In all my trips to many different lands, Ha Giang - barren land in the rocky plateau is still the place that leaves me the most nostalgic feelings. So if I have 1000 nostalgia, I will definitely miss Ha Giang!
Can't count how many times I set foot in Ha Giang. I don't know the reason why I love that land so much. In my memory, Ha Giang is a place where only cat-eared cliffs and the H’mong people all year round sell their face to the land, sell their backs to the sky. Maybe because of all that simple and close things that I love this place.
I still remember forever, the first time I decided to set foot in Ha Giang, that was when I finished reading the book "Loving Dong Van" by Thuy Tran. The book talks about the author's journey through many times walking through Ha Giang rocky plateau, tells about a Ha Giang of the old days when the locals did not know much. All the images of Ha Giang gradually appeared in my mind when reading through the author's book. So I decided to pick up my backpack and set foot there.
"There are afternoons passing through my life that reminds me forever, like the rejuvenated ones on the Dong Van plateau ..."
-Love Dong Van -
Arriving in Ha Giang for the first time, traveling on a rented motorbike in the city center, with so much excitement and excitement. See every mountain range, every road, and pass that I go through. Most memorable is the afternoon wandering on the road, meeting the gazes of highland children, meeting the woman H’mong sitting on the top of the pass waiting for her husband. I have read somewhere that H’mong woman is willing to sit on the side of the road waiting for her husband, they shade the sun, cover her husband's umbrella when her husband is drunk and think that is what a woman should do.
The afternoon starts from the market has melted. You will see the highland people hustle to each other in the sunset, the children hustling after their parents, some houses will set up wooden tables, corn wine on the roadside to make resting place for people from fair return.
The pub has nothing but Mong khene, a civet, a full can of wine; “The wine that, when pouring out, the woman of the restaurant who raised the bowl, just stared into the eyes of the far away visitor, sad and lonely, nothing like dissolving, like falling short at the fork and looking around All around, there are high mountains at the top of the sky ... "
There will not be a chance for you to see an old Dong Van with rustic fairs, not being lost by commercialization as now. Remembering the first time I came to Dong Van, all I could see was that the newly built Dong Van market was exploited thanks to the development of tourism.
The image of Dong Van that I have read and envisioned from the book of author Thuy Tran is no longer there, but there are still people in the uplands, there are still images when the chamomile season , triangular vessels bloomed all over the cat's-ear rocks in Dong Van.
Every October, is the time when the rocky plateau is blooming with wild flowers. No matter how barren rocky soil is, these flowers are still strong, sprouting and brighter than ever. The people here still often take advantage of the triangle to make food, creating a highland dish that anyone who has ever enjoyed will remember forever without forgetting that it is a triangular cake.
In recent years, thanks to the triangular flower season, Ha Giang is more known by the tourist community, each blooming season here welcomes a large number of visitors because only this season is the new rocky plateau. Bloom.
It is not wrong to say that when you are drunk on the road, when you come to Ha Giang. Surely everyone knows that Ha Giang is home to the legendary pass, first set foot to Ha Giang, crossing Tham Ma slope, passing Happiness Road, conquering Ma Pi Leng made me "drunk, drunk. pass". Passion is the time to immerse yourself in the majestic natural scenery of Ha Giang, and be drunk on the pass because the difficult bends cannot turn around.
When I was still walking on the road of Happiness, I caught upland children playing by the side of the road, and saw women wearing binders filled with firewood or corn. At that moment wondered if they were "bringing happiness home?" . And also the times when I drove to Sung La in the blooming season, it was a moment that I will never forget. Perhaps in Ha Giang, there is no place with a beautiful swollen triangle like that place.
"If I have only one nostalgia, I will definitely miss Sung La. Miss the girl who waited for her husband under the rose tree to forget to spin the yarn."
-Love Dong Van -
In my 20s, I still miss Ha Giang so much, even though I have set foot and explored many lands, the place I want to return is still the rocky plateau. Going to Ha Giang many times but for me everything is the same as the first time when I arrived. If you have 1000 nostalgia, you will definitely miss Ha Giang!
