019.
I had earlier signed up for a 2 Day 3 Night package with YESD Travel based in Hanoi as I wanted to explore some parts of the Ha Giang loop but can only do so as a pillion rider. The first day was simply getting to Ha Giang province from Lao Cai, a 6 hour bus journey which was scheduled to start at 1200. Looking back, this afternoon departure was little too long a wait, in future I would consider getting the help of the agency to help reserve tickets for the earlier bus so that one can reach Ha Giang by the afternoon with plenty of time to explore the area before the tours begin the next day.
Morning in Lao Cai. 0930 hr.
There were too many private hire cars and taxis outside the hotel, at 1100, I walked on and decidedly called for a Grab instead. 50,000 dong was the amount stated. When the app revelation of the driver’s photo showed a man who resembled the Vietnese taxi driver who had driven the French traveller and I from the border to the local bus station, I instinctively cancelled the booking. I might have been wrong and felt guilty about it but wanted a journey as smooth as possible. With only half an hour to get to a designated address, I decided to walk as far as I could towards the address with the help of Google Maps and perhalps find a motorcycle taxi (xe ôm). That decision brought me through a morning market at the end of the street, my first in Vietnam. I found it difficult to distinguish xe ôm drivers from other motorbike riders until one of them honked softly at me, offering a ride to my destination for 20,000 dong. It was already 1114 and I gladly got on. The address I was given is 102 Minh Khai street, we saw 100,101 and then 103 Minh Khai – 102 was missing. The xe ôm driver made the effort to ask around, cruising down the street slowly whilst looking at the door numbers on the shop doors. Stangely, 102 Minh Khai was further down the street beside 200+ Minh Khai, it seemed like a private bus bay and I would never be able to find it without the help of the xe ôm driver for Google Maps indicates 102 Minh Khai to be between 101 and 103 Minh Khai. The xe ôm driver returned the change to me, counting each thousand dong out loud slowly for me to practise my Vietnmese numbers.
En route to 102 Minh Khai. 0936 hr.
Breakfast at 0950 hr before my bus to Ha Giang.
My bus for Ha Giang is a mini 18 seater that pulled up at the garage at 1130. Many came to load goods onto it and we departed at 1210, picking up passengers along the way. By the time we stopped for lunch en route at 1450, we were around 8 passengers. There was a bus attendant who collected the fare and helped to offload goods from the bus to locals. Once, the bus pulled up beside a man waiting on a motorbike, the bus attendant lifted a sack of potatoes onto the backseat of his bike and collected 50,000 dong.
The ride to Ha Giang. Leftmost: 1203 hr. Center: Along the way. Rightmost: Making stops en route, 1532 hr.
Lunch stops here seemed relatively short, we were off at 1509 with a change in drivers. Every minute or two, the horn would sound as the bus made it way around bends in the road where the driver was not able to see beyond. Most passengers alighted before reaching Ha Giang, I was left with one other passenger by the time we pulled into Ha Giang city at 1730. The sun was already setting and when the doors of the bus opened, scores of taxi drivers gathered to find business from us. One man stepped into the bus and showed me his phone full of messages in Vietnemse but I spotted my name and followed him to a waiting car. Two teenage boys hung about nearby, repeating, “No, no!” jokingly.
Arriving in Ha Giang, 1734 hr local time.
I was arranged a homestay 10 minutes drive from the bus station in Thon Tha Village. We pulled up in the middle of somewhere surreal, it was a village surrounded by dark mountains. There were the sounds of water, buffaloes in the shed, squealing pigs and children running around. The driver carried my backpack up a dirt path to my homestay, a two storey wooden house where the dining, living, kitchen areas were located on the ground floor and the sleeping area on the second. A young American couple stood at the bottom of the stairs, ready to go for a short walk around the neighbourhood. They had arrived from Hanoi and had reached the homestay 10 minutes before me. I too, went for a simple walk down the road and back before it got completely dark, purchasing a bag of chips from their village shop along the way. Our homestay Grandma was a member of the Tai ethnic minority who has hosted many foreign travellers throughout the years through the agency, it was not hard to see why there were so many positive reviews about the village. Everything was basic, but sufficient and we were treated to a hearty homegrown dinner where our homestay Grandfather brought out their rice wine for a toast. Made from Korabi, a type of vegetable, it tasted extremely strong, I could only stomach about three small cups before giving up. Like all the other households, we retired to sleep by 2030, in anticipation for our tours the next day.
Thon Tha Village, 1837 hr local time.
19 December 2019.
Our breakfast at around 0730 consisted of homemade pancakes with honey. The weather wasn’t looking good. At 0800, my tour guide, Dinh arrived a 1.5L bottle of water and advised me to bring along an umbrella. For the two Americans, their two guides rode motorbikes to fetch them for they had signed up for a longer tour where they would do the Ha Giang loop on motorbike first and end with the hike I was doing today later on their third day. My tour started with an uphill from the village where Dinh pointed out the types of fruits and vegetables the villagers grew for consumption and construction. Jackfruit, papaya (Green ones can be made into salad with oil and garlic), tumeric (for colouring), bamboo (to make roofs for houses and to eat bamboo shoots, areca nuts ( to protect the teeth of ppl who chew betel), fish, swan, corn, tapioca(for chickens to eat), green tea leaves and peanuts. You can also tell the age of bamboo simply by observing its colour. If the bamboo is green, it’s young if it’s yellow, white or black, it’s old. Halfway, I realized I left the water back at the homestay. Dinh suggested to make a detour but as the weather was not hot and we were going to have lunch in a few hours where there would be water, I preferred not to lug a big bottle all the way uphill.
Whilst waiting for breakfast to be ready at the homestay. 0728 hr.
Left: Our bedrooms on the second floor. Center: Corn kernels. Rightmost: Prata for breakfast. 0733 hr.
Morning Scene at the Homestay.
The Tai ethnic minority, whose village I was having my homestay at lived at the bottom. As we hiked uphill, we were heading to the abodes of the Zao people whom like almost all minority groups, build their houses with the help of the neighbours at zero cost. With everyone’s help, construction can take as fast as two days where each flooring is made from about 30 pillars and each roof is made from 10,000 palm tree leaves.
Protect wood under water from larvae eating.
0843 hr, local time.
Fog starts to accumulate. 0945 hr.
Slippery trails, though it was refreshing to see spring water gushing through.
0901 hr, local time.
1009 hr, local time.
On the way to lunch. 1059 hr, local time.
Interestingly, the locals do not sell the rice they harvest. Where each family owns roughly 40 square metres of rice fields around the mountains, they store it for the year for the consumption of their family members and animals. Cats are usually kept at home to keep mice away from stored rice.
As it was winter season, all the fields were harvested, Dinh recommended coming again in summer when the fields are green and yellow in abundance. It soon rained, normally a cap would have been sufficient but we had to open up our umbrellas. Most of our journey uphill consisted of navigating mud puddles, much to the suffering of our shoes.
We reached a Zao village at 1130 for lunch. The family that was arranged to receive us was not in and we had lunch at another household where the mother started to busy herself with the cooking on a last minute notice. Her two children had gone to school and only herself and two grandparents were at home. The concept of the wooden Zao abode is rather simple, toilets and kitchen are located in separate buildings outside the house, the first floor serves as storage for rice from their fields and the second floor is the sleeping and rest area where a mat laid out in the middle of the room serves as a dining space. This particular household had harvested a lot of rice, stacked in piles on the first floor and also near their beds on the second. They had three cats, two of them kittens who kept mewing as we ate. Dinh threw a small chicken bone into the distance, much to the delight of the three cats who sprung across the floor in pursuit. After getting permission through nods and smiles from the grandparents and mother of the house, I tried it out too. I actually never knew cats eat chicken bones.
There is always something unique about dishes that have been cooked over a fire fed with wood. I loved the taste of the vegetable dish, everything was tasty, especially the vegetables. Apparently there also is sticky rice in Vietnam (Gao1 nee ape4 ) although I have yet to see it.
After lunch, the mother of the house turned on the television and everyone’s attention turned to the television. A recognizable face appeared on the screen – they were watching a Thai Series that had been voiced over. I was expecting a Vietnamese serial drama! We eventually left at 1310, I was dreading the thought of wearing my wet shoes again but these shoes were only dirty for the time being. The rain had stopped and blankets of fog enveloped our surroundings. We passed by a nursery, everything was so silent, Dinh said that the children were taking a nap. Dinh mentioned that chickens return to their respectives homes at1700 every evening. Why so though, if they can find food themselves outside for they would ultimately be slaughtered by their human families. Maybe they need the shelter provided by the family. It seemed interesting that the concept of homes applies to animals too.
There were some bananas in the house which were to be dried under the sun to make herbs. Another random fact I came across was that the colours of the Vietnamese police are green and yellow.
For some reason, I started asking about Dinh about the cost of the things we saw. Here is the list I gathered:
Motorbike. 20 million dong
Buffalo 13 or 14 million
1kg chicken 100 000 dong
1kg swan 75000 dong
Alcohol 1 litre 14000
Pig 1 kg 150 000
Fish 1kg 20 000
1 square metre of land 1 million
A delicious local produce lunch with the company of Thai drama and cats
A kindergarten in the fog. 1330 hr. Local time.
Shrouded by heavy fog. 1325 hr, local time.
1537 hr, local time.
1642 hr, local time.
We returned back to the homestay just before the last light in the sky went out. “Maybe no rain for you tomorrow.” Dinh commented, before leaving. My tour guide for the next day was present, he introduced himself as my motorbike driver too. His name is Thien and he actually lives down the street in the village and also operates a well-known homestay. The American couple were in their hotel in Dong Van for tonight after their motorcycle tour and would return the next day for their arranged hike. This time, another young couple had arrived at the homestay, they were Danish and had arrived at 1300 in the afternoon after a 0700 day bus from Hanoi. I had yet to buy a bus ticket from Ha Giang to Hanoi and asked for their recommendation – Good Morning Cat Ba was their recommendation. It was their first day at the homestay and they have signed up for the exact same tour as the two Americans, which meant that we would have the same journey the next day as we would all be pillion riders on motorbikes to Don Van where we would be put up at a hotel. Probably the next time I come to Vietnam from China, I would find accommodation near 102 Minh Khai in Lao Cai and take a morning bus to Ha Giang just so that I would reach by the afternoon with some extra time to walk around the village before beginning the tour. The Danish couple had travelled extensively, having been backpackers to Nepal and India previously and were conscientious travellers who had learnt basic greetings in Vietnamese and made efforts to get to know with the host family by trying to involve our homestay Grandma despite the language barrier and thanking her for the meal after dinner. Smiles and displays of effort to interact say it all.
Heading back to Thon Than village as darkness falls. 1724 hr, local time.
1828 hr, local time.