Thai Nguyen

Thai Nguyen is the province that grows the tea Vietnam drinks itself, ninety minutes north of Hanoi. The hills where it grows are the reason to make the drive.

Where are the tea hills?

The tea hills are at Tan Cuong, about 12 km west of the city. The name on the packet is the name of that commune. Rows of clipped bushes run over low hills with a handful of family workshops among them. Most will show a visitor the withering, the pan-firing and the rolling.

The landscape is not the terraced drama of Moc Chau. Tan Cuong is small holdings worked hard, best walked in the early morning, and the pleasure is the smell of a hot pan rather than the view. What happens to the leaf afterwards is in the tea guide.

What makes this tea different from the tea sold to tourists?

Thai Nguyen leaf is pan-fired in a metal drum rather than steamed or oxidised. The cup comes out pale green, grassy and briefly bitter before it turns sweet. That bitterness is the point, and it is why the province supplies the country rather than the export market.

A kilo of ordinary Tan Cuong sells for a few hundred thousand dong at a workshop. A named early-spring picking costs several times that. Buy at the hills rather than in Hanoi, taste before agreeing, and expect the first cup you are poured to be the good one.

Is the museum actually good?

The Museum of Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic Groups is the surprise of the province, and it is a serious institution. Full-size house reconstructions, textiles, instruments and tools from across the fifty-four groups, in a large building in the middle of the city.

The museum takes two hours and it is a better introduction to the northern minorities than anything in Hanoi. Anyone heading on to Ha Giang or Bac Ha gets more out of the markets afterwards for having seen it first.

What happened at Dinh Hoa?

Dinh Hoa district, about 50 km north, was the Viet Minh safe zone between 1947 and 1954. This is the base the leadership ran the French war from, including the decision to fight at Dien Bien Phu, and the sites are scattered through hills and forest.

What survives is modest by design: stilt huts, a bunker, a meeting house, a museum. It is a long half day from the city and it means most to visitors who already know that period of the history.

How do you buy tea without being fleeced?

Buy at a workshop in Tan Cuong rather than at a roadside stand, and taste before you agree a price. The first infusion a seller pours is made from the leaf they want you to buy, and a second pot from the bag being weighed is a fair thing to ask for.

Three things move the price: the season, the size of the leaf, and whether the tips are intact. Spring leaf costs more than autumn, whole curled leaf more than broken, and a bag with silver tips through it more again. A kilo is a lot of tea — most workshops will sell 100 or 200 g, and the shopping guide covers haggling generally.

What is the city itself like?

Thai Nguyen city is an industrial town built around a steel works and a large university, and it makes no claim on a visitor's afternoon. Wide roads, blocks, a market, and student cafes around the campuses.

Stay here only because the tea hills and the lake are short drives from it. The hotels are business rooms at provincial rates from the bottom of the accommodation guide bands.

How does the province fit a northern route?

Thai Nguyen sits on the road between Hanoi and Ba Be, which is the route that justifies stopping rather than making a special trip. Hanoi to here is 80 km and ninety minutes; Ba Be is four hours further north.

As a day trip on its own it is thinner than Ninh Binh or Tam Dao. It is the better choice only if tea is the reason you came.