With no electricity, water, or phone signal, Sao Ha village is located in the middle of the wild and remote Van Chai jungle, the setting of the popular horror movie “Tet in Hell Village”.
Sao Ha village is located in Kho Cho village, Van Chai commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang, inhabited by Mong people, located in the middle of Van Chai old forest. The village is the setting of the movie “Tet in Hell Village” premiered at the end of October and “Soul Eater” – the sequel movie, released in December.
“Tet in Hell Village” is a Vietnamese historical horror television series adapted from the novel of the same name. The content revolves around an isolated village deep in the forest called “hell village”, the retreat of the descendants of a notorious bandit gang. Due to the crimes of their ancestors in the past, the villagers encountered strange things that happened during the Lunar New Year.
With no electricity, no water, no phone signal, the village has a feeling of desolation and depression, suitable for the atmosphere of the movie. Mr. Giang A Phon, Director of a travel company in Ha Giang, came to experience Village experience on November 9 commented.
From Yen Minh district, Mr. Phon went through a nearly 17 km long pass with long bends and steep slopes. At the foot of Tham Ma slope, go about 4 km further to reach Van Chai commune.
To reach Sao Ha village deep in the forest, visitors can travel by motorbike over a distance of about two kilometers, with many dangerous steep turns. If you walk, it will take visitors about 30 minutes to an hour depending on your walking speed. “The road to Sao Ha is a dirt road with jagged rocks and many uphill sections, requiring steady steering,” Mr. Phon said. The road goes through a forest and a temple worshiping the forest god. He was told by the village elders not to call each other names in the forest to avoid bad things following him.
In the Mong language, Sao Ha means “high valley”, located at an altitude of about 1,500 m above sea level. The road to the village is often covered in fog, especially in winter. This is also the road that appears many times in the movie “Tet in Hell Village”, when the character Thap – the village chief brings goods down the mountain to sell and return.
A characteristic of Sao Ha village is the stone fences about 1.5 m high. The stones are tightly packed together, although they have no adhesive material, they are solid, have not fallen over for decades, and are covered with green moss.
In the village, there are 22 Mong households, all with the surname Vang, living in one area. The sticky houses (walls made of soil), covered with yin and yang roofs are located in clusters, surrounded by a primeval ancient forest of about 500 hectares.
Due to the rugged terrain, people in the village live on a self-sufficient basis. Around the village, people grow flax as raw material for handloom weaving.
Growing corn is a traditional and popular job of residents living in the Dong Van Karst plateau in general and the people of Sao Ha village in particular. Their main dish is men men (corn rice).
Adults go to work far away from home in the morning and return in the evening. During the day, the village is quite deserted, only a few children can be seen playing or grazing on the road, Mr. Phon said.
Coming to Kho Cho village, visitors will hear about an ancient story related to Hang Phi. Around 1957 – 1958, Vang Van Ly was the leader of a famous bandit group (local looters) who opposed the government. When he failed, Vang Van Ly and his children escaped to a mountain cave in Van Chai commune.
After Vang Van Ly was mobilized to surrender, the lives of the people here returned to peace. The current Hazel Cave is said to be where Vang Van Ly hides.
Besides the primeval ancient forest and Phi Cave, Sao Ha also has a bamboo forest, ancient houses, and Sao Ha temple for tourists to visit. Currently, there are no tourism services in the village, some tourist groups choose to camp in the bamboo forest, enjoying the fresh air and quiet in the middle of nature.
Sao Ha is most beautiful in the spring when the peach blossom trees bloom, dispelling the cold and quiet look of the village.
Some travel companies have conducted survey trips and plan to build experiential tours connecting Van Chai with neighboring communes. However, the road from the commune center to the village is only about one meter wide, just enough for two motorbikes to avoid each other, which is the biggest bottleneck. Due to its high altitude, the frequent lack of water is also a limitation for tourism.
Along with development, some traditional cultural features such as walled houses, yin-yang tiled roofs, and stone fences tend to be lost and replaced by concrete. Therefore, the Dong Van district government intends to put Kho Cho and specifically the Sao Ha household group on the list of villages that need to preserve traditional values and exploit and properly use tourism resources, according to the website. Electronic information of Dong Van district, Ha Giang province.
Photo: Internet