Before dawn in the first lunar month, two young villagers row to the middle of the Đà River, fill jars and carry the water back to the Lower Temple below Tản Viên peak. By morning, families crowd the temple yard as palanquins set off and the festival spills into folk games.
Beyond the temples, Dao families in the foothills grow herb gardens for their remedies, dairy farms supply the roadside stalls with milk cakes, and a roofless French church sits in the forest. Summers are hot and wet, while the mountain stays cooler and often foggy. A Local Friend walks beside you up the forest trail and into the Dao villages, stopping wherever you do.
