Dong Van to Thien Huong

We exit Dong Van by passing though the Old Quarter, finally entering the beautiful trail on the side of the mountain. The first village we come across is Hmong. The path is quite steep so we take care. This route is really only for connection to the village of Thien Huong so we don’t get much traffic or even tourists on it.

Hiking a further 3km we arrive at a forest of large trees, some of which are 500 years old or even more. There is a legend of one of them about to Hmong brothers who fought over the land. Now there is a small shrine to their memory and people pray there give offerings in the hope of good rains to come for a good harvest. We stop here to take some photos of the tree and the surroundings as they are quite beautiful.

Continuing on, we descend more into the valley as our destination gets closer. The views are unobstructed and we can see once again into China. We finally arrive at our destination some 2hrs after setting off.

The village of Thien Huong still has houses of mud and wood construction. Some examples being over 100 years old. The community is very close, but welcoming. We will chat with some of the local villagers. We may even see a demonstration of how they pounded rice in the old days.