My Journey to Y Ty — A Vietnam Which Is Not ‘Must-See’ — Part 1
Written by: Ngoc Nguyen
The journey happened during few days of August 2014
Certainly, Y Ty wasn’t and isn’t a ‘must-see’ thing in Vietnam, much more like a ‘can’t see’. Tour operators sell tours to Y Ty just recently while foreign travelers mostly know about Sapa only. Well, it’s understandable — besides the fact that Y Ty is poor, is a border commune where independent foreigner travelers are not allowed to travel to, it’s outshone by its brother, Sapa — the lower town that has everything Y Ty doesn’t: services, restaurants, hotels, hostels, village treks, tour guides, all kinds of shops and the list goes on.
Yet Y Ty has everything that Sapa doesn’t, too.
So I wrote down my trip to Y Ty which has been my only one that is written because it bugged me to do so. This is from long time ago therefore some of the facts might not be true anymore. I think it’s best to leave them just like how I saw them.
Y Ty inspires me and the way I think about traveling and living. And my heart yearns to be back at that place once again.
My second trip to Y Ty started with a whimsical purpose: to remake a picture at the exact same standpoint. That didn’t succeed only because of the fact that we forgot about it altogether. But we gained more, so much more.
Day 1
We booked three tickets for two people and one motorbike from Hanoi Railway Station to Lao Cai Railway Station. The total expense for first-night transportation was about 500,000 VND. It was in August 2014, we packed a lot of things but did not bring much money. The station was filled with many foreigners who were going to Sapa, at that sight, we felt so proud when we thought that we were going to a place most of them don’t know its existence and not easy even for Lao Cai residents to get there. But we were about to reach it as perfectly as we planned, or so we thought.
I told my friend Ha about my experiences from my first trip to Y Ty: the ways, the roads, and the difficulties we might face in the upcoming days. The train departed about 9 PM that night, we took a slow train — the one that is not for tourists — and absolutely no comfort in sleeping was served. But we did not expect it anyway since we’d got it cheap. Middle-classed locals tried to lie on the floor under the hard-wooden benches, on one of which we were trying to get sleep. We hardly did. There were noises and too many stops. So we stayed wide awake discussing how we were going to visit Y Ty as scheduled.
There are two ways from Lao Cai City to Y Ty Commune: one way follows the Vietnam-China border, Trinh Tuong — A Mu Sung — Y Ty, covered in total 100km; the other from the city to Sapa — Muong Hum — A Lu — Y Ty which is quite shorter but the roads are more dangerous. According to our plan, we chose the second way because the following day was Saturday, we thought if we could get from Lao Cai city to Sapa and to Muong Hum fast enough, we might catch a glimpse of Muong Hum fair market. A fair market was something that we’d never attend before. The fair market ended around 11 AM and we would reach Y Ty at the noon of the day or one hour later, it didn’t matter. So that was the plan.
We paid much effort to sleep at least one hour before driving keeping a thought in mind that it could be dangerous to drive with a sleepy head. But at 3 AM, the train stopped at the edge of Yen Bai province that meant we were not even halfway to Lao Cai. All passengers were aroused and worried while we waited half asleep for the notice. The notice came informing a derailment of the train from the opposite direction had happened unexpectedly. They asked all passengers to wait. So we waited some more. One hour later, we got an opinion from a railway officer that they didn’t know how long it would take. Some people started planning to get out of the train. I also started wondering what was the best thing to do. It was still dark outside even two hours later, I knew we wouldn’t make it to the fair market on time so we decided to get off the train first, then take our motorbike and drive all the way through Yen Bai province. It sounds crazy when we retold the accident to our friends later but it really happened.
When we got our motorbike out of from the train’s storage car, no one was sure when the train would be able to move soon. It took time to find a gas station to fill at such an early hour. We knew we must go for over 100km from Yen Bai to Lao Cai and conquering the national route 70 is a tough feat to pull off. After driving continuously for straight 4 hours, we reached Lao Cai city. Of course, we knew that we missed the fair in Muong Hum but it was the best we could do. Exhausted and hungry we quickly found a typical rice restaurant. We asked for the price and only ordered one portion. It was more expensive than in Ha Noi but the food was delicious.
Rested for an hour, we started driving with our motorbike again, this time we searched the way to Bat Xat district — the largest district of Lao Cai. Because we missed the Muong Hum Market already, so we chose the first way to go for safety. The road’s surface is smoother and wider but steeper and had more bends. We drove fast at the beginning where the roads were easy. After passing Trinh Tuong, we arrived at the frontier area. Red River is the boundary dividing Vietnam and China.
Both sides are visible to each other so we could clearly see a high way running through forests of the China side and sometimes big red mandarin characters on the mountains. The road was getting more and more remote, nothing on our way but sunshine, rocks, big rocks, mountain walls, trees, grasses on a side; and cliffs on another. On the far horizon, green mountain after a green mountain with clouds under a blazing sky made a whole panoramic scene that our camera couldn’t capture fully. Occasionally, some locals drove passing us and gave us looks like we were some kinds of foreigners. Actually, we were indeed strangers in there so we returned their stares with our friendliest smiles and went on.
At A Mu Sung, we stopped a lot to rest or take pictures. The scenes were so spectacular and we didn’t want to miss a single view. Reached A Lu field, the endless layers of rice terraces overwhelmed us with their glorious curving lines. Everything was green because the rice was not ripe yet and under sunshine, it got more surreal. We wished we’d had a better camera because our mediocre one didn’t do any justice to the scenes and at that moment I knew why people told me the only way to understand is to go and to be at the place. We encountered more of H’Mong ethnic houses but barely saw people. The higher we went, the steeper it got and rice fields were everywhere, under, beside and above us. The first milestone of Y Ty had appeared and we took a picture at “Y Ty 28 km” happily knowing that we were not so far away. I remember the first time visiting Y Ty about 2 years ago, things had been so much harder for us: roads full of rocks, harsher weather, worse driving skills and worst, like a result, we got lost for 3 hours. After two years, we saw the effort of local government to improve the roads, road signs, and border security. But Y Ty still existed like a dream to young travelers and I was about to make that dream came true for the second time. That was something to be proud of.
When you are 10km away from Y Ty, cool air fills your lungs and trees shade your way. A stopover is a perfect waterfall and you meet more people. Now you know that you will make it to Y Ty for sure and this is just the first step of a wonderful adventure, good things waiting in front of you and the only thing you have to do is to keep going.
And finally, we stopped at Y Ty center market at 3 PM and no getting lost this time; we made it within 3 hours.
We didn’t have time to take a first look at the place. The first thing you must do when traveling in Y Ty is to be present at Y Ty border guard station (not allowed to take a picture) to provide ID cards (we got our cards back the day we left). For foreigners, a permit from Lao Cai province Immigration Department through travel agencies in Lao Cai city in order to visit the towns in the Vietnam — China border area. We had a small conversation with border guards; they asked some questions in a friendly way, offered their hostel rooms with a quite high price. Because I visited Y Ty before so I already had some numbers to contact especially of the family that let us stayed at their place for free two years ago. I didn’t remember their house’s location but I got the name of the wife and the husband. I found the house, reintroduced myself, making they looked surprised at first but they still remembered me and welcomed both of us with great hospitality. They had a humble store to sell mobile phones in the middle of the slope which leads down to Lao Chai village. They are one of those Viet people living in Y Ty town. There is only one hostel in the town, few families running homestay and absolutely no service like motorbike, taxi or restaurants. But we didn’t need these services anyway.
We just dropped our backpacks, left our motorbike at their house and started walking down the slope. I was the one who was being surprised this time by the changes of the place. Years ago, the commune was still so remote; roads being unable to drive, trees covered most of the scenery. But things had changed since then. The place looked even more beautiful. We could walk easily on the almost flat road, on the left side some bushes and bamboos were removed, revealing the whole scene of Lao Chai and other villages lying under the terraces. I and my friend enjoyed our impression of the paradise, kept strolling through one of the most romantic roads in Vietnam, of course, ranked by us. My friend noticed the variety of flora in Y Ty, she told me that the plants here were quite different. Indeed, Y Ty commune was situated at the height from 1200m to over 2000m, on a scale of 21,893 hectares wide and half of that was the forest. With characters of subtropical weather, flora and fauna here were not only diverse but also different deeply from Vietnam lower tropical zone.
We reached down near Lao Chai village and encountered some children who were playing on one side of the road. Most of Ha Nhi people lived in Y Ty and were considered as the highest living ethnic group in Vietnam. Due to the location so isolated, their traditional culture and lifestyle remain intact. So the children barely speak Vietnamese. They stared at us with curiosity but smiled widely when we gave candies to them. We stopped at the entrance of the village and decided not to enter. The best thing a traveler could do for the locals was, I believed, not to bother them in the very first moments of the visit. With that, we stayed in the ‘garden’ — I came up with this name — which is very near to the first ‘Trinh Tuong’ house. Actually, the ‘garden’ looked very much like a mini forest but its outer zone had fewer trees and the grass field was flat. Under the sunset light, we chose a big rock to sit on while enjoying the tranquil scene of a green rice field in front of us.
A call from the host family urging us to come back for dinner time. Despite our exhausted limbs, we climbed back the steep slope with excitement and warmth. Our host family was Viet people so they cooked us some ordinary foods which we usually ate, still, it tasted so good considering how hungry we were. We shared stories and talked about what happened after my first visit to Y Ty. They told us about how gradually the place had changed, how people lives had become wealthier in general and Y Ty had attracted more travelers. We were glad to hear that.
Because of the high altitude, Y Ty’s climate was so distinct. In summer, the weather got so cold at night. In the last months of the year, temperatures at day didn’t exceed 20 degrees and dropped deep during the night, snow falling in winter. We had a decent bed with thick blankets offered by the host. The chill air made it so easy to sleep and we slept tight in the exotic sounds of waterfalls, birds singing, winds blowing….
To be continued
