Hi Everyone
When was the last time you have been in an area that had no cellphone reception or internet access? If you have how long have you lasted without these things?
Today I would like to tell you about a time I went 3 days trekking to an amazing village that had absolutely no internet or WIFI. This trip showed me a couple things.
Firstly I was reliant on technology and secondly, I need to be fortunate for the ability to be able to go to these amazing places.
In the west of Quang Nam, there are places so remote hidden in old forests which have villages of ethnic minorities. The way to return to geography and customary characteristics these villages have so many stories that show off their way of life which is both magical (mythical) and some cultural pieces that represent their land and their way of living. You find a lot of countries around the world have tribes and these places have their story to tell.
Has anyone been to remote villages? What stories have you heard?
To get here was a journey and a half but to get where you want sometimes requires going and not looking back even if its away from normal civilization.
From Da Nang City we started the journey by going up to a place called Tay Giang which took about 100km(62Mile) by motorbike. After we arrived we parked up the bike in the village of Arec which is at the foot of the mountain and started to prepare to ascend the trek. Our backpack had such things as clothes, food, water, sleeping bags/tents etc...
Make sure you wear easy trekking shoes, long pants and make sure these are tight not baggy if you don’t want Hirudinea to hang around you the whole way
Now the trek itself was not short let me tell you, it took about 10 hours with a reasonably fast pace going mind you we did stop a few times for photos and enjoy the scenery (the bird songs chirped a lot which was nice) you can see with the photos there was a small waterfall (helped weather was nice).
NIGHT 1 CAMPING
After 10 hours of walking through the forest and over the mountains. We stopped and found a nice flat area clear of trees (had a little stream as well ) to set up our camp for the night.
Within our group of people that was there some went and collected firewood for the fire to make food stay warm etc, the others were tasked with catching fish and finding snails. We were determined to have a nice dinner that night.
Needless to say the dinner was amazing with the people I travelled with we shared a good laugh.
I was surprised by the sky when I looked up there were so many stars unobstructed from view I could look straight up and there they were to me is felt mysterious and miraculous, you cant really see these in a big noisy city because your mind is always on the go and doesn’t register the beauty of these things.
Some people like 5 star resorts, but I am happy enough to be able to sit in a empty field with the ability to look at 1000 stars because if there is one thing my blogs always represent is: Money is not what true life should be about.
Day 2 - Amazing morning wake up and get the Village
After I woke up with the birds singing in the air I felt re energized and ready for a new day I attribute that solely to being away from the busy cities (I am always hearing bikes, cars etc) but I do need to say I cannot fully being a day without my coffee it has to be done!
Normally I am an Iced Vietnamese coffee kinda girl but I had this hot version I cant describe how good it was and I cant make it the same no matter how hard I try to this day I don’t know what he put in it.
Aur Village is perhaps the rarest ethnic minority village in Vietnam that still maintains a shifting nomadic lifestyle. They always leave the village when the land is no longer fertile after the upland fields. Sometimes they move just because they believe in the forest ghost stories...
When I arrived this village had 19 households and they build their houses by themselves using the trees surrounding them as the wood to do so. As you can see in the photos I have attached to this blog there are some markings on the pillars holding the structures together, one can only imagine what stories they could tell and why they are there.
We call AUR Village the Happy Village. Aur village has a lot of NO. Why did I just say that? Well there is no markets no medical station no electricity no roads no telephone poles. Good luck trying to use a phone out here!
The village however has many things that made me surprised and I admired what they achieved because they are living with pure happiness and joy from having a simple way of life. They are so friendly they don’t hate anyone they seem to live with the mentality that they don’t need anyone else to help, they seem completely self sufficient which to me was incredible to see.
After being here I wondered why are these people so happy? I thought I needed to communicate all the time have things to make life easier, but the lingering feeling is why do we have all we want but it feels never enough?
Are we meant to be simplistic? What do you think and what is the longest you have gone without and electronics to go enjoy life??
Thank you ❤️