Switchbackin' 2

Pho Bang

Ok, I admit it, I'm drunk.

Well, I'm between very tipsy and pissed, leaning to the right of that phrase.

I feel bloody good, I've gotta say.

Not just because of the alcohol of course, but because I've just had the best time ever at an engagement party, where pretty much everyone in the village was there.

It was a corn whiskyfest and complete food fiesta.

My guesthouse owner's brother is getting married, and tonight's party was a seriously massive celebration. They all started drinking at 8am, and my host Chúng picked me up at 5pm, (on foot, luckily), for the feast. And for some serious whisky drinking.

I don't know how those guys are still standing.

It was super fun, a couple of young people there spoke a little English, and were really keen to chat with me, so, helped along by Google Translate, we all had a wow of a time, me with fun translators in tow the whole time.

Pretty much everyone I spoke with told me fairly early on that they were drunk. Which they didn't really need to tell me, as it was sorta obvious. But it was such great fun because they were all still somehow able to have decent conversations.

Well, some more than others.

Basically it's no different from a Western wedding or engagement celebration, everyone eats loads of amazing food, and sits around drinking and chatting and dancing etc, but here the thing to do is to invite the whole table to a whisky toast. It happens every few minutes.

And being the foreign guest, loads of people from the party either came over to where I was sitting and invited me to toast with them, or invited me to their own tables to eat and drink some more.

I had a lot of whisky toasts, I can tell you.

I knew there was something going on as I rode into the village.

Watching some of the wedding party go past, from my guesthouse balcony

Ready to start the next feast

The guy in the beret is the grooms's (and Chung's) dad.

These women were singing traditional Chinese folk music, but the lyrics are completely improvised. It's like a duel between two singers, each tries to outdo the other. I've seen it before in other places. The loser has to skull whisky, surprise, surprise.

This is mainly a Hmong village, and many of the residents here have strong connections to China, and have extended family living there. My host, for example, speaks fluent Mandarin. There are also members of the Hoa ethnic group living here.

I eventually left the party, it was late, but there were a couple of tables of hangers on. As usual.

I tried to walk home between these two straight lines.

But of course I didn't. I got distracted by the kids, we had great fun, there was a mob.

Looking down from my rather grand guesthouse balcony.

It was a gobsmackingly beautiful ride here today, and steep as.

Leaving the town of Yen Minh this morning. Yep, I climbed way up to the top of those distant ranges today.

Blossoms are out in the villages

What a shame he's so messed up. He'd make a seriously good dinner.

Wow, I'm starting to think like a local

Truly magnificent scenery today. I say that a lot, but this was really special.

Terraced farming, using broken up limestone as retaining walls

Back to switchbacking

As I was coming around a bend I heard beautiful flute music, and found this local tribal guy, a flute maker, playing his flute across the valley. It was loud, echoing off the cliffs, and totally beautiful. I just stood there by my bike and marvelled at the incredible movie I was in.

Not far up the road was a little hill tribe market. I stopped to check it out, and snacked on fresh pineapple and sugar cane juice.

Caning it

Lots of kids around, all bushy and dirty and very very cute

These kids were playing a great flute song, some of it in three part harmony. It was a really interesting and haunting traditional tune.

A few local tourists were there, and posed with the kids.

The sweetest lady ever. Yeah, I'd ridden up the road behind her to get here. After she agreed to having her photo taken she then put her hand out, for money. Sad but true. I really had to give her some, it would've been super impolite not to. Feels sorta weird though.

Further up I met Pam and Paul, sweet English cyclists, going in the other direction, They're doing a 2 month trip, and we chatted for a while about the joys of cycling here. They're leaving soon, and, of course, really aren't ready to go back home.

So I left the main road and headed off to the village of Pho Bang, where I am now, rather than stay in the larger town of Song Lu. That's the bigger town down below.

The road eventually got rough, but it was only about 5 or 6 clicks to the village.

There's lots of beautiful traditional mud buildings in the village.

But bit by bit they're being replaced with newer and bigger ones. It's the same old process that's happening in so many places. All the old villages grow, along with the population, and none of the new houses are built in the traditional style. So their historic architecture, which itself creates such an incredible aesthetic charm for all the individual villages, slowly gets lost.

And the skills and knowledge of generations of traditional builders eventually disappears with it.

To add further pressure, as the Ha Giang loop becomes more and more touristed, new building will accelerate in many villages in the area. It's sorta like what happened in Sa Pa, another hill tribe area that used to be cute and authentic, but has now become a tourist mecca. Whilst still beautiful, the Sa Pa district is now full of high rise hotels and tourist infrastructure in many areas.

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