Bac Ha

Bac Ha is a small town north east of Sa pa, North Vietnam. It is 200km south of China. We decided to visit as it has a reputation for being like Sa pa except less spoilt - more authentic. We had an awesome meal at a local Tay family and after a night's rest at their homestay we were ready for a trek. Trang, our guide took us on a 6 hour hike through the surrounding mountains and villages, telling us about the local culture and customs along the way.

Looking at the Hmong tribes we'd noticed that they had really distinct facial features and skin colours - different to your average vietnamese. Trang explained - they migrated to Vietnam following tensions in China 200 years ago, setting up farming villages. Their languages are similar to Chinese and so is their script, but due to french influence latin script is the most visible in Vietnam today. Men and women both share the workload beginning at about 10 years old. No one owns a particular piece of land - everyone shares. The relationship between man and animal is really cool to see. As we walked through a village, a hen with 10 chicks paraded up a nearby mound. Cats and dogs foraged whilst piglets ran their little legs away at the sight of us. We might find a pest-spider in our bathtub in the UK, in Bac Ha we found a horse cheekily nibbling on a spread of dry corn put out for chickens, only to be chased away by a little girl with a stick! Across an open expanse a couple of buffalos peeked out to see what was going on, scuttling away as we approached.

The various Hmong tribes are identified by their clothing. You have the black Hmong like Cho Cho in Sa pa, but there are very few in Bac Ha. The most visible Hmong tribe in Bac ha is the flower Hmong who wear really bright colourful clothing. You also get red Hmong and white Hmong.

We were really happy to see how animals were treated there. Everything roams free, beasts of burden are burdened within their capacity and animals eat what is natural for them. The village life is symbiotic and harmonious, streams of life flowing through and around each other without clashing, everything fitting effortlessly. Wastage is kept to a minimum, for example rice straw makes good buffalo feed, rice and corn husks are burnt for cooking. This is not the mathematical perfection of the city, where perfection is geometric equality, the movement of heavenly bodies replaced by mechanical clocks and human worth measured as efficiency in the workplace. It is a natural perfection where everything fits seamlessly and sustainably and has stood the test of time, for only an illusory perfection can be short lived.

Unfortunately as is the case throughout the world the peaceful villagers of Bac ha are facing the demands of large corporations with no choice but to conform. The lush hills of Bac ha are being mined for stone, dynamite blasts 11 times a day leaving an ugly open wound in the countryside. Farm land is taken by force for the relentless pursuit of stone and no compensation is offered to the villagers.

The morning before we left Bac Ha we visited the local sunday market.  Thus is where once a week various hill tribes of Bac Ha come together to sell their produce.  It is a rich cultural experience as the various hmong women come out in full force with their dress, selling everything from clothing to livestock.  Have a look at these pictures:

Below: dining with a local family in Bac Ha homestay 

Below: the beautiful hills of Bac Ha

above: some flower Hmong girls at the Sunday market

The people at Baray homestay

David

David is an orphan who Esther took under her wing. He works as a tuktuk driver and translator at the homestay. The oldest of 8, he ended up at the homestay after his father was murdered. The rest of his siblings are in an orphanage. David is a really key part of the operation, whatever is going on he helps out, makes things run nice and smooth. Being a bit of a class clown you can't help but feel cheerful in his company. We found him particularly helpful at the medical clinics as his frequent attendance of them have given him the skill to translate many specialist medical terms into Khmer.

Pholem (pronounced po-lerm) and Samuel

Pholem does a lot of maintenance work and cooking at the homestay. She is the assistant manager of the place. Pholem came to Esther during her prgnancy as her ex-husband was having an affair. He had decided to leave her with money to abort the yet unborn Samuel. Esther took them both in becoming a grandmother figure to Samuel, who is now a beautiful, spritely 5 year old boy. It was amazing watching him play, knowing how forces were acting to prevent his little life from coming into the world.

Uncle

Uncle is an elderly Chinese gentleman, we grew very fond of him during our stay. He once spontaneously cooked us up some delicious fish. When we sat down to eat he would serve everyone's rice and insisted that he serve himself last. Once finished he would be the first to stack all our plates and tidy up. While verbal communication was sparse between us, his fine character spoke volumes.

It was great to see Uncle's refusal to sit idle during his stay. With the manual labour tasks being inappropriate for him and teaching English out of the question, he came up with his own novel idea - to raise chicks to maturity and donate them to local villages. Really lovely man.

Ivan

Ivan is a young man who currently lives in Perth, but is ethnically Malay-Chinese. He came to the homestay to teach the local kids guitar, holding intensive daily courses from morning to evening. He has such a calm aura and gentle disposition, with an open mind and a refreshing willingness to explore new ideas. If it wasn't for his schedule being so packed at the homestay we could easily have spent a lot more time with Ivan. Just before we parted he shared his Christian faith with me and invited me to believe the same. I was really touched that he wanted to share what he loved the most. I really hope to meet him again one day.

Left to right: Fiz, Mandeep, Esther, pholem, Samuel, David 

Ivan and Uncle:

Teera (teacher from previous blog) and David:

One night there was an unexpected delivery of chicks for Uncle, the coop had not been built yet and it was raining with nowhere to put them. The chicks had been bought on Uncle's behalf by a local (though the bill was left with Uncle) and the guy delivering had come from two hours away and was refusing to cycle back with the chicks!

Baray homestay, unexpectedness

 There are 2 big cities in Cambodia, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. We flew to Siem Reap to see the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples in the Angkor Wat complex. It was cool from a historical point of view but major league touristy. Honestly after a few days in Siem Reap we'd had enough (although they do have a really cool night market). Everybody has the same sales pitch which gets annoying after a while.

Interesting fact about Cambodia, in the big cities U.S. dollars are used more than the local Cambodian riel. Even the cash machines dispense dollars! I don't know how they managed to pull that one off - I mean they can't print dollars so how do they fill cash machines with them? It's a sly technique as it allows them to charge way above the odds to tourists without raising too many eyebrows - I mean 2 dollars for a drink doesn't sound bad - but when you consider that in nearby Malaysia which has a much stronger economy you can pick up a nice drink for 20-40p, it makes me think somethings fishy....

The hostel guys in Siem Reap were shocked when we asked them how to get to Baray (a village between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh) - 'why do you want to go there, no one speaks English there?' But alas, we had a craving for a more authentic experience and knew of a nice sounding homestay project that we thought was worth checking out. We didn't have any real expectations - didn't know how long we were staying, what we would do there. Phalem gave us a really warm reception with her GINORMOUS smile! She is the asisstant manager of the project here - the only NGO in this region. Www.khmerhomestaybaray.com. They work to provide basic facilities for the poor local villagers - education, water (building wells), medical care. Anyone who comes can join in and you get to see real Khmer culture while you're at it. Score!

The day after we arrived there was a free clinic running for local villagers to attend. We went to see what was going on, the head doctor speedily set up a couple of tables for us, handed us notepads, arranged translators and had us examining patients with him in no time! Luckily Mandeep asked me to pack my pocket ophthalmoscope on the off chance and she had packed her blood pressure stuff for the jungle clinic. I ended up busting out about 8 eye exams and Mandeep dropped about 15 consultations. Makes me think, Vision Aid Overseas takes a year and a load of cash to organise, I just rock up at an NGO with a pocket ophthalmoscope and off I go... with a little more effort I could get a few pre-glazed specs together and do a better job. The villagers were very greatful, despite how unprepared we were!

That same afternoon Phalem arranged for us to go to a local village school. We merrily arrived in our tuktuk (like a rikshaw). Teera - the teacher started his lesson with a really catchy song (ask Mandeep to sing it to you), then he called us to the front of his class of 60 kids, all ages and abilities. The kids gave a hearty chorus of a hello, after which Teera asked us to teach them some spelling..... yep, just like that... Fortunately quick thinking Mandeep was on form. She came up with a few spelling games, we split the kids into groups and off we went. It's gotta be said, those little legends value education. They know it can break the cycle of poverty so even a class of 60 is well behaved and manageable. We had a lot of fun with the kids and it was really inspirational meeting Teera. They are blessed to have such a caring and charismatic teacher. He teaches from his home, which has become an open house for all children from surrounding villages. Few can afford the nominal fee he charges but he never turns a student away. Their education comes before his wage - what a rare and beautiful quality that is. Some of his children are victims of rape, some 12 year old boys are addicted to drugs, but everyone has a place in his school and you can see just how nourishing an environment it is.

Tomorrow we're going to help build a toilet..! It is a serious problem here that there is nowhere hygenic for the villagers to relieve themselves during rainy season as the whole village becomes a swamp - that's why the houses are built on stilts. This leads to serious women's health issues which they are often too embarrassed to share. Something as simple as a toilet in a clean environment can prevent this. Watch this space....

Above: Mandeep doing her thang

Below: Kids in class, group shot