On the way to Baumi ^_^ (Day 88 of the world trip)

December 01, 2019

Last night there was a real "party" downstairs, so we could hear it in our room, but I was tired enough to fall asleep anyway while Jonas was still watching bouldering^^

But the night was calm and super cozy and warm enough! The bed is not so wide, so you couldn't fight over the blanket too much. Perfect :p

At 7:00 a.m. the rumbling started, but very subtly, so we were gently awakened :) Breakfast is served from 7:30 a.m. and since it was pleasant in the sun on the terrace, we enjoyed our breakfast there - Jonas had omelette and I had pancakes with bananas and chocolate sauce.

Although the breakfast didn't fill me up so much (but I'm also demanding :D), I thought it was great and shortly afterwards we started our hike.

You can also book trekking tours here, where villagers walk with you so you don't get lost, but we prefer to determine our own pace and destination, so we set off on our own ;-)

First we had to pass by small huts that were either houses or souvenir shops (or both) through the rice fields on our side of the slope until we came to a bridge. This suspension bridge is made of metal and although it shakes, it looks pretty good. A few meters further you can still see the presumably old version of the bridge - completely made of wood and looking a bit less secure :D

After the bridge we went up the hill on the other side. And it went up and up :O :D

The path was a bit muddy but actually quite passable if you looked out a bit from time to time. To our left there was a river with a few small "waterfalls", which was really pretty, and every now and then we passed a hut or even a piece of "forest" - either bamboo or ferns and conifers further up.

On the way up there are several viewpoints and since we were lucky with the fog/clouds, we were able to enjoy really great views most of the time - which of course was immediately exploited for a few cliched jump photos :p ^^

Dominating the view were of course the rice terraces, but we still couldn't get enough of them. It just looks great :)

A few times there were also really steep parts, but when I tried to capture that with the camera, it became difficult :D Then you just have to believe us^^

After one of these steep parts, we suddenly heard music from higher up. My first thought was that it sounded like Christian (church) music :O Since today is Sunday, it could be that there is a church service up there? We are in Vietnam, but our hosts, for example, have set up a picture of Jesus, a cross and candles in a corner, so maybe some people here are Christians?

Quite interesting - we might try to ask later tonight :) Since we couldn't see any buildings up there except for the usual wooden huts, I eventually thought that maybe it was "normal" music, which reminded me a bit of Disney's Pocahontas "Colors of the Wind", but then I saw a house that had a large cross on the front roof. Ha! So it really was a church!!! Cool!

Since today is the first Advent and I'm a bit sad not to experience Christmas "properly", I was very happy^^ If even here in a mountain village there is a church, maybe I can still experience Christmas somewhere :p

Curiously, we went up to the church. There is a simple, classic wooden hut on the property, but there is also a toilet house and then the church itself, which is built of stone. Above the entrance is the date the church was built - in January of this year.

It is not yet marked on Maps.Me, for example, but we didn't mark it either^^

After the church, we walked a section on a road instead of taking the next footpath. Really nice^^ There were two steep parts that looked almost 90° and where not only I squatted a few times to avoid falling :p

At some point we passed a small group of Dutch people - including seniors and a family with a baby and a toddler. The father told us in English that according to Google Maps they only had to walk 15 (or 50?) minutes to their destination (a specific mountain village). But they had been walking since 10 o'clock (it was now 1:30 p.m.) and still hadn't arrived :O

The poor things! Obviously Google lied there ;-) Each parent carried one of the children and even the seniors were walking very slowly when they started the descent - without reaching the village. We overtook them and when we finally continued ourselves, we passed them again^^

When we arrived back at the bridge, I noticed that I was a little tired and after we climbed up our side of the hill again, there was a shower (with warm water!

The hike was definitely worth it and if you enjoy that, you can easily stay here for 1-2 weeks to hike everywhere^^ The layout of these terraces and small villages is simply huge and we are glad that we drove up here to the north :)

So Vietnam has shown its beautiful side here after all, and especially the weather on the ascent with a view of the valley and the rice fields without clouds was really great!! :) Staying overnight in a village to be able to hike on your own in the morning, we can definitely recommend! ;-)