Hunting clouds in Hang Kia – Pa Co. (Photo: Cung Phuc) Hang Kia – Pa Co valley is as beautiful as a fairyland. Hang Kia – Pa Co is located in the middle of Xa Linh and Luong Xa mountain ranges, with an average altitude of 800-900m above sea level, a cool year-round climate and surrounded by primeval forests with invaluable vegetation. equally rich. Drug hotspot turns into a beautiful cloud hunting spot Hang Kia, in Thai is “Bat Cave”, and Pa Co means “Goat Forest”, the residence of the Mong people in these two communes, which were formerly the villages of the Thai people. However, because it is not suitable for farming and living practices, the Thai people here have moved elsewhere. About 30km from Mai Chau town, Hang Kia – Pa Co are the two most difficult communes of Mai Chau district, once the capital of opium and a hot spot for drugs and social evils of Hoa Binh province. The cause of this situation is that the Mong here have a close relationship with the Mong people in Van Ho district (Son La) and the Mong people in Laos. Taking advantage of this, some subjects have carried out acts of illegally trading and transporting drugs. Since then, criminal lines have been formed and this place has become a transit point for drugs from Laos to Vietnam. Currently, Hang Kia – Pa Co has returned to its peaceful rhythm of life. Some households have begun to develop homestay tourism, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists. From 2010 up to now, the local tourism activities began to have strong development steps. Since 1986, Hang Kia – Pa Co was planned as a special-use forest and in 1997 was converted into a nature reserve. The residents here are up to 90% of the Mong ethnic group, which still retains many unique cultural features. Khen dance – one of the unique cultural features of the Mong people in general and the Mong people in Hang Kia – Pa Co in particular. On festivals, the Mong ethnic group in Hang Kia – Pa Co organizes pounding day cakes to treat friends, this is also one of the unique culinary features here. The group took a souvenir photo at Hang Kia gate. (Photo: Huy Khoi) The most characteristic feature of Hang Kia – Pa Co for tourists is to go to “heaven’s gate” to “hunt clouds”. From above, visitors can watch white clouds floating around the mountains. We went to Hang Kia on a last day of April. The period from October last year to April next year is the ideal time to hunt clouds because these days with high humidity and cold will easily have the opportunity to meet more cloudy. The night before, we sat outside to eat and drink, surrounded by clouds making us feel like we were sitting in a refrigerator, a natural refrigerator. If you don’t wear a hat, it will only take a moment for the clouds to soak your hair. The later it got late, the colder it got, a few rains came, making our group all secretly happy that tomorrow morning will hunt clouds successfully. We woke up at 5am so we could reach the sky gate at 5:30am to hunt clouds. On the way, the gravel roads are messy, foggy, going 1-2m apart but “faint human image”. The more we waited, the less we could see the clouds descending, twisting together densely and floating around the mountain peaks. So cloud hunting failed. Kha A Dinh, the owner of A Dinh homestay, told us that if it rains heavily the night before, and the next morning is sunny, the hunt for clouds will succeed. “This season is the best season to hunt clouds, hopefully, you guys are lucky next time,” A Dinh said. Hang Kia and Pa Co market If the rattan hunt fails, you can visit Hang Kia and shop at Pa Co fair. In fact, very few people are allowed to enter Hang Kia because this place is not a tourist attraction, but is under the management of the Ministry of Defense. Fortunately, we were loved by the local people and personally took us to Hang Kia to tell us the name was taken to give this place name. What you should pay special attention to when entering Hang Kia is to stay away from the Ki tree, a wild plant that grows along the entrance to the cave, has very sharp thorny leaves that sting like a needle. Locals said that sometimes when I don’t look at it, it also stabs itself. We had to actively use our shoes to crush the Ki tree so it wouldn’t hit us. Entering the cave, we caught a few bats flying out of nowhere, then flew away again. That’s the Bat Cave. The cave is small and deep. Sometimes we had to crouch to keep our heads off. In the cave there are many stalactites, traces left by thousands of years of water droplets flowing on the top. Pa Co market takes place on Sunday mornings with products of the indigenous Hmong people. Banned pork is sold at the market gate. The red pork pieces like beef, white fat and thick, the price is about the same as pork in the city, but definitely much better. Dresses and shirts sewn and embroidered by the people themselves are also on sale, priced at 1 million/piece. The price is expensive because this is completely handmade. To sew a brocade dress/shirt, it takes a month of hard work for the sisters/mothers. There are Hmong women about 70-80 years old who bring ginseng roots, precious plants only in this area, and lovely Mong dogs… for sale. People often buy and bargain less because people here are still too poor, buying to support them is the main thing. Group of tourists taking pictures with Mong children in Mongolian village, Hang Kia. (Photo: Huy Khoi) With a cool year-round climate, and located on a famous tourist route connecting Mai Chau and Moc Chau, going to Hang Kia is often combined with tourists to visit neighboring areas. For example, if in the calendar year, you can run to Moc Chau to see plum or peach blossoms, take advantage of visiting Hang Kia to play. There is also a plum garden here for you to see, if you like. Located between Tan Lac and Mai Chau on National Highway 6, you can go through Thung Khe Pass or Da Trang Pass, you can see the clear sky in the morning, the afternoon sun is hot, the sky is blue, the afternoon is gentle with sunlight. Afternoon sun and night fog spread all over the road. Going down Mai Chau 30km, visitors can visit Lac village, Mai Chau, a famous and poetic attraction among high mountains and green rice fields. Currently, Lac and Mai Chau villages have developed community tourism with electric cars that take tourists to visit 8 villages, there are double bicycles for renters to cycle through fragrant ripe rice fields.

Van Xuong fish. You probably never thought that an animal could live without a head, heart and bones. In fact, this species existed 500 million years ago and exists until today, in addition, they are also considered “cousins” of the ancestors of many vertebrates today. The family of vertebrates is extremely prosperous today, with more than 60,000 members, all of whom have different looks, habits and temperaments, but this “cousin” only has one child left. the only living species, they are named Amphioxus – Van Xuong fish, this species is also considered a living fossil. Although Van Xuong fish is called a fish and at first glance, it is very similar to a fish, but it is not actually a fish. On our planet today, most of the animals that exist are vertebrates, such as horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, tigers, turtles.. Of course, there are us humans as well. What makes this particular “fish” so strange and unlike any other is that they are cephalopods, without a backbone, but still grouped with vertebrates, Chordates live and form the phylum Chordate. Biologists think that Van Xuong fish are animals in the transitional evolutionary stage from invertebrates to vertebrates, today they are considered to be ancestors of fish, but they are completely different. not fish. The skin of Van Xuong fish consists of two main layers: the epidermis (epidermis) on the outside and the dermis (dermis) on the inside. Unlike most vertebrates, their epidermis has only one layer of cells, while the dermis is underdeveloped, mainly composed of glue or elastic connective tissue. There are more than 66,000 animals in the order Phylum Chordata. The most special thing is that vertebrates account for the largest proportion, with more than 66,000 species, the main subphylum is the sea squid, and there are currently about 3,000 known species; and cephalopods, there are only two families of Van Xuong and Asymmetron fish – there are 30 species. In fact, the skeleton of this fish is the rope that runs along the body and back from the tail to the head. In the gill slit region, the skeleton is a network of many horizontal and vertical connecting rods. The fins and tentacles are also supported by the connecting rod. Their central nervous system is a neural tube running along the body, located above the spinal cord but not reaching the end of the spinal cord, wrapped in a protective glue membrane. Although Van Xuong fish looks like a fish, the biggest difference between it and vertebrates is that it does not have a real head, sense organs such as smell, sight and hearing, even a skull or a skull. teeth are also something too fictitious for them. This animal only has a tuft of elastic “legs” on the head that acts as support for the body. The most amazing thing is that it doesn’t even have a heart, instead it relies on the beating of a portion of blood vessels to transport blood. Their musculature is less differentiated and typically segmented. Therefore, the muscles can only guarantee simple bending movements, suitable for the lifestyle buried in the sand. The muscular system consists of many muscle segments (myomera), arranged from the anterior end to the posterior end of the body. The muscle segments are separated by septa of connective tissue (myosepta). The muscle segments on both sides of the body are arranged alternately with comb teeth. As a result, when swimming, the body bends in the horizontal plane. Amphioxus is widely distributed in the shallow waters of the ocean, Qingdao and Xiamen in China are their main habitats. In addition, there are the coasts of Southeast Asia and the coasts of California and Florida, Norway, the Mediterranean and Africa. Due to its rich nutrition and delicious taste, Van Xuong fish is considered a traditional delicacy in Southeast Asia. Van Xuong fish is 3 to 5cm long, very strange shape. The long, flattened body looks almost like a pole. The whole body is pinkish-pink, semi-transparent, the muscle fibers are clearly visible. They have no scales, no fins, no spine, their internal organs are just a rhythmically pulsating complex tube. There are no senses like eyes, nose, ears. There is no decomposition for the gastrointestinal tract. Apart from the mouth and pharynx, the only remaining part of the intestine is the intestine leading to the anus. Van Xuong fish often follow the tide to swim into the estuary where the seabed is shallow, almost defenseless but capable of penetrating the ground. Their lifespan is about 3-4 years, they often bury half of themselves in the sand, while the other half is exposed to receive plankton from the river. Their musculature is less differentiated, so they can only move in the water by simple bending movements. When not moving, they often bury themselves in the sand. The respiration of Van Xuong fish is also similar to other fishes. They vibrate the cilia (the tentacles in the mouth) to bring water from them to the gill slit. The wall of the gill slit has many blood vessels, where gas exchange occurs.

You probably never thought that an animal could live without a head, heart, or bones. In fact, this species existed 500 million years ago and exists to this day, in addition they are considered “cousins” of the ancestors of many species of vertebrates today. The vertebrate family of today is extremely prosperous, with more than 60,000 members, all of them with different looks, habits and temperament, but this “cousin” has only one child. Only alive, they are called Amphioxus – Van Xuong fish, this species is also considered living fossils. Although Van Xuong fish is called fish and at first glance it is very similar to fish, it is not actually fish. On our planet today, most animals that exist are vertebrates, such as horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, tigers, ba … Of course, there are us as well. What makes this particular “fish” so exotic and unlike any fish is that they are vertebrates, have no vertebrates but are still grouped with vertebrates, cord animals and form the Chordate branch. Biologists believe that Van Xuong fish are animals during the transition from invertebrates to vertebrates, today they are considered to be the ancestors of fish, but they are completely not fish. The skin layer of Van Xuong fish has 2 main layers, the outer epidermis and the dermis on the inside. Unlike most vertebrates, their epidermis has only 1 cell layer, while the epidermis is underdeveloped, mainly composed of colloid or elastic connective tissue. There are more than 66,000 species of animals in the order Phylum Chordata. The most remarkable thing is that vertebrates make up the largest proportion, with more than 66,000 species, the main caudal subsector is the sea level, and there are currently about 3,000 known species; and head vertebrates, only two families of fish Van Xuong and fish Asymmetron – there are 30 species. In fact, the skeleton of this fish is the wire that runs along the body and back from the tail to the head. The gill region, the skeleton, is a network of horizontal and vertical interconnected rods. The fins and tentacles are also supported by the connecting rod. Their central nervous system is a neural tube running along the body, located above the spinal cord but not reaching the end of the spinal cord, wrapped in a protective glue film. Although the Van Xuong looks like a fish, the biggest difference between it and its vertebrates is that it does not have a real head, sensory organs such as smell, sight and hearing, even a skull. The teeth are also something too fictional for them. This animal has only a bunch of elastic “legs” on the head to play the role of supporting the body. The most amazing thing is that it doesn’t even have a heart; instead, it relies on the beat of part of the blood vessel to carry blood. Their musculoskeletal system is less dissociated and typical dissociated. Therefore, muscles can only ensure simple bending movements, consistent with the lifestyle of being buried in the sand. The muscular system consists of many muscles (myomera), arranged from the front end to the posterior end of the body. The muscle segments are intersected by septum by connective tissue (myosepta). The muscles on both sides of the body are arranged alternately with comb teeth together. As a result, when swimming, the Pangasius swim, its body bends along the horizontal plane. Amphioxus is widely distributed in the shallow waters of the ocean, and Qingdao and Xiamen in China are their primary habitats. In addition, there are coasts of Southeast Asia and coasts of California and Florida, Norway, the Mediterranean and Africa. Due to its rich nutrition and delicious taste, Van Xuong fish is considered a delicious traditional dish in Southeast Asia. Van Xuong fish is 3 to 5cm long, the morphology is very strange. The long and flattened body looks almost like a burden. The whole body color is pink, semi-transparent, the parallel longitudinal muscle fibers can be seen. They have no scales, no fins, no vertebrae, and their internal organs are just a rhythmic, rhythmic, complex. No senses like eyes, nose, or ears. There is no differentiation to the digestive tract. Apart from the mouth and throat, just a piece of intestine that leads straight to the anus. Van Xuong fish often follows tidal water to swim in estuaries where the seabed is shallow, almost unable to defend themselves but capable of penetrating into the ground. Their lifespan is about 3-4 years, they often bury half of themselves in the sand, while the other half is exposed to the plankton from the river. Their muscles are less differentiated, so they can only move in water by simple bending movements. When not moving they often bury themselves in the sand. The way of respiration of Van Xuong fish is similar to that of fish. They vibrate to inject capillaries (mouth tassels) to carry the stream of water from the gill slits. The wall of the gill slot has many blood vessels, where gas exchange occurs.