A traditional raincoat for tourists

Mrs Chao Su May is farmer in the Lao Cai province in Vietnam. She also collects medicines from the forest, sells medicines and receive guests in home stay. Mrs Chao Su May gives a glimpse inside her life.

When I was 13 there was no paved road to Sapa town. I got up at 3 a.m. and walked 40 km (10 hours!) to the market in Sapa, where I sold medicine. As we had no torches at that time, we used burning wood to find our way in the dark. There were no guesthouses in Sapa yet, so we had to sleep outside on the ground, using the fur of a buffalo which was tied onto our back. This ‘traditional raincoat’ is now exposed to the tourists in the information centre, established by the Agriterra project.
My father was a very handy man. He could make a gun in one day. He also made guns for other people in the village. To pay him back they had to work for two days in his fields.
At that time my family was already growing maize. We didn’t have fertiliser, so the yield was very low: only one pack. From the New Year Festival (in January/February) until May we did not have enough food and we were hungry. Nowadays we can harvest three packs of maize.

From a governmental programme we receive technical training. As a result of this we have a better yield and have food all year round. Now there is a road, so we can transport our products to the market. We have a higher production and enough to eat, but we still lack the money to buy necessary goods. We notice the climate is changing; we used to have silkworm here, from which we produced silk to make cloths, especially wedding cloths. Now, the silkworm has gone and we have to buy the silk on the market.
In the earlier days we collected a lot of medicine from the forests but we did not know the exact effect. Now we get help from the university to examine the effect of the different types of medicine, and also how to make the best medicinal steam bath, which we offer to tourists.
Many tourists nowadays come to our village. We don’t think it is good to chase them around in the village trying to sell our handicrafts, so we only sell our handicrafts here in the information centre. I have started my own business, I receive tourists who can stay overnight in my homestead and I sell medicine.

The paved road, fertilisers and technical training from the government all helped us with improving our production so that we have enough to eat. It also helped us to sell our products in the market of Sapa. The assistance from the university in making a good medicinal steam bath is also important to me. I know more about medicine now and I can attract more tourists.