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The Amazing Tour 7 group, along with our companion, the new generation Ford Territory, set off early in the morning. It was around eight o'clock, but the fog was still thick. The sun couldn't penetrate the forests and high mountain ranges. The travelers followed the bad weather warning lights of the car in front, following each other along the dirt road. Although the road was bad, the ride was still very smooth. When we saw the single-lane bridge, wide enough for one car, we knew we had arrived in Lao Chai.
Groups of people walked across the barren rice fields, harvested after the spring crop. Local women and girls, seeing tourists arrive, offered them a few handcrafted items – bags, scarves, or fabrics for hanging in their homes. The technique of drawing patterns with beeswax on linen fabric and then attaching them to the traditional clothing of the Hmong people in Sa Pa has been used for a long time. The patterns not only serve as decoration but also express the rich and vibrant inner world of the Hmong people and enhance the value of traditional brocade.
Hmong artisans paint with beeswax on fabric.
Beside a rice field, at the foot of a hill, the Amazing Tour 7 group visited a Hmong family's home to learn about this technique. The simple, small house nestled against the majestic mountain landscape of Northwest Vietnam. However, the courtyard stood out, covered on all four sides with drying brocade fabric, like ink dots on a landscape painting of mountains and hills. In the middle of the courtyard, an elderly woman was diligently drawing each stroke of the pattern onto a white cloth. Others, who were grinding corn or feeding pigs, stopped their work to greet the tourists. The rough, rocky path was steep, so the weary travelers put down their suitcases, said goodbye to the host, and sat down to observe the artisan.
To create a complete and beautiful traditional Hmong costume, the Hmong people must go through many steps such as: spinning flax, weaving fabric on a loom, drawing patterns with beeswax, dyeing with indigo, embroidering with colored threads to create raised patterns... Now, technologies have been able to imitate these patterns, creating ten identical sets. The costumes made by Hmong artisans may have some imperfections, but that is what gives them their uniqueness, individuality, or the beauty of imperfection.
Travel blogger Tâm Bùi and lifestyle blogger Nhà Có Hai Người try their hand at beeswax painting.
And this is the result achieved after the experience.
Every step in the process of creating brocade fabric is important, but the beeswax drawing to create patterns is particularly elaborate and requires a high level of skill honed over generations. There are two types of beeswax (yellow is young wax, black is old wax). After extracting the honey, the wax is melted and then mixed together. When drawing the patterns onto the fabric, the beeswax must always be heated to a high temperature of 70-80 degrees Celsius to prevent it from drying out. The drawing tool is essentially a bamboo or wooden stick 7-10 cm long, with the tip attached to a triangular piece of copper. The thinner the tip, the more beautiful and easier the patterns are to draw. Each subsequent step also requires creativity and finesse to create beautiful patterns that complement the overall color scheme.
Miss Tourism Vietnam 2022 Luong Ky Duyen is particularly fond of the traditional costumes and brocade patterns here. She also spent a lot of time learning, chatting, and following the artisans step-by-step.
Miss Tourism Vietnam 2022 Luong Ky Duyen and photographer Soi Sau are dyeing fabric.
Then, she embroidered with colored threads to create the final product she was most satisfied with.
At midday, the sky turned a reddish hue, sunlight glistening through the gaps in the leaves and the dark green and black brocade fabrics. The Amazing Tour 7 group bid farewell to the hospitable locals of Lao Chai, asking permission to depart and expressing their sincere gratitude for the wonderful experiences of the day.
Additional information:
Amazing Tour is a series of destination promotion tours initiated by Travellive Media Group since 2013. To date, Amazing Tour has collaborated with international tourism promotion agencies such as South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey… and most recently, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau with a tour from February 15th to February 23rd, 2023. The program has successfully organized experiential tours, promoted tourism, and quickly made a strong impression.
Amazing Tour features a fresh program format aimed at inspiring travel enthusiasts to explore the world. Each program includes practical activities designed to provide information on services and destinations based on the real-life experiences of celebrities, influential figures in the travel industry, and photographers.
The Amazing Tour in March 2023, a travel and cultural experience promoting tourism, culture, and cuisine, titled “Ha Long, Sa Pa - A Thousand Miles of Adventure,” was organized by Travellive Media Group with sponsorship from Ford Vietnam and the support of partners including Ville De Mont Mountain Resort, Premier Village Ha Long Bay Resort, Yoko Onsen Quang Hanh (a Japanese-standard hot spring resort), Ambassador Cruise (a 5-star cruise ship), and Hai Au Aviation.
