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Sapa
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Sapa is the most popular
place to go in the Far
Northwest amongst budget
travelers and packages
tourists alike. By using
Sapa as a base you can hike
off to more remote
‘traditional’ hill tribe
villages and sometimes you
will be offered a bed in a
village for the night. Sapa
was originally built as a
hill station in the early
part of this century and, in
winter, gets bitterly cold.
If you are going to be
visiting Sapa in winter do
not forget the winter
woollies
Sapa is preparing itself for
the continuing tourist boom
considerably well. Behind
Sapa, towards Phong Tho is a
high pass forming part of
the Hoang Lien Mountains
that were known to the
French as the Tonkinese
Alps. This range includes
Fansipan, the highest
mountain in Vietnam at
3,143m, which view at dawn
could be spectacular
There is a weekend market in
Sapa during which the town
fills up with hilltribe
people selling their wares.
If you want to see these
tribes as they
"traditionally" live (as
opposed to flogging jackets
to tourists), either go for
a hike or head over to Dien
Bien Phu from Sapa. This
stretch has the most
traditional people you will
see in the whole of Vietnam.
It seems that most tourist
groups pile into Sapa during
the weekend for the market.
However, travelers have
reported that during the
week is a much better time
to catch a glimpse of the
real Sapa avoiding from a
big hassle of tourists
You can hike in the
surrounding area and visit a
number of fairly traditional
predominantly Mong hilltribe
villages. Further afield is
the colourful Red Zao, Dzay,
Tay and Xa Pho people. A
home stay in the Tay village
would be unforgettable
experience |
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Mai Chau
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This small village is not
marked on many maps, but if
you are heading from Hoa
Binh to Moc Chau it is
impossible to miss. Mai Chau
is set about 2.5 hours North
of Hoa Binh and is
approached as you go down
the side of a very steep
valley. From Hoa Binh to Mai
Chau you will pass by Man
Duc crossroad, which is an
hour driving from Hoa Binh
and backed by karst peaks,
with an interesting market.
Another hour from Man Duc is
the stop for a spectacular
view over Mai Chau valley to
the south. The village,
nestled between two steep
cliffs and surrounded by
emerald green paddies, is
enchanting to look at as you
wind down the mountainside.
"Thai" ethnic people have
inhabited in Mai Chau for
centuries and are
highlighted from other hill
tribes for their cleaness,
intricate weaving decoration
made by dexterous women's
hands and hospitable
customs. Many evidences show
that they are homogenous
with the Thai groups living
in South of China and in
Thailand now. An overnight
visit to Lac village or
Poong Com village in Mai
Chau can be easily combined
with trekking or hiking in
the surrounding mountain
area or with a longer visit
to the far Northwest. |
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Moc Chau
Moc Chau is set nearby some
small dairy-farms, belonging
to the government or
privacy. The way from Mai
Chau to Moc Chau stretches
between the round hills
filled of green tea and
terraced rice fields, which
bring a special tranquil
beauty for the region. Yet,
since most of visitors stop
by Moc Chau just to refresh
before heading North, the
attractions of the town are
limited in local dairy
cakes, fresh milk, and the
market that concentrate
colourful-dressed H'mong and
Black Thai people. |
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Hoa Binh
Nearly 70km to the Southwest
of Hanoi, Hoa Binh is easy
to reach by the Highway No.
6 which have much less
traffic compared with other
national ways crossing by
the capital, and have more
poetic landscape. Hoa Binh
is the name of a mountainous
province, the name of its
chief town, and of the
biggest Hydropower Station
of Vietnam run by the water
power of the Reservoir built
on the "Da" River (the Black
River). For those who love
ecotours, Hoa Binh is a good
stopover for meals or
refresh before delving into
the hill tribal daily life
in the Muong, Zao and Thai
villages close by or
continue the mountain way to
reach Mai Chau |
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Son La
Located 320km northwest of
Hanoi, Son La town is often
used as a half-way overnight
stop on the way to Dien Bien
Phu. There is not much to
remark the town except a
prison built in 1908 by the
French colonialists to
incarcerate the Vietnamese
political criminals.
However, from Son La to Dien
Bien Phu you will see lots
of minority villages – Black
Thai, white Thai, H'mong,
and Muong – some close to
the road. Black Thai women
wear black sarongs, and
tightfitting blouses with
rows of silver or metal
buttons down the front
attached tightly to the
neck. The blouses are
usually bright green, blue,
or purple. A woman coils her
hair in a topknot, covering
it with a black turban
embroidered with
multicolored thread. After
marriage, Black Thai women
wear a silver hairpin. Some
800,000 Black Thai and White
Thai (white-bloused Thai
people) live in the
Northwest |
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Tuan Giao
From
Son La, your road will pass
over Thuan Chau and starts
climbing to cross Pha Din
Pass at 1,300m before
reaching Tuan Giao, which
breaks the distance of 180km
from Son La to Dien Dien. If
your destination is Lai
Chau, you can skip the turn
to the west heading to Dien
Bien and carry straight.
White Thai villages lie
along the route between Tuan
Giao and Lai Chau, with
pretty women wearing white
blouses with silver jewelry |
Dien Bien Phu
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This was the scene of the siege in
1954 that finally broke the back of
the French war effort in Vietnam. In
an attempt to halt Viet Minh
(Vietnam Independence Association)
incursions into Laos, the French
commander, Navarre, decided to
establish a "super garrison" at the
top end of a valley called Dien
Bien. This was to police the
strategic cross-roads between Laos
to the West, Son La to the South and
Lai Chau to the North. He believed
that with this base firmly
established in the Far Northwest, he
would be able to launch sorties
against the Viet Minh, and greatly
reduce their strength in the area.
He was to be proved terribly wrong.
The Viet Minh commander, Vo Nguyen
Giap, finally saw an opportunity for
an open confrontation with the
French and started working towards
it. By mid 1953, the base was
completed and regarded in French
circles as virtually impregnable.
With twelve battalions of French,
Morrocan and Algerian soldiers, two
airstrips, a heavily mined perimeter
and surrounded by a number of
smaller defensive positions, named
Dominique, Elaine, Claudine and
Huguette. These were named,
supposably, after the four
mistresses of the base commander
Colonel Marie Ferdinand de la Croix
de Castries. The troops within the
compound slept fairly soundly at
night! The French even went to the
extent of flying in an entire
brothel of French women to keep the
soldiers happy!!
For Giap and his comrades, however,
the struggle had hardly begun. They
embarked on an incredible logistical
feat of dragging up, in pieces,
various heavy field guns that were
then hidden in caves and dense
forest cover in the hills
surrounding the Dien Bien Phu base.
By early 1954, Giap had over 40,000
men in the hills, completely
surrounding the base. It was
estimated that just to keep Giap’s
men fed, over 250,000 porters were
used to ferry food.
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For the French it was their
ignorance amongst other things that
led to their downfall. Though they
knew the Viet Minh had some troops
in the surrounding hills, nothing
was done about it, until it was too
late. On 10 March 1954, to the
horror of the French, Viet Minh
shells started landing on the
airstrip. Giap possessed a
comprehensive plan, first if which
was the neutralisation of the
airstrips, thus completing the
siege. The French were taken
completely by supprise, and after
the first day of shelling, an
assault was made on Gabrielle. By
midnight 13 March, Beatrice had
fallen. The fighting was fierce,
with the Viet Minh often following
up hours of shelling with human wave
tactics, incurring shocking
casualties. At times the fighting
was hand to hand and always chaotic,
with the French utterly frustrated
by their inability to hit Giap’s
well-concealed guns.
Within five days, both the airfields
had been completely destroyed and
the garrison could only be
re-supplied by airdrops, an
increasingly perilous pastime,
proven by the wrecked planes on the
ground. As the Viet Minh edged
closer and closer in trenches, the
airdrops increasingly fell into
Vietnamese hands. The position was
becoming truly desperate.
At the start of April there was a
lull in the fighting during which
Navarre parachuted in some of his
crack troops adding to his garrison
now totalling about 16,000. Giap
also brought in his reserves, edging
his forces up towards the 50,000
mark. The French were desperate and
they appealed to the US for
assistance, preferring bomber
strikes from their bases in the
Philippines. By this stage the US
was funding 78% of the French war
effort, so they hardly had unstained
hands. They came back with a
proposal for limited tactical
nuclear strikes on the Vietnamese
positions along with a series of
strikes on China, fearing ‘another
Korea’, all of which would be
performed on French behalf.
Thankfully this insanity was avoided
by the British giving the idea a big
no and congress getting cold feet.
In the end there was nothing
forthcoming from the US.
For the French, the end was near. On
4 May following a series of attacks,
the Viet Minh attacked with a force
previously unwitnessed and by 8 May
the garrison finally surrended. By
this stage the conditions within
were unimaginable, with maggots in
the wounds of the injured and an
incredibly demoralised fighting
force. It was estimated that during
the battle 7,000 French and close to
20,000 Vietnamese had lost their
lives. This loss finally caused the
French to withdraw from Vietnam
Dien Bien Phu now bears few scars
except for the occasional scattered
tank to bear witness to its
horrendous past, though it is still
one of the remotest areas you could
visit. The hilltribes living around
the area of Dien Bien Phu make up
70% of the regions population, and
the ethnic minority groups include
the Black Thai, Nung, Meo, Loa and
others |
