A day in Noong Het

(Baonghean) - Noong Het District (also known as Noong Het) belongs to Xieng Khouang Province (Laos), bordering Nam Can Commune, Ky Son District (Nghe An). The first time coming to this land left me with indescribable emotions. It was an interesting joy before a land mixed with worries...

There are many stories about the land of Noong Het that I have heard from veterans fighting against the Americans and Vang Pao bandits, and all of them are as good as fairy tales. Then, after a few times going to the Nam Can border market in the highlands of Ky Son, I can say that I have set foot in Laos, in Noong Het. But in the whole market, there are more Vietnamese than Lao people, their life is not much different from the highland villages of our country. It is also understandable because the two countries share a border, both have Mong, Kho Mu, Thai, O Du, Dan Lai, Tay Poong people... with many similarities in culture and customs. For example, in early February of the solar calendar, at the end of the lunar year, in Noong Het there is a peach blossom festival, honoring peach growers, serving Vietnamese visitors who come to buy peaches to celebrate Tet.

Crab and Bau game in the festival.

I smiled with interest: It turns out that our Laotian brothers are quite willing to spend money. To attract customers to buy peach blossoms, they are willing to spend time organizing a festival. Although it has not become a long-standing festival, it has attracted the attention of people along the localities on both sides of the border. I suddenly remembered information on a website saying that the business environment in Laos is the most attractive in the region. Perhaps, this attraction is also thanks to the somewhat innocent and carefree way of marketing products of the Lao people.

I called a reporter friend and asked for a ride with an officer of the Ky Son District Procuracy. The Thai officer spoke Lao as if it were his mother tongue and always had his passport ready. Every few weeks, he would come over to visit his close friends and enjoy delicious Lao food. Hearing that, we felt somewhat reassured about the customs clearance procedures at the Nam Can International Border Gate because the local people on both sides of the border area were there to help.

On the days before Tet At Mui, in Muong Xen town, the center of Ky Son district, the weather was beautiful and sunny. The sun was red like a ripe loquat. However, after only half an hour sitting in the pickup truck, we were lost in a dense fog. The forest and valley were covered in mountain fog. Visibility was reduced to only a few dozen meters. Cars and motorbikes had to turn on their lights. Despite the wind and rain, peach blossom buyers still flocked in. To have mountain peach blossom branches to play Tet, many families spent tens of millions, a fortune for people in the highlands.

So I set foot on Noong Het land. The border land was also obscured by fog. Looking at the road sign in Lao and English, we knew that we were still 15 km away from Noong Het town. Customs clearance was easy, but we encountered difficulties when we set foot on Laos land. On the section of National Highway 7 of Laos connecting with our National Highway 7A, a long line of trucks was moving meter by meter. Both directions from Nam Can Border Gate to Noong Het and vice versa were congested. The trucks, mainly carrying peaches and agricultural products (usually corn), were sluggish and sluggish in the fog. The road surface was muddy as if it had been raining. It took us nearly 2 hours to escape the traffic jam. The closer we got to Noong Het town, the fog became thinner and the gentle sunshine began to appear.

The festival didn’t start until late afternoon, but the peach blossoms had gathered since yesterday afternoon. I looked around the streets here and saw that they were no different from the highland towns in Vietnam. Thai, Mong, and Lao men also wore Western clothes like in our country. Lao women were dressed in traditional dresses. These dresses are worn by Lao girls to festivals and are also their daily work and living clothes. I wandered to the festival area. Peach blossoms were displayed in houses and on the street in a fair-like manner. I stopped by a peach blossom stall, intending to use my limited Lao language skills to ask for the price when I heard the peach blossom seller say in her familiar Dien Chau accent: “Are you choosing peach blossoms?” I was somewhat surprised, because I had long heard from friends who had gone to Laos to build houses and roads that there were a lot of Vietnamese people here. However, when I heard the peach blossom seller say that most of the peach blossoms in this area were purchased and sold by Vietnamese people, I was somewhat surprised.

I wandered around the peach market again. A little girl dressed as a Laotian woman was standing on an empty truck bed. When asked her name, she replied: “Paothao. I am 7 years old this year.” She said she lived in the village and followed her father to the market to sell peaches. “My family has a peach garden and a truck like this.” It was almost noon, but small trucks were still carrying peaches from the villages to the town center.

I went to the fairground. In a large yard, where the festival will be held, Mong boys from neighboring villages bring out their tops to compete. One person throws the tops spinning in the middle of the ground, the others use the tops to hit the challenging tops. The game has no prizes or bets but still attracts quite a lot of players. At this time, my reporter friend wanted to buy some gifts for sale at the fair but no store would accept Vietnamese currency. We found a Lao friend who was enthusiastic to help. Through the first story, he introduced himself as Vang, surname Giang, from Phonsavan. His house is 117 km from Noong Het Town. He is a cadre, in charge of paperwork in Noong Het district. He asked about my job. Not knowing how to explain to him about the job of a journalist, I had to show him my camera and recorder. Vang understood and nodded and smiled brightly.

The new friend took us to a bank in Noong Het Town, the bank employee said: "We don't have Vietnamese money!". So the only way left was to go to the market in the district center. Mr. Vang took us to a Vietnamese shop. At first, the salesgirl shook her head, but when she heard us speaking Vietnamese, a Vietnamese person nearby spoke for us, and the girl also "considered" to exchange 500,000 VND for 185,000 Lao kip for my friend. At our request for lunch, the Lao friend took us to a roadside restaurant. Here, there were also dishes like sour soup, fried fish, and braised meat like in our country. I asked: "So, do you have any Lao dishes?" The owner suddenly said in Vietnamese: "Vietnamese people often come here to eat, only Vietnamese dishes!".

During the meal, I took advantage of my limited language skills to ask my new friend. He told me about his family. Both parents are in Phonsavan, and a younger sister is studying at Vinh University in Vietnam. Because he had to work far away, his wife and children also moved with him so that the family could be closer. Every month, he takes the bus to visit his parents. All the children are in school, but it is convenient because the school is near his workplace. Our stories over a plate of grilled meat and sour soup made me feel as close as if I were eating in my hometown. But thinking back, I still felt like something was missing, like a typical Lao dish. I couldn't find it during my first lunch in Noong Het Town.

We said goodbye to our new friend who was full of enthusiasm. He promised to come to Vietnam this summer, go swimming at Cua Lo beach and visit us. I wandered around the central area of ​​the fair. The peach blossom festival had not yet begun and the atmosphere before the opening day was no different from many traditional festivals in our country. Gambling dens occupied most of the booths at the fair.

We couldn’t wait for the peach blossom festival to open. The officer of the Ky Son District Inspectorate called us to go home. On the way back on the last day of the year, the traffic from the other side of the border into Vietnam was still congested and hurried. In the misty fog. When we got there, there was a phone signal in Vietnam. I picked up the phone and called my new Lao friend. The other end of the line said: “Come over tomorrow. I will take you around Noong Het. You still don’t know much!”. I just replied to Vang: “Yes sir!” and also promised myself that I would return to this land one day soon…

Article and photos:ACTION