Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Dalat "Secret" Easy Riders Tour
We did not get off to a good start as we were told to be in the lobby at 7.30am, so we got up at 7am to the phone ringing and it was Rot (our very camp guide) asking where we were. Literally five minutes later we were on the back of a motorbike, stomach rumbling, wind in our hair and beeps and hoots in our ears (not what we needed).
Our first stop was the cricket farmand with it breakfast, yes, we both ate a cricket (eurgh), Jh ate two but don't worry they weren't alive.. Deep fried!
Wide awake and out of the town the journey became a lot more fun until we arrived at a local village market and learnt some home truths about Vietnam and their preferred cuisine, puupies and kitten for sale, I don't need to say anymore. We knew that people in Vietnam ate cats and dogs but seeing and knowing that they were for sale for that reason was very upsetting for most people on the trip, especially the women.
We were all eager to leave the market butnot before learning a little something about the Buddhist religion. We were told that birthdays aren't celebrated, it;s the day a person dies that is remembered. Friends and reletives buy paper objects, for example money, phones, everything you can think of and they are then burnt for the dead to receive in the after life, "intersting but stupid" quote John Henry Robinson.
After and upsetting but interesting time at the market we drove the 60km to Rots village (Rot was adpoted as a child by a family in Dalat who paid for his schooling but he is still very close to his family and village, organising charity days, doing the easy rider tour and helping the poorer members of the village).
We had the opportunity to spend time with the village hill tribe (Rot growing up there could speak the hill tribe language, not Vietnamese). We saw the women weaving, which they have to learn from the age of fourteen otherwise they would not be able to get/buy a husband as they weave their own garments for their wedding day.
We spent the next hour sat on wooden benches learning about their culture and traditions. Firstly, it is the womans family who "buy" a husband for their daughter, the "better" the man i.e no smoking, drinking hard worker, educated, the higher the price (chickens, buffalo, pots, jewellery). Once the husband is "bought" he effectively belongs to the girls family, working for them and he must even ask permission to visit his own family.
If two people fall in love which happened with one of the women we spoke to, the girls family must still pay the boys family (they can be married as young as twelve). For this particular lady it was very sad as her family couldn't afford the price for the boy (who was much more well off) but the boy left anyway. This caused fighting amongst the two families and after five years and three children the man was bought by another family and taken away. The lady and children haven't heard from him since and because they weren't married his family do not have to pay for the children.
Another tradition particularly where poorer families are concerned, the daughters will share a husband with the mother deciding on sleeping arrangements etc each night. Also, rich older women can buy boys as young as fourteen - mainly for labour on the farms.
We learnt that both men and women work very hard within this community, we even met a ninety year old lady who still goes out working in the field and whilst we were there she was grazing the rice.
The villagers are also very suspicious believing that a ghost family live amongst them (this is a real family that are outcasts within the village). They believe that when a person dies it is the work of the ghost family and fifteen years ago the village joined together and killed another suspected ghost family and only five years ago they tried to kill the family who live their today.
The mother of the two ladies (who has ten children in total)showed us how to weave cotton by hand, very difficult and she seemed very proud once she had completed it and got huge round of applause.
The one thing I would take away from our experience with the villagers is that yes, they were very pood but so so happy, the house was filled with jokes and laughter, they seemed content with life, they have food to eat and family around them day in day out and that is the most important thing to them.
As we left everyone was given a shot of rice wine (or four for Jh, the lady really liked him :)) we bought one of the weavings also which cannot be bought anywhere in Vietnam.
After lunch we had the chance to try all the wierd, exotic fruits we'd seen so much around Vietnam : Baby apples, custard apples, durian (never eat this fruit, it tastes as bad as it smells), jack fruit (children aren't allowed to eat this before school as it gives you bad wind), logenberry, dragon fruit, a date like fruit and a tomato type one.
This was one of the best parts of the day (trying all the different fruits) as we were also taught about Vietnamese culture, how to be polite when being hassled, not what to do and about the lifestyle etc.
After playing a few games we headed back... IN THE POURING RAIN! Not just any rain, monsoon rain - numb hands (from holding on), numb face and numb feet!! With the rain bouncing off the ground we drove the thirty minutes back to Dalat for a hot shower and a rest :).
- comments