Hills and handicrafts

Since hastening back from Halong and Hanoi, hills and handicrafts have been featured heavily in my hobbies (ha ha!) 🙂

Silliness aside, the handicrafts part refers to activities I did in two different locations, Yen Duc village, and Sapa, which are both trying preserve traditional handicrafts through tourism. The hills part refers to, well, hills!

Yen Duc village is an ecotourism village close to Hanoi, working from the same basic model as Preah Romkel that I visited in Cambodia. The difference is that Yen Duc is more independently wealthy, and has also been running for a tourist attraction for longer, meaning that visitors really get the 5 star treatment – a luxiourious bed room, meals with multiple courses to sample a wide range of local specialities, etc. The activities that I did while there were all designed to foster an understanding of traditional village life, and they were all great! Possibly the most interesting for me was learning about how rice is made, from the crop that is harvested from the field, to the finished product that we have on or plates.

Grains of rice, it turns out, start out as the seeds on the upper end of long stalks of grass, which you might imagine swaying in a a summer breeze. Rice harvesting generally involves going out into the field and cutting off the tops of the grass. The bottom parts of the stalks are then often burned in order to fertilize the ground. Traditionally, the tops of the stalks are then put through a wooden machine, wound by hand, to separate the seeds from the stalks. Next, the seeds have to be dried out – indeed while riding around SE Asia I’ve passed by many houses with large tarpaulins spread out in front of them with grains drying in the sun. After this, the seeds are put in a big circular bin sort of machine with a woven bamboo straw bottom, and pushed around in such away as to force apart the husks from the grains of rice within, then the grains of rice, which are smaller and heavier, fall through the holes. Of course, some husks do make it through the holes so the rice has to be seived and re-seived and the husks removed so that only rice remains. At this point in the process it is brown rice – now I had always assumed that white and brown rice came from different varieties of plant or something similar, but it turns out that white rice is just more processed. Brown rice is basically white rice in a little shell of fibre, as if white rice were chocolate, and the brown part the sugary coating on a smartie (weird simile I know but I’m craving chocolate!) Anyway, to get the white rice out of its little brown shell, you basically have to pound the rice until the coating breaks apart and turns to brown dust, which is then seived off. Given how often I eat rice and how little a knew about it before I found it really interesting to find out about and try my hand at the processes, especially since many people in SE Asia still the traditional methods for rice they grow on their own farms, though course the larger commercial ones are now mechanised.

Sapa, the next place that I visited, is a mountain town that was originally popularised for tourists during the French colonial era as a sanitorium due to its cooler climate and fresh mountain air. Nowadays, it is best known as a destination for hiking, and for the ethnic minority hill tribes in native to the region, who continue to live according to the same customs and using the same methods that they have for centuaries. When I visited, I decided to book onto a day of traditional handicrafts in one of the villages, reasoning that I could see the landscape and scenary, which is the main attraction of hiking, while I was on my bike. I thoughourly enjoyed it!

Amongst other things, I learned about how they made fabric from hemp, which before the days of imports would have been used for the majority of their clothes, since cotton is not grown in that region. Hemp starts off as long grass, which has to be harvested and then dried out for a long time before it can be used. Once it is ready, the grass is broken into thinner strands and these strands are twirled together and spooled into a long thread, though at this point, it is still recognisably dried grass. This proto-thread has to be boiled several times in water and also in solutions of things like vinegar, and then combed out until it resembles something more like fabric thread. When the thread is ready, it can be put on a loom (which is hand built by the men in the village) and woven into fabric (trying this out was really fun!). To dye the fabric, leaves of particular plants are crushed and put into huge vats with chemicals extracted from other sources, and the fabric is left in the solution and then boiled to fix the dye. In my one day I had a rather whistle stop tour of processes which in reality would take months to complete from start to finish, and it really was awe-inspiring to see the skills and knowledge that members of the hill tribes possess! One lady who was showing me handicraft items that she had for sale told me that each item had to go through 14 different processes in order to be made!

I found both experiences truly fascinating. It really is amazing to think that for both rice and hemp, the starting point is essentially a field of long grass (though of different, and very specific varieties.) To be able to go out and harvest that grass, and then turn one into a yummy dinner and the other into a peice of cloth just seems ingenious! Even more so when you think about the many steps that had to be taken for our ancestors to develop the technology over time. Colour me amazed!

On the hills front, I was quite pleased with myself on arriving in Sapa, having ridden up ridden up 5075 feet of climbing in 21.2 miles, and got there feeling ok, if pretty tired. On talking to John afterwards, I realised that this level of climbing meant that the hill classified as HC, the first ever hill of this category that I have climbed! Quoting Wikipedia: “Hors Catégorie (HC) is a French term used in stage bicycle races to designate a climb that is “beyond categorization”. The term was originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass. A HC climb is the most difficult type of climb in a race.” Quoting myself and John: In English HC can stand for “Holy Cow!” amongst other things! 😜 As I was going up it, I was passed by a group of three Scottish cyclists going in the other direction, down the big hill. They called out hello and also “it’s a lot easier in this direction!” – I’ve got a feeling they were right!

Leaving from Sapa, I had been looking forward to riding the Tram Ton pass, (also known as Heaven’s gate,) which is Vietnam’s highest road and is known for its spectacular views and impressive waterfalls… however as it transpired the morning that I set off the mountain was covered in thick fog, with very little visability… no views to be had here! On the bright side, the thought did cross my mind that I was in a much better position than many of the other tourists in the area: for me, despite being a little disappointed in the lack of view, the twisty roads were still fun to ride on, and I had an enjoyable morning’s riding… for the tourists who I encountered at the top who had presumably booked in advance to be taken by bus or taxi to see the views and who were now obediently shuffling around from invisablable viewpoint to invisable waterfall… well I’m not quite sure what was going through their minds!

To make up for the lack of views at Tram Ton pass, I made a slight detour in order to also ride over Pha Din Pass, which is the longest mountain pass in Vietnam and also has spectacular views. This time, the weather was just about perfect, and the way down was truly exhilarating – taking in bend after bend of the road as the landscape opened out in front of my eyes!

The going has been a little slower for the past few days. Since leaving Sapa I’ve had a bit of a cold, which, while it wouldn’t bother me very much if I was just at home, going to work etc., in this situation where I am pushing my body much harder, I have noticed a definite decrease in my power output while I was feeling under the weather. (It’s also the reason that there has been a slightly longer gap in between blog posts than normal, as I have spent more time sleeping when not cycling, rather than blogging.) Happily I seem to be over the worst of it now though. Incidentally, since crossing the Laos border, I think I am also over the worst (or best, depending how you look at it!) of the hills.

Yesterday (Thursday), I crossed over the Vietnam / Laos border, (which was on top of another hill,) and am now in Laos. Today I am going (with my bike) on a boat down the river – a nice shortcut which both allows you to see the beautiful river scenary, and bypasses a relatively busy and fairly uninteresting bit of road (from what I have heard.) Next major stop after a bit more cycling is Luang Prabang, which I have heard good things about, and am looking forward to visiting.