Simacai - Mường Khương - Bát Xát - Sapa

Two Pa Dí ethnic minority women in Mường Khương

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Traditional dresses of the Pa Dí ethnic
minority women with special hats.

21 October to 3 November 2012 – I joined a photographer on a 14-day trip to the North West of Vietnam and we shared the costs. This is my third visit to the mountain region over the past 3 months. On this trip, I visited two provinces which are Lào Cai and Lai Châu. This blog is about the first destination of my trip which is Lào Cai province. Except for Sapa which is a popular tourist site, the other towns which we visited such as Simacai, Mường Khương and Bát Xát are located in the border area and they are very close to China. 

We got a bus from Lào Cai city to Simacai town. Next day we walked 5km to Bản Thẩn village of the H’mong ethnic minority people. We saw an elementary school and H’mong children were running around classrooms while their teachers had not arrived yet. They were shy at first, then they all loved to see their own photos in our cameras. We also talked to the teachers at this school.

Sapa town (lake & mountain view)

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Things have changed since my last visit to Sapa
4 years ago (April 2008). There are a new park and
beautiful lake in the town.

They are Vietnamese girls and they shared with us difficulties of their works. Not only they teach H’mong children Vietnamese language, they also have to go to every H’mong house and encourage H’mong parents to let their children go to school. They cannot refuse to drink rice wine which H’mong people invited. At school they also have to cook food for H’mong children. During my two trips to the North West, I met many teachers working in the remote region. I always admire their patience and enthusiasm for the meaningful works despite their rather low pay. 

We walked back 5km to Simacai town and by chance we met three Vietnamese at our guesthouse. They agreed to give us a free hitchhike in their 7-seater car to Mường Khương town which is located 65km away from Simacai. It took us 3 hours to travel on this route because the road was very bad. Unfortunately, our driver was a drunk man (he is boss of the other two Vietnamese) and he drove like crazy. The mountain scenery on the way was stunning, but we were more nervous about a car accident than enjoying the landscape. We were lucky to be given a free hitchhike,