Northern Tour 2014 02

Early start, yes I realise those who know me find it hard to believe. We drove straight to Y Ty Village, only 27 km from Mường Hum, but as a testament to the terrain it took about 1.25 hours, in time for the local market. I gave out some balloons to some of the kids and was amazed to watch them being immediately played with.

After an hour or so we went further into the valley and walked through the lower village, I handed out more balloons and was stunned to see the hunger the kids displayed when I did so- they obviously don't seem to have much to play with. The other thing that was outstanding was that most of the children had really somber looks, with only the occasional smile.

As you can see from some of the shots the water has a crystal clear quality- not much pollution around here yet!! There was also a wooden water powered morter (probably for making rice flour). The see-saw mortar is shaped like a large wooden spoon at one end and the shaft is pivoted roughly halfway between the 'spoon' and the 'pestle'. The bowl is directly under a stream of water; once the bowl is full it tips down, spilling out the water and then springs back up to fill again while at the other end as the bowl tips the pestle end rises and pounds down as the bowl rises into a hole hollowed out of stone.

In the afternoon we had a photography session with some of the local girls dressed in tribal costume while being watched by some local boys perched on a rock. Once the session finished we continued on our way, skirting along the Red River and waving to the Chinese on the other side. Every now and again we saw wireless masts, on the Chinese side, pointed back towards the Vietnamese side, presumably as listening posts; who knows what else was out of sight...