U Va Hot Springs

Hot water comes up from deep in the ground here, and the air around it is the air of forest and mountains. The place is quiet.

The Thái people gave this place the name Ú Vá. In the Thái language, "Ú" means grandmother and "Vá" means cradle, so the full name means "Grandmother's Cradle." It is the warmest picture the Thái could find for the feeling of being wrapped up and cared for in natural hot water from the earth. The Thái are one of Vietnam's ethnic groups, and Điện Biên is one of the provinces where they mainly live. The name fits well, because stepping into the water gives exactly that feeling.

The water at the source is between 75 and 85 degrees Celsius, almost as hot as boiling water. Bathers do not go into it directly. Cold water is mixed in at the bathing tanks to bring it down to about 40 to 42 degrees, a temperature right for soaking the body. The grounds cover about 7.3 hectares, in Noọng Luống commune, around 15 kilometers southwest of Điện Biên Phủ city.

The Thái of Noọng Luống tell a legend about the spring. Long ago, seven fairies came down from the heavens to bathe in it. After bathing, they taught the local people to grow mulberry trees, raise silkworms and weave cloth. That, the legend says, is where Thái brocade weaving in the Điện Biên region began. It is a folk legend, not a historical event with evidence behind it. Still, the story shows how the Thái feel about this water. For them it is not only hot water under the ground, but a place that brings blessings and plants the seeds of culture.

Another special experience here is the herbal leaf bath, a folk method of the Red Dao people who live in the area. Many kinds of forest leaves are boiled and then combined with the hot mineral water. The Hmong and the Red Dao have kept a tradition of using these leaf remedies for a very long time. It is a way of looking after the body that is quite different from modern medicine.

There is also one unusual specialty found at this spring, eggs boiled in natural mineral water. Chicken eggs are dropped straight into the source water at 75 to 85 degrees, with no stove and no fire. The water cooks them by itself in about 10 to 15 minutes. Whether they taste any different from an ordinary boiled egg is something each person decides alone.

After a day among trenches and tunnels, and standing before hundreds of graves with no names, an afternoon soaking in mineral water is well earned. The body loosens and the mind can rest.

Guests can also stay overnight in Thái or Hmong stilt houses. In the evening there may be xòe dancing and local food. Then, early in the morning, they can go out to the spring to bathe while the air is still cool. It feels like being held in the warm arms of the northwestern mountains and forests.

That is what the name "Grandmother's Cradle" means, and the Thái here know how to name a place.