Just before 1:00 on Saturday, April 7, and I am safely in the lodge at Mai Chau, a mountainous village about 4 hours (100 km.) SW of Hanoi, near the border with Laos.
It is steamy, with a lingering drizzle, but I cannot let that deter me because I have but one day. Tentatively on my schedule, there is a group bike tour at 3:00, a Thai native dance troupe at dinner, and a walk thru the Sunday H'mong food market. I leave just after lunch tomorrow.
Chilled bean sprout salad was just delivered to start lunch. The menu is fixed, and comes with the room.
My driver picked me up right on time this morning at 8:00. Surprisingly, I had the 9-person van all to myself. It was pouring as I left Hanoi. We stopped in a foothills village halfway where I bought bun cha and coffee for the driver, and sated myself with coffee and Pepsi.
Steamed rice, steamed banana buds, and grilled beef were just delivered. Far too much for one person.
The roads here were paved, but full of bumps and holes. The driver was quite skilled. Traffic rules were normal....if you have clearance, any lane will do. If there is not enough room, beep your horn and the smaller vehicle will get the hell out of the way. Worked so far. In the 20 or so villages through which we passed, I saw hordes of schoolkids heading home from Saturday morning classes. The schools were often the best-kept buildings in the villages. Too bad the state of public education here is so low.
The room is small, but fancy. Two beds and a balcony on the second floor. Internet is fairly robust, and I shall investigate TV late tonight. Complimentary plate of fruit, bottled water, and rice wine awaited me.
Everything is so incredibly green here, a welcome change from the noise and concrete of Hanoi. We saw rice paddies interwoven with banana plantations and sugar cane plantations our entire trip up. Local farmers are quite adept at terracing the rice paddies to minimize erosion. Despite that, every river and stream was the color of copper, reflecting the red clay soil that is washing down to the Red River Delta and the Sea of China.
The sun is coming out, and I want to take a walk in town before the bike tour. More later.
Close to 6 p.m. now. Rain prevented the walk into town, but cleared just before the bike tour started. Once again, I was the only one. My guide, Duong, is a 39 YO local member of the White Thai tribe, the predominant tribe in this area (migrated from Laos and China in the 7th century A.D.) Duong has been working at the hotel since 2008, when his livestock farm was wiped out by disease.
Duong took me on about a 10 km. leisurely tour among about half a dozen villages, some Thai and some H'mong. We stayed mainly on the concrete sidewalks that curved through the rear portions of the villages. He seems to know everybody, which makes sense because he has never left this area, and the largest village we visited has just over 1,000 residents (the smallest had maybe 60). Unless you are working at the lodge or are a small retailer in the village, there really is no occupation here except for agriculture. Rice paddies are everywhere, but the cooler weather at these altitudes only allows for two crops per year. Winter rains did not materialize this year, so many people were out today planting corn instead of rice. It is truly a subsistence situation. Two women were seining a small pond for tiny fish, and another was investigating the irrigation channels for snails...all intended for tonight's dinner. Almost every family has chickens running about, and there is a decent number of water buffalo for milk, hard farm labor, and meat. For the most part, meals are a combination of corn and rice, along with fresh veggies from the garden that dominates every front "yard".
Each family unit has an assigned agricultural plot, measuring about 3/4 acre. The local government has not redistributed land since 1986, so you can find families of 2 members and families of ten members with the same-sized plot. There is no purchase of land...this is a communist society.
Duong took me into one house in his village. Almost every house is built of solid bamboo beams, with bamboo veneer and smaller stalks for the roof, sides, and floor. Houses are two story, more from tradition because when the tribes moved here, wild animals were still rampant and families lived on the second floor for protection. Now, the open-air lower levels are used for storage of wood, tools, and sometimes livestock. The living area consisted of two rooms. One, perhaps 15 feet sq., was the kitchen with basically kettles and an open wood fire. Wood is gathered from the surrounding forests daily. The living quarters were perhaps 20 by 30 feet, shared by 3 generations. A grandmother, mother, and two kids live there. Both husbands died in the war or its aftermath. Nylon net tents are used for sleeping quarters, and beds are mats perhaps 2 inches thick. There is no other furniture save for a couple of cushions to sit on. There is, however, a TV and two florescent lights (although I saw no direct evidence of electricity), and a shrine to ancestors and featuring photos of the dead husbands. In the frist floor storage area were three coffins being built...always a cheerful sight.
If a new villager moves here (initially crashing with a relative), or a household becomes too large, it takes about three years to gather enough wood from forests to build. Then the entire village comes together to build the new abode.
We also passed through villages where the company that booked my tour has built schools, rec facilities, and other benefits that the villages couldn't possibly afford. Glad to see a company doing exactly what it should.
The only downside to the tour is that my phone battery died, so I got no pictures. But, tomorrow morning we will be walking some of the same paths, and I have the sucker on charge all night.
Speaking of which, it is after dark now. The village of Mai Chau does have streetlights. There are no other lights to be seen anywhere. Too bad low clouds have moved in, as the stars would probably be beautiful.
Dinner beckons.
Just before noon on Sunday. I have checked out of the hotel and am sitting in the outdoor patio, just above the pool, awaiting lunch (spring rolls, sauteed pork, baked apple). My van doesn't come until 1:30, which should get me back in Hanoi just after 5:55.
Dinner was also wonderful, a combination of spring rolls, pond-raised catfish, rice, and bean sprout salad. Fresh fruit and thick coffee for dessert. At 8:30, we enjoyed the hour-long performance of a local H'mong dance troupe. But my camera was still on recharge, so you will never see how good they looked. The native costumes looked good, the drums were certainly handmade and authentic. But, I'm not sure that the electric accordion has been a mainstay of their culture.
After the troupe, the town and hotel essentially shut down. I was struggling with the totally sucky wifi in the room...I seemed to lose the connection at least every 10 minutes. I tried TV, which consisted of 7 channels, and four of those couldn't be watched because of audio problems. So, I spent a while sitting on my balcony watching townspeople journey by, and called it quits just after 11:00. Woke up refreshed just before 6:00. The bed was super comfortable, and I probably could have stolen another hour of sleep save for the symphony of horns from the busses that started at 5:30 or so.
The hotel has a tip jar (a ceramic pig, actually) at the front desk, with a sign asking that you contribute only if you feel service was exemplary. All tips are distributed evenly among all staff. So I took advantage of the opportunity to stick a bill up Porky's butt!
BTW, it just hit Easter Sunday back home. Enjoy!
I hit breakfast right when they opened at 7:00 (fresh fruit and omelets-to-order, and again thick black coffee) and headed into town. Not much to see...the open vendors were primarily selling cooked foodstuffs. I tried to buy a silver necklace from the one jewelry vendor, but she had nothing that would both fit the loop around my hematite pendant, and around my thick neck. As soon as I approached her, at least half a dozen locals crowded in to watch the exchange. No doubt they will remember me for.....minutes.
Got back to the room and finally got my cell phone camera working in time for my 9:00 walking tour. Surprise! It was Duong again, and I was the only one again. In 90 minutes, we walked about 6 km. through rice paddies being worked, small ponds for raising fish (such as the one from dinner last night), the Sunday shopping fair at the local White Thai village, and some smaller villages that are not there just to sell things to tourists. I probably have 75 photos which, when uploaded and captioned, should show the full beauty, simplicity, and poverty of this area (and, indeed, most of rural Vietnam). People were out working their fields as early as 8:00. I heard a number of short stories building on yesterday's short stories. Duong's actual village is over the mountain (well...hill...maybe 500 meters above this road) across the street from the hotel. He has climbed that mountain many times...the bamboo at the top is extremely tensile and strong, and is prized for building houses. He is planning to build a new, smaller home for he and his wife now that their 15 YO daughter has been sent off to boarding school.
Walking through the Thai village, I did buy a few gifts to bring back...after haggling, I probably paid somewhere between American prices and local prices. The can use the extra money...maybe I overpaid by 5 bucks total.
In the midst of the last paragraph, the manager of this complex came over to thank me for my stay. We ensued into a discussion of why I am in Vietnam, and he offered his opinion that none of the banks in the country (1) have unique products, (2) have a distinct brand, or (3) have decent customer service. Duong, in one of our many mini-conversations, proffered that banks here look for reasons not to lend to anything but large corporations, and require too much paperwork and take too much time to make decisions. All of that ties in with what we have heard elsewhere on this project.
With that, I close on this update. I totally recommend this resort if you are ever in this area, and suggest that you stay more than 1 night to take advantage of the many activities that are not held daily. And, come prepared to relax.
Picture show:
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