Finding adventure and ease in Muong Khuong District

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Finding adventure and ease in Muong Khuong District

When we came to Muong Khuong District in the northern province of Lao Cai recently, we arrived to a blanket of fog, frigid and damp, which yielded only glimpses and glimmers of the surrounding scenery.

We were headed to Thanh Binh Tea Farm, 65km away from Lao Cai City’s train station, and quickly disappeared into the mist as the car began its journey.

Once there, our walking trek led us through three ethnic Mong villages, and the cold, which had been off-putting on arrival, left us energised and ready to move forward. On a hot summer day, it is unlikely we could have completed the 11km walk with such ease.

Being there during the working week, we encountered mostly children and the elderly as the adults were primarily at work in the fields.

The locals we encountered eyed us curiously as we wandered through their wooden houses, photographing them in their daily activities. One woman sat next to a fire brewing maize wine. Another gathered vegetables. A young woman with a child on her back was hanging clothes out to dry.

We wandered for three hours and ended up at Lung Khau Nhin Village before piling back in the car and heading to a wooden stilt house in Cao Son Commune. Once there, we ate near the fire with a group of foreign tourists at the only tourist lodge in the region.

Ravenous after our trek, the dishes were soon completely empty.

After the meal, we visited another ethnic Mong village nearby. On the way to the village, we met students carrying rice sacks on their heads. When we asked where they were headed, they told us they were on their way to their primary boarding school. We decided to follow them. In the yard, a boy was playing khen (pan-pipe) in front of his class, and the girls turned their faces as they saw our cameras flash.

Although there were few major differences between Ngai Phong Cho Village and the ones we visited that morning, the subtle differences still made an impression. The children playing. The quiet, peach trees seemingly floating in the mist. A few open buds heralding spring. The region’s highest point in La Pan Tan Village, 1,500m above sea level, with the spectacular view of Lao Cai City unfolding beneath it.

Back to the wooden lodge, we sat around the fire until midnight trying to get warm amidst the smoke and the soot.

The next day, we left Cao Son for Coc Ly Market in Bac Ha District, where local ethnic groups gather every Tuesday.

Women moved in swirls of colour on Coc Ly Market-day. A group of young girls eagerly waited near a photograph booth while other people awaited their new gold teeth. Dao ethnic women hocked five-colour sticky rice, and all around, the sounds of cows, birds and people combined in a cacophony peculiar to the mountainous ethnic market.

According to Nguyen Van Luat, director of the North Pole Tourist and Advertisement Joint Stock Company, which is the only tourist agency doing business in Muong Khuong District, there are other market-days in the region, including the Cao Son and Lung Khau Nhin market-days, which open every Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Though we enjoyed market day and the housing trips which preceded it, the best part of the trip occurred while floating down the Chay River on a bamboo raft to Bao Nhai District. We dangled our feet in the cold water, watching the scenery drift by during the one-and-a-half journey. It gave the illusion of a true adventure though we knew a small boat was nearby in case we tired of the precarious raft.

Along the river, we passed imposing cliffs and skirted wide sand banks before dropping into Tien Cave with its giant, fairy-shaped rock.

In hopes of reaching Bao Nhai before sunset, we finally abandoned the raft and climbed aboard the boat. We were dropped off at another Tay village where children swam in the river and men moved quietly awaiting the day’s catch of fish.

Soon we were back at the train station, napping on the way home and dreaming of the unadulterated beauty we had just left behind in Muong Khuong District.

Source VietnamNews

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