We drove for an hour...around mountain valleys, through gorgeous flower and vegetable villages and past motorbikes loaded with hundreds of roses. We finally stopped at what was described as the NamBan "rural market" but was really just a smaller version of the city markets- nothing remarkably different. From there we went to a small silk factory which was amazing. We saw the silk cocoons, the entire process for making silk thread, and the looming and dying process for creating the silk fabrics. Addi really wanted to see the worm inside the cocoon, but we couldn't figure out how to ask the question, so we never did.
Elephant Falls were not far from there. It was a very short but exceptionally treacherous hike to the bottom of the falls. We made it half way and were rewarded with a spectacular view. Apparently, the falls are exponentially more amazing during the wet season (in a few months) but we did not feel cheated! Here, as with most of the nature stops yesterday, we found odd oversized concrete statues- today in the shape of mushrooms, a weird mermaid and elephants. So very curious....
We stopped to see the hand woven silk crafts of a small minority tribe in the area and were welcomed with huge smiles and artichoke tea. We were instantly draped in silks and shown the hand looms. One of the women spoke fairly good english, so we were able to ask questions. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask about the silk worm!
Finally we went to tour the Lat minority village. I don't know what we were expecting, but there was really nothing to see. Unfortunately, we became the entertainment when Addi had a meltdown of epic proportion. (She has only had a couple on our entire adventure, so we will cut her some slack, but...) After 5 minutes, I think the entire Lat community had gathered around to giggle and shoot us empathetic glances (the international "Wow. I've been there!" look). We finally calmed her down with the prospect of feeding the baby chicks in the street, but we basically hopped in the car and called a day. We will never know if there was something amazing to see or do right around the corner, but I don't think so!
We got a good feel for the lifestyle of the mountain villagers today, which is what we were after. As an added bonus, there was a wedding at our hotel so we got to see a little bit of that action. Not very different from a USA wedding, which surprised me a little!
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Wow such an amazing story of Silk. You are really getting into the heart of Vietnam. What a beautiful place! ML Baba and Grandpa Doug
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