Hanoi and Sapa, Vietnam - 25 to 27 March 2013

---

We transferred to the airport for our flight to Hanoi which took about an hour - an easy flight. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Following the end of the Vietnam War it became the capital of a reunified Vietnam when North and South were reunited. It is a charming historic city of shimmering lakes, shaded boulevards and public parks and has a population of about four million people so a lot smaller than Saigon. The city centre itself is like an architectural museum, with blocks of ochre buildings retaining the air of a provincial French town from the 1930s.



We booked into our city hotel to sort our bags and freshen up as we were travelling that night on to Sapa by sleeper train and were only able to take an overnight bag with us. Due to our late arrival the guide cut short our city tour and we headed off to visit the Temple of Literature, Hanoi's first university dating back to 1070 and a historical centre of learning, now dedicated to Confucian worship. Confucius was a Chinese teacher and philosopher who penned the well known principle ‘do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself’. We walked through the ornate entrance and up to the Great Gate. In front of this were four tall pillars and on either side of these were two stelae commanding horsemen to dismount. This gate opened onto three pathways which continue down through the complex each one opening out on to another. We walked down the centre path which was reserved for the monarch, the one to its left for the administrative Mandarins and the one to its right for military Mandarins. The gardens were beautiful and peaceful and one area had graduating students in their finest dress posing for photographs. It was rather rushed and it would have been good to have stayed longer but we had to have dinner before heading off to the Railway Station for our overnight train to the small town of Lao Cai. We were going to have to share a four berth carriage with another couple and luckily we had met Theo and Jen from Tasmania and shared with them. They were great company and we were all soon settled down for the night, with both the men being chivalrous and getting up on the top bunks. The carriage was very cramped but the bunks were comfy and they supplied a pillow and quilt and soon we were rocky and rolling along. As we passed out of Hanoi we were within touching distance of the locals living alongside the railway track and we watched everyday life going on as we headed north and tried to sleep......



I must admit it was a very rough and long night for the train really did rock and roll as it climbed into the mountains. We probably all had cat naps throughout the night but were still wide awake in the early hours as the porter passed by shouting, anyone for coffee - Paul volunteered to try it but everyone else gave it a miss after looking at his face............



We arrived in Lao Cai in the early hours of the morning, all very tired as the journey had taken in total of about 10 hours. Lao Cai is in the mountainous region of Vietnam bordering the province of Yunnan in China. It is a market town for timber and lies at the junction of the Red River. The town was invaded by the Chinese in 1979 and the border was closed and not reopened until 1993. We did not stay long but set off into the mountains to Sapa our final destination in a couple of mini buses. The journey was wonderful with spectacular landscapes and steep mountainside covered in rice paddies clinging to the sides. It was a shame that our visit was not a little later as between May and October is the time for the local planting and harvesting and it would have made the scenery so much more vivid. Locals passing by on foot waved to us and we were looking forward to meeting up with them once we got to Sapa.



Sapa is located 1,600m above sea level, close to the Chinese border. Seduced by the topography, the French had built more than 200 villas that bordered the streets of Sapa by 1943. Unfortunately, due to many wars, these old buildings have been destroyed but we felt that the town stills retains heaps of character and was very atmospheric. The H'mong and Dao people, the largest and most colourful ethnic group in the region, were a cultural highlight and you encountered many when you strolled through the small town. The daily markets were always bustling with life and as as we drove down the hill through the town on our way to the hotel we knew that this was going to be a pleasant stopover.



Alas, we were not able to get into our room at the hotel as is was still early in the morning but we had breakfast outside overlooking the terraces. We met up with ‘Mango’ our local guide who was from the Black H’mong hilltribe and still lived on a farm in a nearby village. She had studied hard she said to speak English from tourist and now worked as a tour guide and had been able to travel widely herself. She said she was considered old by her fellow villagers as she was not married and had reached the grand old age of 22. She was quite content though and was happy that she had been able to become a tour guide to people from all over the world. She accompanied us on a short drive where we were dropped off at the end of her village in the Muong Hoa valley, a stunning place boasting the largest terraced rice fields in Sapa. Here we were greeted by a crowd of villagers, many with smiling babies strapped to their backs. Our group were soon surrounded and the villagers all proceeded to walk with us down to their village chatting as we walked along. We were surprised how many spoke very good English and when asked how they learnt they said from the tourist who visited them. Paul got attached to a young ten year old girl whilst I was befriended by two young girls with baskets on their backs.

We continued walking through a village of the Black H'mong minority and stopped at the local primary school where some young boys were playing ‘paper airplanes’ in the playground. Mango herself attended this school when she was young. There were four classrooms of children and we were able to walk around and chat to them and they were all happy to see us. In one room several little girls laughed as we approached and started dancing to entertain us whilst the boys sat in chairs behind them and did not join in! The government pay the Minority people in this region to send their children to school so most get a good education unlike in other areas.



The H'mong have always been subsistence farmers going back generations. In the past, they practiced ‘slash and burn’ agriculture, which meant that they had to move every few years when the fertility of their fields became exhausted. Now they have begun to adopt more settled ways, and commonly use irrigated fields and terraces to grow rice as in this region. Mango told us that their staple food crop was corn as well as green beans and they only usually ate meat once a week or when they had visitors. They are skilled at raising domestic animals and keep pigs, chickens and water buffalo to help in the paddy fields. She said that although they kept pigs these took a long time to grow so were not that plentiful to eat. The average H’mong family has 30-40 chickens and at least 5 pigs and we saw many black fat bellied pigs around the rice terraces as we walked along with the female villagers.



The villagers also grow hemp and cotton for textile production and nearly all the girls we saw were sewing or busy preparing the hemp, winding long strands around their hands as they chatted. The H'mong wear clothing that is decorated with some of the finest needlework to be found anywhere and we saw many different designs on their garments. Every member of the family, from tiny infants to the elderly, wear embroidered adornments handmade. All of this is done by the women who also weave cloth on family looms in their dark thatched houses. Men and boys work in the rice fields. The H'mong groups are usually identified by characteristics of the women's clothing. For instance, the White H’mong women wear skirts of unbleached linen, while the skirts of the Black H’mong and Green H’mong are dyed indigo. The indigo plants are readily available and they picked and showed us the plants as we walked along and we noticed that many of the women had stained hands from the dye. Mango showed us her beautiful dress and detailed how she made it herself taking many hours, she said that all girls starting making their clothing at a very young age. The men and boys clothes were also made by the women in the family. She was very proud of her heritage and said she was quiet upset when some tourist say to her that she only wore her national dress for the benefit of the tourist. She was quite clear in explaining that she wore it for herself and was extremely proud of her heritage. But also pointed out that she wore it in respect of her parents and grandparents - if she wore 'western clothes' her parents thought that she did not look pretty.........





She explained to us about their religion - traditionally the H'mong have been animists or spirit worshippers including ancestral spirits, house spirits, nature spirits, and spirits of evil. Ancestral spirits include any deceased member of their family. The father's side of the family is believed to have the most powerful spirits. These spirits are seen as returning to and inhabiting the household altar. House spirits are thought to inhabit the bedroom, household stove, the central post, doors as well as each corner of a H'mong house. Nature spirits include spirits of mountains, valleys, forests, fields, streams, caves, ponds, and winds. They believe that spirits can affect every detail of their life. Spirits are believed to be good or bad, evil or merely mischievous. They can help or harm people, animals or crops. They can bring on disease or injury, physical or spiritual. Mango said that today the H'mong often combine elements of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism in their world-view and their society and their elaborate rituals may also invoke magic. Most rituals and ceremonies are performed by the H'mong so as to honor the will of the ancestors and placate natural spirits. They hope that if the ancestors are pleased, they will protect their descendants from sickness and misfortune and they can live a happy life.



It was quite humbling walking through the village accompanied by the women, girls and children. The rice paddies were empty as they only have one crop per year this high up in the mountains, unlike the 4 to 5 crops that grow along side the Mekong River, hence they are not as 'rich' as their fellow countrymen. We continued on walking through to the next adjoining village called Ta Van, a village of the Giay minority. It was quite a long walk and very hot and sticky but it was great to see and pass through the homes of these friendly and welcoming people. When we got to the end of the village the girls all proceeded to take out of their baskets their own handmade items for us to look at and hopefully to purchase. Even though they were not pushing their goods on us we could not leave without buying anything and because we had been accompanied by three of the local girls we bought three beautifully woven bags, one from each of them before we left. It was sad to say goodbye as they had been so informative and entertaining during our trek through their rice fields, farms and homesteads.



We return to town for lunch at a local restaurant and in the afternoon we explored the streets of Sapa visiting several of the markets that were crammed full with local foods and products. At the top of town we walked through yet another market which was quite small with just local handcrafts laid out on the floor for us to purchase. We walked around a small Catholic Church and then were unable to continue as the road was cordoned off - police were clearing out some market stall-holders that had set up in the ‘wrong’ area and a loud speaker was asking them all to move before they were 'turfed out'......



The next day we drove out to discover another of Sapa's quaint hilltribe villages, taking in the different traditions, cultures and costumes of the minority groups. The road was a little rough and we had to get out of the minibus as the track had large potholes from recent rain but the driver manage to get the empty bus over this gigantic hole and we could proceed. We arrived at Ta Phin village to visit the Red Dao people and immediately the bus was surrounded by laughing girls all peering in through the windows in their red traditional dresses - it was quite amusing as they all seem to single us out with eye contact before we got out. As we had experienced the day before a couple of villagers attached themselves to us all again. A very young mother with a baby strapped to her back walked alongside Paul and I had two grandmothers for company, one with her grandson strapped to her back as well. They were delightful and very knowledgable with very good spoken English. One of the grandmothers showed us how she put her traditional headdress on - it was extremely heavy as it had yards of material as well as several silver coins wrapped stitched inside and it must have been difficult to wear. The H’mong keep much of their wealth in the form of silver jewellery and to them it was worth much more than gold -they were not impressed with our gold wedding rings, but loved my small silver earrings. They told us that on New Year's Day they wear all their jewellery in an impressive display - even the children and men wear silver ornaments. Both men and women wear silver neck rings and bracelets and most of the women wear several large silver earrings.



We walked through the village and it was becoming quite misty so we could not see that far into the distance but were told that there were mountains all around us with rice paddies as far as the eye could see......all we got was a faint outline - it was all very mystical. They live in simple thatched houses and our local guide Mango went up to one of the houses with a gift and asked if we could see inside. The lady was delighted and welcomed us all into her home. It was very dark inside and extremely smokey from the fire, the hearth laid in the floor in the centre of the room with no chimney or outlet, the smoke just gradually escaped through the numerous holes in the roof and walls. In one corner a girl was spinning and a dog was wandering around scratching the floor, dried corn on the cob hung from string and on one wall someone had sketched a little girl in chalk. The owner pulled out some long benches for us to sit on and invited us to stay. Families all lived in this one room with an area used as a kitchen and another as a bedroom. There was a large open loft space and we could see several sacks of rice their staple diet stacked up. They had a problem with mice and rats getting to their food as they had no sealed storage areas and no way of stopping anything from getting into their homes. When you first meet the H’mong people they may seem quiet and shy but with a visit to their home and a family introduction they open up with laughter and welcome you and anyone into their modest homes. All the village ladies that had accompanied us followed us into the house and sat around laughing with us - it was quite a moving and humbling experience and one we will never forget. Again at the end of our trek through the village the ladies showed us their hand made embroidered goods and because we had been accompanied by three villagers we again felt obliged to buy from each one of them and so added three more bags to our collection - we will have to watch our weight limit when we return home at this rate..........



Sapa was indeed an experience that we will remember for a long time and we were so glad that we had made this long journey into the mountains and met the hilltribes of the region.



Later that day we descended back down the mountain to Lao Cai railway station to catch the sleeper train back to Hanoi and hopefully we may get some sleep on the train this time.......see you there.



PS: Thank you all for mine (today) and Paul's birthday messages it was lovely to hear from you.

---