Tea Travel: Our Spring Trip to Vietnam

Our year took an adventurious turn a few months ago when we embarked on a journey to Southeast Asia. Here’s a little bit about our time spent in Vietnam and why our little family travelled all this way.

We’ve had quite a change of pace in our lives the last few months, due to an opportunity to do some serious travel this Spring. Back in February, my husband Tony Gebely was asked to research ancient tea trees located in Ha Giang, the northern most province of Vietnam. This is an area that grows exceptional tea, but it hasn’t gotten much attention because most of what is produced is blended into commodity tea. The goal of this project was telling the story and traditions of tea producers in Ha Giang, so more awareness could be made about the teas. Because Tony has been studying tea for years and has written two books about it, this kind of assignment was right up his alley and we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

We spent the entire month of April on the ground in Northern Vietnam, visiting villages where tea is hand-picked and processed. I took on the role of photographer for the project, which allowed me to revisit an art form that I have always loved. I was able to get shots of village women from Hmong and Dao communities, village landscapes and the beautiful ancient Shan Tuyet tea trees. Our daughter, Eleanor, took notes, helped Tony assess tea and was quite a trooper though all of this!

All photos are property of Katie Gebely and Tea Epicure and cannot be copied or used without permission.

This area in Northern Vietnam is something special, with it’s mountain peaks, lush rice fields and (very) windy (often undeveloped) roads. Coming from a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, I thought we’d be used to these beautiful mountains, but this area was stunning in it’s own way. We felt so lucky to really get into the non-tourist areas and fully experience how the people live and worked in this area. There is one popular tourist destination in this region, and that is the Ha Giang Loop, a 3-4 day motorbike trek up and around these mountains. Perfect for adventure seekers who don’t mind living on the edge (literally) in this beautiful area.

Each day was filled with a new adventure and we had to learn to go with the flow because our schedule fluctuated based on the availability of the government to take us around from village to village. We never knew if we’d be taking a motorbike up to a mountain peak, if a road would be blocked due to new infrastructure in the area, if we’d be eating freshly prepared lunch on the floor with the locals or simply sitting around drinking tea and gathering information from tea producers.

Though these thirty days were definitely not a walk in the park, the long and very hot days felt so rewarding and definitely something we will all miss. The people were so kind and accommodating to our family and it’s something we’ll always remember. We hope that the work that Tony produces from this project will make a positive impact on this region and bring the tea of Northern Vietnam to light.

Here is a short video of our journey in Ha Giang. Click image below to watch.

You can find my art journaling updates throughout our trip over on my YT channel. And see more of our tea adventures from Tonys perspective over here.

After our time in Vietnam, we extended the trip to spend more time in central and southern Vietnam, Thailand and Japan. A total of 75 days abroad, which seems unreal, but we’re so grateful to have the opportunity to do this and to show our daughter this part of the world. If you have any questions about visiting Vietnam, starting a travel art journal or going abroad as a family, please feel free to reach out! Cheers!