Off the Beaten Track in Vietnam
Getting off the beaten track in Vietnam has not been easy, and it was something I was starting to think was only possible if you were happy to drive a motorbike – a challenge I was not too keen to tackle on the crazy roads here! Even when I did an “easy rider” day trip on the back of a motorbike, I still felt like I hadn’t quite got there – “there” being "off the beaten track".
Other travellers that I have met along the way have shared the same sentiments about the “beaten track”… most of us have had glimpses of the unbeaten track, but never quite managed to stay on it for long as just around the corner there was inevitably a tour bus stop, a handicraft market, or a new road or resort being constructed.
Having discounted the more remote areas of the far north of Vietnam due to cold weather, we had our work cut out for us to get off the beaten track whilst maintaining an acceptable holiday temperature, but we didn’t give up on the quest. And then when I read in my guide book that “Than Hoa Province is right off the tourist radar, but there are a couple of destinations that would interest adventurous travellers” it seemed like a good place to head! And I am happy to say that after much searching, we have found ourselves “off the beaten track” for the last few days, trekking with a local guide through ethnic minority villages and valleys of rice fields surrounded by jungle-clad mountains. Even then, I was conscious of enjoying the peaceful mountain serenity while we had it, because there were new homestays being built and the beaten track may well start winding itself through these valleys in the next few years too.
The glimpses of local life I have had in the last few days have created some of the more impressionable memories that I am sure I will take away with me from Vietnam. From the grandfather that was catching frogs and small eels in the river, gutting them and stringing them onto a skewer in preparation for lunch; to the sixteen year old girl that was planting rice seedlings in the field; to the children that were playing together in the village streets, or waiting patiently for their mothers while they finished their daily duties in the fields.
When we arrived at our homestay in the village of Ban Don, the skies opened with torrential rain, thunder and lightning which continued on and off all night. Thankfully we were warm and dry in our thatched hut on stilts, and the new day dawned with brighter skies and a chorus of frogs singing in the rice paddies. The local famers were happy for all the rain that had fallen outside of the rainy season, and the fields were buzzing with activity as we wandered through them the next morning. The house that we stayed in was home to four generations, and the grandfather had been the leader of the village during the days of the Vietnam War. Hanging in the tree at the front of the house was a piece of an exploded bomb that had been used as a gong to call the villagers for meetings during the war days.
The next day we drove four hours to the city of Ninh Binh which brought us back to the beaten track as it’s a popular day trip from Hanoi to take a boat trip through the wetlands that have limestone karst outcrops. When we arrived at our homestay accommodation, we were greeted by a fire hose pumping out black water down the driveway. Not sure what to make of it, we tip-toed through the black sludge to the family’s outdoor kitchen area where the source of the sludge became apparent. There were three men immersed in a “pond” full of black sludge which was most likely where their domestic sewage ended up. The sludge-covered men were catching sludge-covered fish with their bare hands and throwing them to a sludge-covered child who was waiting on the edge of the pond with a bucket to then transport the black fish to a water feature in their courtyard that seemed to be acting as a half-way home for them… I didn’t want to think about where they were half way to, mind you. This signalled the end of us eating any more fish in Vietnam, and also resulted in us deciding to find other accommodation! The sad fact of the matter is that we were getting another glimpse of everyday life – something that we had been passionately seeking out – and this was the reality of their domestic chores that day.
That cloud had a silver lining as we ended up in a beautiful homestay with five bungalows set along the edge of some rice paddies, surrounded by limestone rocks rising out of the fields. For a town that is back on the beaten track, we actually managed to find a little oasis that has kept us off the beaten track for a little while longer, where we can sit on our balcony and watch the ladies working in the fields and listen to their voices as they chat away against the background chorus of frogs, birds, dogs and goats with whom we are sharing this paradise.
