Ban Pho Village....taxi for one day

Back from Can Cau market we rode in random roads around Bac Ha and ended up in Ban Pho Village....and probably some other village whose name I've forgotten.

The day hadn't started very well, and it is never very reassuring to see this as soon as you get on the motorbike !

But in the Northwest of Vietnam, riding a motorbike is a lifetime experience, and it is not only trucks or holes on the road that you have to be aware of !

No matter what, its freedom enables you to stop anytime you want and enjoy the scenery...

get closer to the people....

so close that I have to tell you a story !

On that same day, after returning to the hotel, for a nap, I got on the motorbike on my own and Marta stayed in Bac Ha. And for once, I was not carrying any cameras. I went back to the same village, Ban Pha, and it was around 6pm....everyone was walking home after a long day of work on the field, carrying their production on their backs.

So after a while, I saw a woman walking alone up the hill, and offered her a lift on the bike. She accepted and I took her all the way up to the beggining of a steep path in which I could not take my motorbike. We rode by many of her friends that would shout "oooooooohhh" when they saw her at the back of a "white-man"'s motorbike. When I stopped the bike to let her down, she wanted to pay for the lift, which I obviously refused. She then begged be to come to her house so we walked about 10 min up. She would tell the story to all the women we walked by, who would continously smile at me and wave. For once, I did not feel like a complete stranger, it felt like they were all welcoming me to her place, although I felt extremely guilty and knew I didn't deserve such welcome.

When we got to her place, she introduced me to her family and hardly had I stepped into the house that about a dozen kids rushed to the door and say the only words they know in English "hello, bye bye", over and over again. She offered me two cucumbers to thank me. I could not refuse this time.

Then, she grabbed my arm, stared at it for about 30seconds before realizing that it was true, I had hair on my arms ! She pointed at them, surprised, showing me her hairless arm. She didn't speak a word of English, and neither did I speak a word of the Hmong language, but it sometimes doesn't matter. I would try to mix some chinese, spanish, english and the rare words I speak of vietnamese...but let me tell you, if I had said everything in catalan it would have been the same!

She offered me to stay over at night, but Marta was waiting for me in Bac Ha and it was getting dark, it was time to head back.

No pictures this time, but I have them in my memory.

Moved by how welcoming can these people be, who open their home to complete strangers and offer them to stay over, I took another woman who was carrying her baby on her back down to her house before heading back to Bac Ha with a good story to tell !