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Dau Chua to Dong Van

Dau Chua to Dong Van

The picturesque trek includes visiting a Hmong village where they often are busy making new traditional clothing. If that is the case they allow us to watch the process which is fascinating. Depending on how much time you have here there are two route options.

Route One - 8km, around 4hrs

We get dropped off some 4km from Dong Van town to our starting point of Dau Chua village of White Hmong. This village has around sixty houses and feels quite quaint, with the noise of the animals filling the air.

We head out of the village towards the valley filled with pine trees that the farmers grow. We see some jagged limestone karsts that have sharp points. There are also some tiny caves around here, but we don’t have time to explore (we see other grander caves on our travels so we are not missing out). The path takes up uphill again, passing the local school. Sometimes if the children are finished classes, they stop us and want to talk to us. They are very sweet and curious about life in other countries as well as hearing about football (soccer).

The visitors as well as the rice terraces below. We walk slowly as the views because we are just enjoying ourselves with the lovely views. Further down we come across a small hamlet, Ma U. This place does not get many visitors so everyone is interested in coming out to say hello. Of course we stop for a few moments to chat before continuing the trek.

Our trek continues further down the valley on the tree lined path flanked by grasses. The path winds and twists around the mountain as we go. Finally after 4hrs of trekking we suddenly find ourselves in Dong Van again.

Route Two - 13km, around 6hrs

We get dropped off some 4km from Dong Van town to our starting point of Dau Chua village of White Hmong. This village has around sixty houses and feels quite quaint, with the noise of the animals filling the air.

We head out of the village towards the valley filled with pine trees that the farmers grow. We see some jagged limestone karsts that have sharp points. There are also some tiny caves around here, but we don’t have time to explore (we see other grander caves on our travels so we are not missing out). The path takes up uphill again, passing the local school. Sometimes if the children are finished classes, they stop us and want to talk to us. They are very sweet and curious about life in other countries as well as hearing about football (soccer).

The visitors as well as the rice terraces below. We walk slowly as the views because we are just enjoying ourselves with the lovely views. Further down we come across a small hamlet, Ma U. This place does not get many visitors so everyone is interested in coming out to say hello. Of course we stop for a few moments to chat before continuing the trek.

We head towards Khai Hoang village which is an hour away. Our route is filled with wildlife. We pass many buffalo, chickens as well as hearing many birds singing. The local villages here don’t have a water supply so we pass many people carrying their drinking water which they get from the natural spring that we pass too. The water here is so fresh and pure that we have to have a sample this local wonder. Locals say that coffee made with this water is far better too. Eventually we arrive at the village.

We don’t really stay here long, it’s just a village we pass. We carry on the path to Thien Huong where we see the 500 year old tree that is also on the [thien-houng] trek. There is a local legend about the tree about two brothers. One of the brothers spirit became the tree and we get to see a temple in his memory that villagers pray too each year for a good harvest. As we have been trekking for 4hrs by this point it makes a perfect time to have a lunch stop, so we eat in a local place in Thien Huong.

After lunch, we head off again to Ma Pang which is 3km away or around an hours trekking. Our path is quite green with grasses and lined by trees. The path twists and winds around the mountain. There are lots of views of China and we get to see the Nho Que river below. We stop at the Windy Mountains viewpoint for a cup of tea and to rest up a little while as we really have been trekking some good kms today.

Tearing ourselves away from the gorgeous views, we hit the trail again, this time our destination of Dong Van is only 2km away. The last leg of our trek is downwards as Dong Van is in a plateau in the valley. The path remains green and luscious and abruptly almost without warning we arrive in Dong Van.