Day 3 (Tuesday, Jan 6, 09): Hanoi/Mai Chau/Pu Luong (Hang village) (B,L,D,G)
After breakfast we drive to Mai Chau passing through mountainous landscape on the way. When we arrive, we'll have lunch in a Thai ethnic minority group's stilt house in Pom Coong village. After our meal, a wander around the houses provides an overview of the community's daily life. The village operates as a community co-operative, set up by the people themselves. The villagers specialise in weaving brocade products and are always keen to show visitors their skills. Later, a 15km drive takes us to board a sampan to row along the Ma River, passing en-route to visit some of the nearby ethnic minority villages. After docking, your vehicle will take you to Sai village where you'll start the hike to Hang village to spend the night in a stilt house.
Mai Chu is the nearest ethnic minority community to Hanoi, and is therefore a popular trip for foreigners. Consequently, it's the most commercialised communicty we'll visit in the tour. The village is an example of successful community development.
We might consider a traditional folk song and dance performance by the local people. The show usually lasts about an hour and the artists are the peasants who work on the fields at daytime. Although it's very much amateur entertainment, it's good fun and an opportunity to mingle with the villagers and understand their traditions and customs.
Journal:
06 Jan, 2009 8:38am Hanoi; on the van to.....mountains
So after a vast series of bumps in the road and changes in plans, many packing efforts were put in vain. From this point, we head out for the next 6 night, 7 days of hiking through the Northern Vietnamese mountians....as it seems to be out of the loop in many of our activities. We are taking 2 vans up, with our daypacks and "a smaller version of our stuff" in our smaller duffels or, in my case, a plastic garbage bag. Meanwhile, duffel with remainder of clothes and my computer will stay in hotel storage. We also seem to be without water bottles. Steller. Alright, on the road for the next four hours...
8:48 Homestay: Mai Chau
Whoa, whoa, what a day. Between the van, the boat and the hiking, the day offered so many new sights and experiences. The day started with some uncertainty and a four hour- nauseau inducing van ride up into the mountains. (I don't remember all the names of the places we've been today, I'll fill that in later). At the first village, we at more wonderful new foods and got a chance to shoot around the village. The people living there are of the Thai minority and practice weaving as their craft and trade. The village was so beautiful and unreal, yet so comfortable and familiar. That's how I've felt about most of the trips thus far. After lunch, we had a short boat ride and then embarked on a 2 hour hike to a second village, were we are all spending the night, in the same room. As we all ate dinner, exhaustion sunk into everyone. The weather here is so humid and the days are hot. I am gratful for the cool nights. The owner of the house served us rice wine, which is more like hard liquior than wine....Everywhere we go, we see so many interesitng and beautiful people and things. Dogs, cattle, and chicken roam about everywhere, seeming not belonging to any particular person or family. The homes the people live in are completely exposed to the elements and more are near the edges of cliffs that look off into rice fields. Most people seem very friendly and even excited to see us. Others seen confused or uninterested. The land here is so beautiful and fertile, I cannot believe we are on the same Earth I've been living on. I am so thrilled and happy to be here, even if I'm not expressing it to the fullest. Hopefully within the next few days, we will all adjust to this early morning, exhausting schedule we have ahead of us. I cannot believe this is only day 2 of our travels.
Looking back:
Yea, this was the first truely amazing day. It was the first day in the country and it was so beautiful and new. For this day and the next few, everything was just a constant sensory overload. As new as everything was, I got a lot of deja vu in these next few days. I remember a particular moment from the beginning of the hike on this day: I turned around as saw Priscilla in her rice hat a ways behind me with a few other people hiking up the hill I had just finished and I swore I had see that before. Too bad I don't have a picture of it. It was a weird feeling.
Random picture of the day:
Good picture of the day:
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