Buzz
Given this reality, I decided to embark from the capital city of Hanoi on a Royal Enfield Bullet 500cc motorcycle for an 8-day journey to Dong Van, hoping to visit one of Vietnam's hidden gems rarely seen by foreigners.
The winding mountain roads
Dong Van District remains relatively unexplored by Western tourists, with no English signage on its roads or mountains, making it challenging for visitors without the assistance of a local guide.
Guided by Mototours Asia's Do Huu, we traversed the winding roads alongside towering mountains reaching approximately 1,500 meters high. After crossing a mountain pass, you'll behold vast green rice fields, a couple of charming villages, before ascending another peak. As we departed from Hanoi, Do Huu told me that Vietnam's roads and landscapes are considered top-notch, even surpassing Laos, often dubbed as a motorcyclist's paradise. On roads like these, with perilous curves and minimal traffic, coupled with stunning scenery, I realized he was right.
Civilization flourishes on the rice fields
Continuing northward, we encountered even larger mountains. We covered a stretch of road up to 250km in a day, surrounded by the beauty of thousands of terraced fields – an ancient form of agriculture that has sustained and developed civilizations for thousands of years in Vietnam. February marks the midst of the dry season, lending these terraced fields a brownish hue. But during the rainy season, from April to October, these terraced fields come alive with the vibrant green of leaves and the golden hues of ripening rice paddies.
Impressed by the art of handwoven textiles
One of the most fascinating experiences when traveling in Northeast Vietnam is the opportunity to meet and interact with the H'Mong people, an ethnic minority living in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia. They are often recognized by their colorful attire: intricately knitted shirts, scarves, blouses, and scarves all handmade and woven from cotton and hemp fibers. These are then dyed with various vibrant colors such as pink, red, green, and blue. In a world where girls of various ethnicities now opt for practical and youthful clothing like t-shirts and sportswear, many H'Mong girls still seek to learn and practice traditional embroidery and weaving techniques to pass down to future generations, much like their grandmothers and mothers.
The photograph you're seeing captures a H'Mong girl in traditional attire, sitting weaving beside a traditional loom in a warehouse on the outskirts of Yen Minh town, 90km south of Dong Van town (the center of Dong Van district).
Exploring Meo Vac town
Meo Vac is located 30km south of Dong Van town, surrounded by H'Mong villages. Apart from electricity cables, some motorcycles, and mobile phones scattered everywhere, the people living here still maintain a traditional way of life. Their daily activities include using oxen to plow, fermenting corn for making liquor, collecting firewood from the mountains for cooking rice and keeping warm.
The photograph depicts a H'Mong child carrying their younger sibling on their back, captured by Do Huu after he borrowed my camera during an evening stroll.
Famous weekend market in Meo Vac town
On a beautiful morning, we woke up at 6 am when the sky was still dim and headed to the famous weekend market of Meo Vac. On good Sunday mornings, the H'Mong people gather here to buy and sell various herbs such as ginseng, rhubarb, cinnamon, apples (apple-sized pears), pears (pears as big as watermelons). Or other foods like pork, goat, dog, rice, tofu. The locals also sell corn wine – a homemade liquor, with a warm and fragrant taste.
Right here, for the first time since leaving Hanoi, I encountered foreigners; they were a retired French couple traveling around on a local minibus. They seemed quite surprised to see me, just as I was very surprised to see them.
The ancient palace of King Meo
Located about 15km south of Dong Van town, in the Sa Phin valley lies the home of King Meo: a royal palace of the H'Mong people, a two-story building with unique architecture. The building was constructed by Chinese craftsmen in 1902, for the H'Mong lord Vuong Duc Chinh. The building resembles a fortress consisting of 500mm thick stone walls, set within an 800mm thick stone fence, with two courtyards. The structure comprises 64 different rooms including living rooms, workrooms, bedrooms for family members, servant quarters, and guardrooms, grain warehouses, armories, opium storage, and a large stone block used for judging traitors.
Today, the palace is known as a museum, with small collections and antiques still carefully preserved.
Ancient Old Quarter of Dong Van
After four days of challenging travel spanning 900km, we arrived at the Ancient Old Quarter of Dong Van just as night fell. We spent the night in an inn within the Old Quarter, a town with winding alleyways, adorned with centuries-old adobe-roofed houses. The oldest house here has a large rooftop, with two stone pillars decorated with red lanterns built by the Luong family around 1810 to 1820, and still serves as the residence of their descendants to this day. It is one of 40 heritage buildings remaining after a fire ravaged Dong Van in 1923, before the French undertook the town's reconstruction.
At the end of the road
Situated at the center of a 1,600m plateau, only 3km from the Chinese border, Dong Van stone plateau became a northern stronghold for the French during their 59-year colonial rule in Vietnam. Today, Dong Van preserves many historic sites and unique heritage.
The photograph was taken at dawn, while the town was still shrouded in the blanket of the white night fog.
According to BBC Travel
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Reference: Travel guide from Mytour
MytourOctober 19, 2016
