The population of Vietnam is approxiately 84% ethnic Vietnamese, 2% ethnic Chinese and the rest is made up of Khmers, Chams, and members of more than 50 ethnic groups known locally to the Vietnamese as the Minority People. The majority of these Minority people live in poverty scattered in different villages and forming different ‘tribes’ across the country, mainly in the highlands. Over the past 4 days of touring with Hong and Thain we have met many of these people and been invited in to their very basic homes to share tea with them and to see their way of life. We have been humbled by their generosity and friendship and saddened by the hardship they live through daily. Many have no access to schools because their homes are so remote and have very difficult access to hospitals and medicine. Below are photographs of the families of the minority peoples known as the Chil and the Ma based in Da Lat province and people of the Buon Jun village based in Dak Lak province.
Hong, our fantastic Easy Rider guide and 2 Chil village women basket weaving with local palm grasses.
A traditional house in Buon Jun village, on stilts with the family’s livestock like chickens and pigs, living underneath. Several generations of one family will live together in one of these long houses.
The Travel Diarist 