Missing Roads & The piper of La Pán Tẩn
From Sapa we rent a motorbike (about $4.75 per day) to tour the surrounding provinces. The roads in Northern Vietnam aren’t great tho I’m told they improve in the south. Here it seems there is little commitment to infrastructure or so my derriere determines after 10 miles of bouncing down partially paved, partially missing roadways. Not only are the roads half Motocross course but they are also frighteningly curvy, actually the curves are nothing but for the massive dump trucks, semis and tour busses speeding along them as if they were cruising interstate 80 across Pennsylvania.
But the scenery is breathtaking and luckily I get to enjoy it while Guillem cautiously navigates each turn to avoid skidding out in gravel or running head on into a minivan of tourists. Maybe I should stop tapping him and pointing at every waterfall or stunning valley as it comes into view?
After a night in Than Uyen and having breakfast with a fellow traveler, Sadia, we decide to head a bit west towards what looks like a dense series of rivers and tributaries. 40 minutes later our dirt road abruptly ends in what is now a lake.
Luckily for us there is a boat service to connect you to where the old road picks up again and while it costs more than a hotel room for the night but there’s no turning back now. Getting the motorbike onto the boat is scary, there is no dock, just a dirt/mud slop to the water and boats tethered to stakes and more than a few times I think Guillem and the bike are both going to end up in the lake.
As we motor across the unnaturally blue lake I cant help but think about the submerged homes, like some lost bamboo Atlantis.
Once on the other side our dirt road continues thru a winding landscape of Karsts, fog, meandering livestock and rice fields. The rain turns on and off again with every peak. We stop several times too don rain gear only to take it off minutes later as we head into a valley and the temperature jumps up to 90º
We reach Mu Cang Chai in the early evening and find a room. The plan is to rest our sore behinds and sleep so we have pleanty of energy for hiking the next day.
Plans be damed … at 6am a woman’s voice starts shouting at us in Vietnamese. Ahh yes, just the local public announcements where they tell residents valuable information such as when they need to evacuate because their valley is being turned into a lake.
Several miles out town we head off the main road onto some paved motobike paths up the hills into La Pan Tan. Eventually all these go from paved to pot hole filled, to dirt and rock and finally to impassable (tho it seems the locals still find a way thru) at which point we jump off and walk, exploring the paths used by villagers to and from the fields.
On one of these walks a couple women have a good laugh dressing Guillem and I in traditional cloths complete with hats. Instead of trying to sell to us one woman wants me to sell my bag which she is now wearing (which she commandeered while disrobing me before playing dress up.) But I’m pretty attached after using all manner of hand gestures and facial expressions to show her how sad I would be to part with it she agrees to give it back, in return I give her and the children who have gathered around to watch this ridiculous scene all the candy I have left over from our mountain hike.
Around 3pm when we arrive in a small village after climbing a winding mud track a few miles off the main road. The homes are crowded closely together on a hillside with small pathways between and as we navigate these we encounter only small children. The oldest child we see in town is maybe 11 and cooking fish for himself and his little brother.
Let me just say here how astounded I am buy kids here and the difference in attitude towards raising them. Everywhere we’ve been in Vietnam we’ve seen children as young as 5 cleaning and taking care of the home and taking care of their younger siblings, cleaning them, watching them, carrying them on their backs as they sell trinkets in the street and feeding them. Imagine, would you trust your own children this way when your 7 yr old says they don’t need a babysitter? Think of the free time you could carve out if only your kids cleaned and cooked for themselves. I’m not saying saying children shouldn’t have a “childhood” where they get to enjoy themselves without pressure of responsibility but maybe …. just maybe we underestimate their capability to take on responsibility when given the chance?
There is one little girl, in the middle and though she is the smallest she looks somehow older than she is, like a shrunken old woman who is full of glee and laughter, she steals my heart, she literally laughs like Santa Clause, holding her belly. I’ll never forget her.
Many of the children are curious of our presence, a few are apprehensive (one very young boy literally runs inside screaming bloody murder because of Guillem’s beard) but largely Guillem wins them over. Soon we have a gang of 5 between 3 and 6 following (leading?) us though the village. They play and do tricks, climbing water trough and leaping off ever aware of Guillem’s camera and the snap of a photo. As we head away from the village the children follow Guillem, farther and farther from their homes, like some benevolent Pied Piper with a camera for a flute.
