Winter 17/18 From Nà Hang to Phía Tháp

The next morning was the usual gray and cold one. Not too cold but enough to wear the windproof jacket. Today I had to cross a few mountain ranges to get to the northern part of Northeast Vietnam or Đông Bắc. Looking forward to seeing a lot of limestone mountains again.

Dam in Vietnam — There is a big dam above the village. If this one breaks the village will be gone for sure.

Low water in the dam – seems to affect way more places

Restaurant Boats. There was a bit of sun for a few minutes. Look how the water color changed.

Workers in the Filed — Lots of workers in the field and some buffaloes in the green

Another gray Day — Another one of those gray days

Ricefiles and Mountains — But I was quite happy to have some blue sky for a change

Information board — Ma Phuc Pass Information Board

Phía Tháp Insence Village

Valley Road — This is where I had to turn right to get to my Homestay. Insense stick dry in the afternoon sun.

Incense production in Phía Tháp has a long tradition. The Nung An people of the village hand down the incense-making craft from generation to generation. The whole family is involved.
The Phía Tháp Incense is made entirely from natural materials found in the region. Bamboo trees are used to make the sticks. The bark of the bombax ceiba tree, sawdust, and leaves of the “bau hat” tree are used to make the glue to bond the materials together.

First, you cut the bamboo into pieces that are about 40 cm long. After that, you split it into fine sticks and polish them. The “bau hat” leaves and the bark of the bombax ceiba tree are ground into a fine powder. It has to be mixed very well with sawdust. The bamboo sticks get soaked in water and coated with powdered “bau hat” leaves to create the glue. Now you only have to apply the mix you made earlier. Now it is time to dry them.

The bottom part gets dyed red when they are dry. And the whole stick is dried again. Now you only need to tie them into a bundle, and you are ready to sell them!

Incense Sticks — Incense sticks in the sun

Village — A mix of corn fields and incence dry concrete

Incence wood sticks — Incence sticks in the sun to dry

Mr. Kim’s Homestay in Phía Tháp

There are only a handful of places to stay up here in the far northeast of Vietnam. So I made Mr. Kim’s Homestay my base for the next few days. The entire upper floor is a big sleeping room and a family shrine. There are 3 double rooms up there as well if you want more privacy. The rest can be diverted with curtains, and you will have a mattress on the wood floor.
There are a few bathrooms and hot showers at the back of the house. Downstairs is the kitchen and dining room, as well as the rooms of the family.

Had the best dinners of the whole trip here at Mr Kim! Each day it was really good and plenty. And you will not go to bed hungry.

Sleeping Room Mr. Kim — My bed on the left- I moved the other mattress so I had space next to the bed as well

Family shrine — The family shrine in the middle of the upper floor

Phía Tháp Village — There was a storm coming into the valley. Started to rain hard when we had dinner. It turned into a big hail storm in the middle of the night.

The owner of the place – Mr. Kim – is 61 and has never seen hail before. So you can imagine. Some roof tiles got smashed, so the entire place got flooded later. Today we cleaned a lot and fixed the roof.