Be a tourist or a traveler?

What’s the difference between being a tourist and a traveler?
Organized vs independent travel. Scheduled tours vs unplanned roaming. Yes, sure. But this is not the point.

After we met, Marie and I spent three amazing days on the road around Hà Giang. Next we decided to go to lake Ba bé taking the (apparently) shortest way from Hà Giang, being aware this would be quite complicated. No direct transportation and no reliable maps. Roads are always a surprise in Norther Vietnam (both Google maps and maps.me go often wrong). Ee even got on some ones under construction in the previous days. But we were confident we would make it.

After catching a couple of buses, we ended up in the middle of nowhere, in a mysterious wood panel making district. Every single house in the small town had a bunch of them drying (?) outside. We then started walking on the road, while some buffalos were staring at us. The weather was rainy and chilly. A few minutes later two motorbikes stopped and we got a lift from two nice ladies. Carrying our two backpacks each we were driven for 20 km and  finally dropped… at their house!

We were immediately offered for some green tea, and soon lots of people started to show up: family, relatives, neighbours, of any age. All wanted to see and meet the tall guy and the blond girl. Some where shy, others were asking for taking pictures. We were the attraction. But the real star was the super cute kid of Xã, one of the ladies (the latter being named Ma) with his funny red hat. Then a delicious meal arrived and we shared it with the family: bún (rice noodles) in a tomato and spring onions soup, so tasty! We were overwhelmed by emotions and sad for having to leave. A piece of my heart is still there. This are the kind of things that happen when you are a traveller.

Ah yes, we arrived to Ba bé indeed. But this was not the point.

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