Breakfast was enjoyed on the outdoor patio of Quang Dung restaurant where we could watch the daily life of Dong Van.
We like Dong Van. Incredibly quiet, friendly people and a few restaurants and hotels that cater to Westerners. It’s been an enjoyable place to vacation for a few days. It has also given us time to explore the area by foot and reflect on our time in Vietnam.
While enjoying breakfast we watched as a tiny, young woman struggled to carry a bag of rice that had to weigh at least 30 lbs. She was carrying it down the street towards a scooter where a man impatiently waited for her. He didn’t lift a finger to help her. She loaded the rice onto the back of the scooter and they drove away.
After breakfast we headed out for a morning of trekking. As we made our way to the start of the trail that would lead us to an old French fort, we witnessed a man hitting his wife. He punched her in the face. I was shaking with rage as Shawn reminded me of all the reasons we couldn’t get involved. Although Shawn seemed calm, there was an edge to his voice.
The man kicked her.
I started to walk over to them, wanting to give this small coward a fair fight. Shawn, always the rational one to counter my impulsive personality, held me back. His reasoning getting through to me. A caucasian woman embarrassing this man would only make matters worse for the woman, and would likely land us in jail in a foreign country. As I turned to walk away, tears of frustration in my eyes, I noticed the little boy who was with the couple. Maybe 5 or 6 years old. He was clearly used to witnessing this behaviour. He calmly collected books off the ground, books his mother had dropped when the first blow struck.
We weren’t the only onlookers. A group of local men hanging around the market square watched intently as the scene unfolded, but they too failed to get involved.
I cannot comment on how common domestic violence might be in Vietnam, and it’s certainly a problem we also face in North America. This is, however, the first time we have witnessed anything like this in Vietnam. What we have also witnessed is how incredibly hard the women work, while the men do very little. A female guide confirmed for us that the woman is fully responsible to raise the children, cook and clean, tend to the livestock, walk miles to the weekly markets, walk steep mountainsides carrying wood and feed for the buffalo, tend the gardens and crops and tend the businesses. We have rarely seen a man do anything besides drive trucks, drive supply chain scooters or work as bike mechanics. None of these physically strenuous. We were told the men are lazy, and from what we have seen this appears to be true.
After our solemn morning we set off on a trek to burn off some of the frustration. We climbed to a 100 year old French Fortress that overlooks the town of Dong Van. From here we could see numerous winding roads that climbed away from Dong Van and disappeared into the valleys beyond. Shawn pointed at one for us to explore after lunch.
After the short climb to the French Colonial Fortress we decided to attempt one of the steep tracks used by the ethnic village women to haul their wares. Slippery, steep and rocky. The path led us to incredible views of the Karst mountains and Dong Van below. It also helped us appreciate the agility and fitness of the women, young and old, who climb this path daily, weighed down by bamboo baskets filled with wood, feed and numerous other items.
After our trek it was time for lunch and time to get back onto the bikes to explore deeper into the surrounding area. We took a back road through Tu Lan towards Meo Vac. We came across women hauling large rocks to a crusher, and then wheelbarrowing the resulting gravel to create a road.
Dinner was once again at Green Karst. The owner takes great pride in her restaurant and the food and drinks are great!
Live Life Epic 