Day 13 (cont)

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in a small town. They specialize in wedding receptions and had ceramic jars of rice wine with various ingredients aging on the shelves.


They also had a large tank of rice wine with twelve snakes in it aging before being put into the ceramic jars for further aging.

Today the water spinach had water buffalo added. Those who ate it said it was quite chewy


More beautiful scenery.


And yet more. They are pulling high tension wire through new towers. You can see the wires on the ground. You can see we are up in the pine zone. Everywhere you look they are building new infrastructure. Everything from dams to roads to houses. Construction everywhere.

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Day 13 Dien Bien Phu to Son La

Rolled out of town this morning under mostly cloudy skies but the scenery was beautiful.

Yesterday we saw rubber trees on the hill behind the minority house where we stopped to visit. Incidentally, that family was Tai not Hmong as I wrote. TheTai build their houses on stilts and their married women wear their long hair in a bun atop their heads. The older women used to pile it higher and higher as it grew longer but since thegovernment decreed that all drivers and riders on motorbikes must wear helmets they've had to keep the buns shorter so their helmets fit, kind of. I have seen some women whose helmets don't even cover their ears.

But, I digress. The government plants the rubber trees and assigns each family a plot off three square kilometers to watch over. If the trees are not cut down after one year the family receives a payment of food or money. After three years more pay and so on, until the seventh year when the family helps cut the bark and collect the latex for rubber.

Nor long after we left town we saw another rubber plantation. This one fairly large for around here although there are much larger ones in thecentral highlands

On up into the mountains again we stopped at a roadside stand to rest. Overt the back railing we saw coffee bushes and other crops.


Another shot about 90° to my leggy shows how they plant corn on many of the hillsides too steep for rice. Like this one some of those plantings are on 45° or steeper slopes.


There are a thousand shades of green and a dozen or more of ochre. Nite to mention all the other colors that make up these postcard scenes.

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Day 12 (cont)

Into Dien Bien Phu we rode first to visit the "French War" memorials celebrating the victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu.

This week is a special occasion in memory of veterans of the war so we saw many older veterans in their old uniforms.

Our party at the big monument.

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Russ and I meet a small group of old veterans who wanted to take a picture with us and celebrate friendship.


We moved on to our hotel. After a shower and doing laundry in the sink (a daily ritual)we went out to walk around the market area.

One of the local charcuterie stands. Some sausage, some fatback and other cuts.


We checked out a fried rice place but it was expensive.


And here's an actual flower shop. Beautiful flowers.


We ended up at a com (rice) place where we had the usual water spinach with garlic, fried pork, deep fried small fish, thin sliced ham hock, a kind of salt and pepper shrimp with a different combination of spices and a fermented green of the mustard family which was very good.

Back to the hotel for another deep sleep after a strenuous day, looking forward to another great day tomorrow.

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Day 12 (cont)

An editorial note: I'm using the swype system on my phone virtual keyboard because it's much faster than the thumb method but sometimes a completely different and unrelated word pops up. I try to catch those during a quick proofreading but time is limited so if a strange word is in the text I apologize and you'll have to puzzle out the meaning.

About the photos, they are taken with my phone using available light to emphasize the natural settings. A side effect is slow shutter speeds in low light situations with sometimes blurry results. I usually delete such but sometimes the shot is the only one of that particular subject so, another apology.

Back to the high road.

Along the way we stopped at a Tai family's compound. They were a very gracious and happy family. The parents were 28 and 26 and had three lovely children.




Cooking bamboo shoots gathered from the forest. To be sold to the Vietnamese, as our guide says.


Justin presented a soccer ball to the children.


We said goodbye and rode for Dien Bien Phu, or Dien Bien as the government is trying to shorten some of the longer place names.

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Day 12 Muong Lay to Dien Bien Phu

Started off this morning looking for a place to get coffee and came upon this falconer. Believe it or not he spoke English good enough to talk a little about falconry and direct us to a nearby coffee shop. Wing says the nine red dots tattooed on his scalp indicate he was once an advanced monk but now he's part of the local mafia.




On down the road we saw some typical Hmong houses on stilts. Note the satellite dish attached to the handrail. It still seems a little incongruous to see modem technology superimposed on the old culture.


A couple men with umbrellas at a roadside impromptu market. The local minority people quickly set up shop wherever there is an opportunity. In this case it was a slide which delayed traffic and allowed them to tempt potential customers while the customers were waiting for the road to reopen.


In some dandy riverside soil this farmer was harvesting peanuts.

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Day 11 (cont)

The rain and wind we rode through on our first two days played havoc with roads in this part of the country. Some of the slides look like they are older but there are plenty of new ones too.


When I first saw this sign I thought it meant "Beware of drop off into river." The rivers are sometimes far below so now I think it means, "Beware of drop off into thin air."



We came to a roadblock where a crew was trying to cure the slide problem. Note the
trackhoe at the top sitting on almost thin air as he moves dirt over the side. Our guide says many times he has heard about heavy equipment falling off those kinds of precarious perches.


New road construction resulted in a new piece of ground suitable for a rice paddy. Here the man of the house with his understudy is digging a drainage bypass ditch in preparation for leveling and plowing his new field.

A hand propelled cable car provides transportation for the minority people on the other side of the river.


Day 11 draws to a close with a typical evening meal. Tonight's consisted of rice, fried pork, water spinach parboiled with garlic, the water the spinach was boiled in with some chopped greens and river clams and garlic added, deed fried chicken pieces and deep fried tofu cubes. And beer.

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Day 11 (cont)

Leaving the pleasant valley we soon stopped at a Zau minority village.

We admired the needle point work the girls were doing. We asked how long to complete one piece (about 10x30 inches) and we're told it would take about a year if she was quick. They work only in their spate time so I don't know how much actual hours that would be. In any case a lot of work.


Grandmother came back carrying the forest vegetables she had gathered.


Older sister modeled her best clothes for us.


I'd be happy if I had an orchid like this one outside my door.

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Day 11 Sa Pa to Muong Lay

We had our breakfast noodle soup and headed up the mountain north and west from Sa Pa on those good old twisty roads.

We were already high and we worked our way even higher. Soon we transitioned into temperate zone flora. I saw fields of roses, other flowers (even some hollyhocks), greenhouses and fields full of trellises growing chayote and some other squash.

We stopped at Silver Falls to admire the scenery, try to get photos of Mt Fansipan (at 3143 meters the highest peak) and visit permanent souvenir stands set up on one side of the road and the portable displays set up on the other.

Fansipan was reluctant to show her head and stayed wreathed in clouds all morning but the souvenir stands were different and interesting. I saw many varieties of live orchids, fresh honey and honeycomb, ginseng roots, other roots and herbs and selections of all the local fruits and vegetables.


Honey sellers



Fresh dug ginseng


One of the many orchids

From there we went on up into cool and misty conditions as we entered the clouds. The cool didn't last long though as the road dipped down and around Fansipan headed generally southwest.

We stopped for a few minutes to watch a local construction crew moving a load of dirt to prepare the ground for a new house.



As we were driving along we spotted another waterfall so doubled back and drove up a side road to the base of the falls for photos and a short rest.

One of the things I like about this trip is the flexibility and spontaneity. In this case we saw the waterfall but w also saw a wonderful valley filled with rice paddies all nourished by the water that was reused many times as it was diverted from one paddy to the next all the way down the valley.



Wish I could post more photos but it seems five is the limit for this portable app. No complaints though since it is amazing that I can do even this much while traveling through the back country of northern Vietnam.

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Day 11 (cont)

Toward the bottom of the waterfall valley we stopped to visit a local minority house. In another example of serendipity the mother and son who were there turned it to be very friendly and the sin invited us upstairs to sit and talk.

We spent half an hour discussing his family. His older sister is married and he has studied hard, working his way through high school and university. Now he is trying to get a job with the government as a forest ranger. A good example of the son of a poor family pulling himself up by his bootstraps.

Our guides say this is the future of Vietnam, poor people study hard while the children of the rich just want to play.

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Day 10 (cont)

(Written on day 11) we went back to our portable stairway diner and had Vietnamese BBQ again. The setting isn't much but the food was good and the beer was cold. Sort of like a food truck without the truck.


Satisfied diners.


Tourists were busy being tourists this morning. The first swan peddle boat was out before seven.

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Day 10 (cont)

On the way back from the Hmong village I stopped to watch a road building operation. Five workers, a cement mixer and an overseer turning out new road one mixer full at a time.


Back at our hotel we got dressed for dinner then enjoyed a beer before heading out.


Since Sa Pa is so high it's relatively cool here even in the heat of summer. Yesterday it was forecast at 93 high and 78 low. Not so cool. Also since it is usually cool the hotel doesn't have air conditioning. But it's good compared to temps down below.

It seems the entire main part of town is under construction with sidewalks being rebuilt in front of all the businesses at the same time.

As an ex-contractor I noticed the lack of safety equipment. No ear or eye protection, no gloves often no shoes and certainly no safety boots. Pedestrians and vehicles inter mingle freely since there are no safety tapes or cones or off duty police directing traffic.


Entrance to our hotel.

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Day 10 (cont) Culture in Transition

While touring the minority compound I found myself thinking how their culture is changing. The older women still do the traditional needlework but the younger ones talk on cellphones and drive motorbikes. Here's a photo of a traditional stairway carved from the trunk of a tree.


Did you notice the cellphone on the third step?

Wonderful wood and hand-made handles and latches in the old house.



I couldn't tell the wood for sure but o think it was ironwood in the stool. Well made and well used.


This young man works in the fields then works on his father's motorbike. Interchangeable skills, I guess.

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Day 10 Sa Pa

We are laying over in Sa Pa today. Time to rest up, do laundry and see some of the local sights.

There are lots of tourists here from all over the world. The prices have been adjusted accordingly. Last night we walked to an older part of town where we found a barbeque operation in full swing on the steps to the next street down. We found seating on the landing and enjoyed our BBQ in the open air. I had skewers of mushrooms with a roasted sweet potato, roasted corn on the cob and some sticky rice steamed inside a section of bamboo.
Our table also had roast pork steak, skewers of pork, chicken, a kind of uncured bacon wrapped around mushrooms (enoki) and a similar skewer with pork strips wrapped around some kind of greens. One of our drivers bought some baguettes at a nearby bakery . Washed down with cold beer it was a pretty good dinner.

Walking back to our hotel I saw the waxing moon near a small catholic church.


The view from our hotel window this morning.


After lunch we hopped on our trusty steeds and motored to a Hmong village where we toured the houses and talked to the inhabitants.

The grandmother with her youngest boy. Her daughter already has a son of her own. The grandmother says she is 36 although she looks more like 46. It's a tough life.


Another functioning wooden plow.


Seed corn and beans hanging from the rafters waiting for next planting season.

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