Dzung - A 17-year-old tour guide I encountered in Tả Van, 2022.
Dzung was our tour guide on a trek from the Tả Van Dáy village, where we stayed for 3 days, through the nearby bamboo forest. Her home is in the neighbouring H'Mông village, but she travels on foot every day to Tả Van Dáy, a more established tourist area, to sell handmade souvenirs and act as a local guide.
Carrying her 1-year-old son Long in a traditional baby carrier, Dzung led us on a 2-hour trek. She knew the way around the rice terraces, villages and forest like the back of her hand, and the steepest and most slippery parts of the dirt road were no problem for her, even with Long on her back. She told us that this is a path that she has taken again and again from a young age. On the way, she showed us houses and villages, telling us about their culture. We also passed by her mother's rice field, where she works during the times of the year with fewer tourists.
Dzung is the third child in her family, which has a total of 5 kids. She had dropped out of school in the ninth grade, then soon got married and moved in with her husband's family. Long's father is a soldier and had been away from home for over a year, so Dzung is also his primary caretaker. Despite such a great burden at the age of 17, she cheerfully accompanied us on this trek, on the way, telling us all about life in the villages of Sapa, beyond the town that is incredibly popular among tourists.