Mai Chau, Day 2: Pa Co

Judy. We had hoped to find some Thai textiles at the Mai Chau village, but, frankly, the shops were rather touristy. But Sunday, we headed to the Pa Co Sunday Market, where we looked forward to finding Hmong textiles, and, even better, see the Hmong dressed in their traditional clothing as they came to buy food, textiles, and, for the young people, to flirt. 

And what a delight it was! Binh made sure we left early, so when we arrived in the town of Pa Co, the only people we saw were the locals. These people wear their traditional clothing all the time, and they come to the market to buy and sell food, clothing, fabric, tools. and threads for weaving and embroidering.

A young couple head home with their treasures

This young mother carried her baby in a traditional embroidered carrier

Tradition meets modern look!

As we negotiated our way through the aisles and the locals, Binh steered us toward good quality and reasonable prices. Most of what we saw for sale were gorgeous cross stitch accents to be sewn onto clothes, or batiks in indigo and a tan color from a local tree root. We went a bit crazy. 

Binh negotiates with a seller for her embroidery work

I lost my mind with all the stunning batik

The Hmong women make beautifully detailed and colorful batik, embroidered, and patchwork skirts. Ted had seen one displayed on a wall at our hotel, so when we spotted a young woman with one she had made, we seriously considered it, despite the high price, but Binh told us to wait. 

Batik safely tucked away in Ted’s backpack, Binh led us on a walk through the Pa Co village, pausing to speak to villagers he knows from past visits and stays. As with the Thai houses, these are wood, but unlike them, they sit on the ground, not on stilts. Families, like in most of the tribes, tend to stay together. 

An old Hmong house

And a new one, complete with the ubiquitous motorbike

Hemp drying to be dyed and maybe turned into batik

Leaving Pa Co, we drove over several mountains with narrow roads. Kai, our driver, was great, taking his time and getting past oncoming cars and scooters with ease. I wasn’t sure quite where we were going, but Binh had been full of surprises, and sure enough, he had one for us—the Hang Kia overlook. Despite the clouds (and the wooden planks I had to walk on) the view was spectacular! I’m afraid of heights, but it was so beautiful I forgot to be scared. 

Felt like walking in clouds

Binh had one more surprise for us. When we drove back into Mai Chau, he pulled up to one of the shops in the rabbit warren of the touristy area. We walked past the dozens of shawls we’d seen everywhere, and into a secret room, where the owner had antique textiles. We found a stunning antique Hmong skirt, which we gladly bought (at a quarter the price of the new one). 

Our much-loved and worn Hmong skirrt

Another yummy meal at a Thai homestay, and we headed the long way home to Hanoi, happy with another weekend away, and more information to absorb. We learned so much from Binh, who was one of the best tour guides we've ever had. Unfortunately, we were so busy that we forgot to take a photo of him and Kai.

As a side note, we spotted a skirt like ours in the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, and another antique one for sale in the shop, which cost several thousand dollars. Wow! Ours was less than $100!

The top skirt in the museum display is almost exactly like ours

Mai Chau, Day One

Ted. One reason Judy and I chose to spend three weeks in Hanoi was that it served as a good base for exploring a bit of northern Vietnam. Ha Long Bay had been our first adventure outside the city and for our next trip, we chose to make a two day exploration of the Mai Chau Valley. 

Though it’s just 100 miles from Hanoi over Thung Khe Pass and down winding roads into the Mai Chau Valley, it feels like you have entered another world. In addition to beautiful mountainous landscapes, this region is host to some of the mountain tribes.

The view from the pass

Mai Chau Valley

I hesitate to use the term indigenous peoples because few of these groups have been in Vietnam for more than 1,000 years. Mostly they were pushed out of China by other groups. The result is an amazing rainbow of diversity. The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 different ethnic groups and sorts them according to 11 language groups. About 15% of the population of Vietnam learn Vietnamese at school as a second language. In addition, each group has its own distinct culture, easily recognizable by clothing, food, music and other traditions.

We came to Mai Chau to learn about two of these; the Thai and Hmong people. Both of these groups are scattered throughout Southeast Asia and each one represents less than 2% of the population of Vietnam. Obviously the Thais make up a majority in modern day Thailand and we had already encountered Hmong in the northern part of that country. 

Our guide, Binh decided to take us on a walking tour of two small Thai villages, Mai Hich and Hang Khoai. We were in the base of the valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was rice planting time and the farmers were hard at it. 

Binh and Judy

The process begins by sowing a large number of seeds into small beds to sprout. 

Densely packed seedlings

Then these seedlings are gathered into bundles and planted very precisely in the paddies. 

Bunches of seedlings have just been tossed out into the paddy

Men traditionally supply the more physical labor but the skilled work of placing each seedling falls to the women.

A classic 1980 Honda

The average Vietnamese family consumes around 500 pounds of rice a year and, by my calculations that approximates the annual yield from a paddy of about one half acre. 

We soon came across a Thai farm house, built on stilts. They are usually very near their rice fields but also close to two sources of cash income; a vegetable plot and a fish pond. 

When it's hot, even the fish seek out shade

Outside the village, we passed a Thai cemetery. These folks build a bamboo altar to honor the corpse and after decomposition is complete, the remains are entombed below while the frame is left to gradually deteriorate. 

We paused at a homestay (like a country lodge) for lunch and then resumed our wanderings. 

After a while it began to rain and suddenly started to pour. Just as it started to rain buckets, we came to a farm house and asked the farmer if we could seek shelter. He cheerily agreed and we spent a delightful half hour chatting (through our guide) about our host's crops and the weather and watching his grandsons frolic in the downpour. 

A refuge from the deluge

We didn’t see any tourists on our stroll and got a lot of big smiles from the women working in the fields. One asked us if we would like to come help with the planting. The workers seemed to find some pleasure in the company of others as they chatted away to pass the time during what must be back breaking work. 

We also stopped to explore Hang Khoai Cave which was designated by the government as an important archaeological site as evidence of human occupancy dates back 4,000 years.

Ultimately we rendezvoused with our driver who delivered us to our residence for the evening. Sol Bungalows provided a snug accommodation and a good dinner. The evening concluded with a group of staff members performing traditional Thai and Hmong dances.

Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre

Judy. Hanoi was originally called Thang Long, which means “ascending dragon.” Some conquering emperor changed the name because he didn’t want his newly conquered people to think they could rise again. 

But the name still appears on some businesses, in my opinion as a reminder of who the Vietnamese people really are. 

One of these businesses is the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, which is certainly a rising dragon. 

Water puppetry began in the 11th century in northern Vietnam as a diversion in the rice paddies to entertain tired workers. A simple frame was set up in a paddy, with the puppeteers hiding behind it, manipulating dolls via long bamboo poles. They told simple folk stories. Gradually, music was added.

Today, at Hanoi’s oldest water puppet theatre, the rice paddy is replaced by a knee-deep pool, and the puppeteers operate the marionettes from behind a bamboo curtain. A full Vietnamese orchestra and singers aid the narrator in telling the stories, but they’re the same ones told centuries ago: a fox captures a farmer’s favorite duck; two phoenixes dance, fall in love, disappear under the water, only to reappear with an egg; a little boy rides his water buffalo through the rice paddy while playing a flute; a dragons chase each other, and so on--17 short stories in total. 

Audio translators are available, but not needed, as the stories tell themselves with the help of music. 

It’s one of the most delightful hours we’ve spent here. You can get a taste of it by checking the internet. Then you’ll probably want to come see for yourself!

The orchestra & opera singers (who double on percussion!)

Chasing frogs

Dancing phoenixes

Boat trip of Emperor Le Loi

Fairy dance

The brilliant (and strong) puppeteers who bring it all to life

Ha Long Bay

Judy. If you go to Vietnam, and you should, you must take three days to visit Ha Long Bay. True, there will be far too many little ships sailing around the myriad islands, but there’s a reason it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is truly breathtaking. On the advice of our friend Sonya, we took a three-day, two-night voyage, with the second day a boat to Lan Ha Bay, a much less popular area, with kayaking, swimming, and cave exploration available. 

Sailing into Ha Long Bay

There are, of course, geological explanations for these karsts and islands, but the mythological story is much better. Ha Long means “Descending Dragon”. In the early history of Vietnam, the people were fighting off invaders, so a dragon fell into the bay to protect it. The dragon breathed out jade and gems, which became the islands and rocks in the bay, which confounded the invaders. Then, the dragon was so comfortable living in peace that he decided to stay. 

Dragon's "gems"

We were on a beautiful refurbished wooden ship, The Indochine Legend, reminiscent of every ‘30’s whodoneit you’ve ever read. The crew was outstanding. On the second day, for our trip to Lan Ha Bay, we were transferred for the day to a smaller ship, then returned to the Legend that evening.

I'll let the pictures speak:

Indochine Legend

Tet

Ted. Most of East Asia celebrates the beginning of the new year as determined by a traditional Chinese calendar. This year, it falls on February 17. In Vietnamese, the holiday is called Tet Nguyen Dan, but everyone simply says Tet. 

 

As near as I can tell, Tet is sort of like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and the Day of the Dead all rolled into two weeks of preparations and three days of celebrations. 

When we made our travel plans for this trip, we were completely unaware that we would be in Vietnam for the festival. Not only that, we were actually flying from Da Nang (the airport close to Hoi An) to Hanoi on February 17. 

So, we witnessed most of the preparation work while we were in Hoi An and now we are observing the celebrations in Hanoi. 

During much of this time, a good many businesses and government offices operate with reduced staff and hours or just close all together. Schools are closed all of this week and it is tough to find a restaurant, grocery store or shop that is open. Those that are open typically charge a 15% or so premium price. 

The focus for the Vietnamese people is on ancestor veneration, relaxation, family reunions and visits with friends. 

The first thing we noticed two weeks ago in Hoi An was the smoke. We ended up closing the windows in our hotel room at night and turning on the air conditioning at night. What was the source? As we walked the streets, we saw tiny piles of ashes in front of all of the homes and shops. 

The Vietnamese believe that their ancestors have the same needs and desires that they have. If the living want new clothes, so do the ancestors. How can one help one’s ancestors to be more comfortable? By buying and then burning clothes, food and money for them. But the gifts aren’t real, they are paper effigies. Yes, you can buy fake money, clothes and food made of paper. If you really love your ancestors, you do it every day leading up to Tet. 

The other thing we saw was lots of cleaning, cooking and decorating with flowers. Huge amounts of special holiday foods are prepared or purchased for days in advance because family and friends will be visiting every day. 

Before and after the actual day of Tet, there is a lot of celebration which includes feasting with friends and family and visiting temples and pagodas to ask for blessings and fortunes. 

In Hoi An and Hue during the preceding days, and now in Hanoi, we have seen hundreds of ladies dressed up and posing for photos with flowers, especially peach blossoms, which are symbols of fertility. 

Children look forward to Tet because their elders hand out red (the lucky color) envelopes stuffed with lucky money. Since school is out the kids often race to toy shops that remain open to assist them in spending their lucky money. 

These people work very hard for 51 weeks of the year with precious little time off and poor wages. It is wonderful to see how happy everyone is now. They all look for signs of good luck (like a little rain on the first day of the new year) and pray they will have good luck in the future. They seem very fatalistic and seem to believe that their futures are not in their control - something that is a little alien to me. So I just tell folks I wish that all of their dreams come true and say “Chuc mung nam moi!” (Happy New Year!).