Recently, I made a first trip to the northwestern mountain provinces of Viet Nam. I participated in a mission of the Government’s Ethnic Minority Committee together with a couple of people from embassies and the World Bank. It was all part of a review of the program for ethnic minorities. Viet Nam has some 50 different ethnic groups. The minorities only make up some 10% of the population but more than half of the ethnic minority people live under the national poverty line. In North Vietnam they mostly live in remote mountainous areas, do not speak Vietnamese, and practice subsistence agriculture; they cultivate rice on terraces, as well as some corn and cassava. The northern provinces are frequently hit by floods, cold weather, and storms which makes life difficult and people vulnerable. This is a rather sharp contrast with the beautiful green hills and mountains we drove through on our trip. Up in the mountains it was very cold (5-10 degrees at night) and it had been a long time I had not experienced such chilly weather. We stayed in some of the tourist villages but also in small district towns were the local authorities received us with hospitality. This meant lots of drinking! During lunch as well as dinner. Rice wine, which tastes like jenever. Impossible to refuse the multiple toasts. Oh, you have 3 children … let’s toast to that. Oh, you work with UNICEF …. The food also was special: mostly delicious vegetables, chicken, shrimps but also turtle meat, eel, horse and dog meat, black chicken and fried or boiled bees (which I all tried) and baby duck from the shell (which I politely refused)! Everything washed away with more rice wine. And then back to work in the afternoon. Mostly long meetings but also walks through villages and an occasional chat with a farmer or some children. These type of encounters were not favored though by the authorities who preferred we stayed in meetings. A fascinating trip altogether – and certainly a region to visit with the family as well.
