Like images from an ancient Chinese woodcut, a mass of rugged, conical peaks up to 1500m high stretch to the misty horizon in Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province, rising up from the rice paddies carpeting the valleys and flatlands. It’s a four hour drive to Mai Chau village, 140km southwest of Hanoi and another hour to cover the 33km to the Xa Linh Commune, 1000m above sea level and the home of the Hmong people.
The narrow ribbon of bitumen clings to the mountainsides as the road climbs to the Thung Nhuoi Pass above Mai Chau (which in White Thai means “My Town”). The bus passes cattle lazily wandering along the roadside and two lycra-clad European cyclists pump their way through the humidity up and over the pass, 500m above sea level. Near the crest, the Mai Chau valley opens out like some Shangri La, green and verdant below.
In the early 1900s, the pass was little more than a track and the hill tribes in the valley lived a relatively isolated life. Things changed when the French built the road in the 1930s, and then again in the mid-1990s with the opening of trade relations with the United States. More interest, more people, more tourists.
Of the 54 ethnic groups that live in Vietnam, Hoa Binh province is home to four peoples, the Thai, Muong, Hmong and Zao. The Hmong came to Vietnam in the 17th century from southern China, filtering down through northern Vietnam along the Red River delta. The Viets initially called them “Meo” (cat) people, for their skill in moving through the mountains. Living in sub-groups of Red, Black, Flower, White and Green, the Hmong were nomadic forest dwellers until 1945, when the government set up communes to encourage them to settle in villages in a bid to provide them with schooling and health services. The Hmong still practice kidnap marriages. Young girls are prized for their embroidery skills and a dowry of from five to eight buffalo is often still needed to pay for a marriage. The men still hunt fox, squirrel and rabbit in the forests armed with cross-bows and primitive rifles.
Driving south from Hanoi, the jumble of narrow-fronted houses on the city fringe quickly gives way to lush countryside, a French-colonial Catholic church looms out of the paddies, its ornate red-tiled spires the highest point for kilometres around. In the hinterland the pace of life slackens. Buffalo haul wagons and motorcycle and bicycle riders balance impossible loads of pigs, plastic pots and bamboo poles. Small flat-fronted trucks looking like metal bulldogs chug by on the narrow provincial roads, loaded down with everything from rubble to people.
Continues in Life in Mai Chau – Part 2
Photo Credits
1st image – Mai Chau – Vietnam – Source: vietnamtravelux.com
2nd image – Mai Chau – Vietnam – Source: greentrail-indochina.com
3rd image – Mai Chau – Vietnam – Source: vietnamuniquetours.com
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