Vietnam TravelTravel Special FeaturesBa Be Lake - Where heaven and water meet

Ba Be Lake - Where heaven and water meet

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Exiting the cave, there is a noticeable change in the intensity of the scenery. Stark white limestone faces provide a stunning backdrop to the lush tropical vegetation including large tree ferns and several varieties of precious wood. If you're lucky, you may encounter some of the 30 or so animal species including wild pigs, bears, panthers, monkeys and birds that inhabit the area. Bright blue kingfishers and about 300 species of butterflies are among the fauna living here.

Ba Be National Park is home to around 25,000 people living in 90 villages. Mr. Chin nosed his boat into the river bank so we could visit Cam Village (60 households) and help them stack their freshly harvested rice. The residents were delighted to have a few spare hands. Even though they were initially shy and don't host many visitors, they welcomed us into their village. Lots of laughter greeted our attempts to stack the stalks properly. Squeals from some of the visitors heralded the discovery of small ladybirds, stink bugs and vivid green grasshoppers hiding in the rice.

Village house are a combination of traditional stilt (nha san), which the family living above animals and machinery stored at ground level, and houses built on a cutting in the side of the hill. Wood, bamboo and banana fronds are the main building materials. Without insulation, it is easy to imagine that the houses experience the extremes of weather in summer and winter. Each house has central fire for cooking and heating with a couple of small rooms for sleeping. The mountains form a splendid backdrop to the houses, with the river providing a view from the front doors.

A vital lubricant for many households is the strong tasting, home brewed corn wine. After chewing on raw sugarcane washed down with a couple of thimblefuls of wine proffered by an insistent band of brothers at the end of a hard day in the field, the walk back to the boat was a welcome opportunity to clear the head!

Near the boat landing, the local primary school teacher was escorting some of her youngest students home. Cam Village is fortunate to have an elementary school, but students have to relocate many kilometers for secondary schooling. Ms Dung has been in the village for only 3 months, so her housing was still very rudimentary with a dirt floor and thin bamboo wall struts.

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