Sapa - rific!

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A quick turn-around, literally like 4 hours in Hanoi showering at the guesthouse we weren’t even staying in that night (how nice of them!), and we were right back in a taxi heading to the train station for an overnighter to a small village in one of the farthest reaches of the country, Sapa. We had two days planned sandwiched in between to overnight train rides- really looking forward to sleeping on a rickety old train through the mountains of northern Vietnam. Regardless, we’ve been told it would be more beautiful than Halong Bay, which is a tall order, but in the end, seemed to deliver in the form of beautiful landscapes with huge terraced mountains and beautiful indigenous people “selling” their handmade crafts.

We headed to the train station after meeting a wonderful couple at the guest house from Perth, Australia that we were paired up with in the same sleeper cabin. Trying to sleep on a hard bed too short for you, with the hullabaloo that is train travel going on, and the constant jerking of the uneven tracks, really led to a morning of refreshment and rejuvenation… sort of. Not only did we not sleep well, we were then greeted with a 90 minute drive up a mountain road as if being in a blender. I must say, if the sun wasn’t rising over the huge green mountains, I could have called it quits. Seeing that really motivated me to explore what this little mountain town had to offer.

Arriving in the town, it seems like a very cute, tourist driven town anywhere, but upon closer examination, we started noticing the people that were dressed in tradition garb. Then we made the realization that the clothes they were wearing weren’t traditional, we were visiting an indigenous mountain tribal village, these weren’t traditional at all, they simply were… their clothes. Once this insight hit us, we had a new found respect for the people of the area. Sapa, itself, isn’t the tribal village I’m talking about (and it took a little for us to know this) it is just the shove off point for tourists to visit the many villages of the valley. In the next 2 days, we would be trekking to see 3 of these villages.

We were greeted by a crowd of villagers outside our hotel when we pulled up. It felt a little ‘rockstar’ish, I won’t lie, but we were so tired we got up to our room for a couple of hours of rest and shower time before our first trek would begin. Opening the door to our room unveiled one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen out a window ever in my life. Where we were perched, we were looking right down the middle of a deep, tree covered, valley, only to be crowned with Vietnam’s tallest mountain to our left. It wasn’t a massive scale, or Himalayan beauty, but the vertical feet from valley floor to the tops of the ridges on both sides was really dramatic. The weather was wonderful which meant the sun was reflecting off the deep green foliage and rice terraces. Breathtaking, and I’m willing to say it was AS beautiful as Halong (it’s hard to compare mountain vistas to ocean vistas, though).

Once rested and cleaned, we went down to the lobby to greet Ly (Lee) our tribal guide for the next two days. She was a soft spoken, short (Cass and I towered over all the villagers, the tallest of them only reaching our armpits), gorgeous 18 year old girl, clothed in what she had made by hand, and spoke English only because of her job guiding tourists around her home. She led us to into the crowd of villagers still waiting outside the hotel, unknowingly, for us to begin our trek. “What’s your name? Where are you from? Do you have family?” echoed in our ears as we started down the streets of Sapa going over the same answers to each of our 2 or 3 blue handed followers.

The tribe we were with are called the Blue Hmong Tribe. The valley was settled by the Hmong people from China, and over time they have developed different identities; there were also Black Hmong, Zao Hmong, Rainbow Hmong in the valley, all clothed in the clothes of the different tribes (hence the colors in their names) and all with dyed hands from the cloth dying process; Blue Hmong had… you guessed it, blue hands and fingers, from their use of the indigo plant. They even speak differently, a dialect closer to Chinese than Vietnamese. They were all wonderful, so happy to see and be with us, and so overly accommodating with their adorable smiles and even toothless grins. I won’t go into detail too much, they were happy to take several pictures with us and several turned out great.

We were taken down a road out of town and onto a path down into the valley more. Here we were reminded of their closeness with the natural world, when, at often and various time along the trek, one women veered off the trail as if she saw a plate of cookies in the forest, and came back with one particular branch of twig. Moments later, that branch was woven into the shape of a horse, a crown, heart, and given to one of us as a gift. It was so neat to see the joy in their faces being able to give a present.

P.S. I’m a sucker for rice terraces… I’ve learned that about myself. The landscape was unbelievable. Rice terraces on nearly vertical mountainsides (imagine trying to harvest bushels of rice from those… ridiculous!), clearest river and bright white rapids against the green of the bamboo groves, I loved it. Every second of it… especially after the months in crowded Korea and ‘zany’ Hanoi I finally had a chance to stretch my arms and breathe in the fresh air… yeah!

In the guidebook we have, there is a section that addresses the ethics of visiting ethnic tribes like the ones we have. It explains that the villagers like the wealth that tourism brings to their villages, but has created a negative impact on their traditional culture and foster a ‘begging’ atmosphere. It was written and I will quote this for emphasis… “you should only ever give in return for some service or hospitality. A good compromise is to buy craftwork produced by the villagers.” Keep that in mind for a second…

We came to a river and on the other side was the first town that we were to have lunch in. As we crossed the rickety bridge, we must have crossed the threshold into some kind of Narnia as soon as we stepped foot onto the gravel. We were bombarded, assaulted even, with an onslaught of goods from the wonderful ladies that were so nice to us all morning. It was the quickest 180 degree turn I’ve ever seen. “You buy from her, now you must buy from me!” “You want bracelet, you want pillow case. I give you good price” “I follow you, you buy from me!” Blindsided, I tell you! We wanted to buy something from everyone, they were all so great, but we couldn’t. They divided and conquered us, as we slipped into the restaurant- Ly being the helpful guide she is- we had 4 bracelets each, a pillow case and some kind of scarf thing. Even the little kids had some kind of simple bracelet they were hawking us to buy mimicking the skills shown to them buy their female elders. It was crazy, and a bit saddening at the same time.

We ate along the river bank and went out back into the lion’s den that awaited us for the short walk to another village and then return home. The onslaught continued for the remainder of the walk and was a bit disheartening. At one point, I even heard, “buy something from me and I will go home.” Just too bad.

The next day, we went to Cat Cat village. Hawkerless, which was so much more enjoyable, and actually made me want to buy more things. It was a set up more for the tours than the actual village we visited the day before (which was an actual functioning village rather than a touristy few tribal buildings in a village) but was just beautiful. We got to spend more time talking with Ly and learning of her life and heard stories of the villagers. It was an incredible experience spending some time with her and hearing of her life. One I will surely remember.

That afternoon, bumming around Sapa, we developed three rules to avoid the everpresent villager market shadows that followed every foreigner around town… 1) avoid eye contact… 2) Under no circumstances do you engage in any kind of conversation, even if said conversation is just the words, ‘no thankyou’… 3) if you failed at 1 and 2, you can use any inanimate object as shield, like a pick and roll in basketball, to gain some space and ultimately some freedom.

I say this in jest, but it brings up an interesting debate/conversation about this phenomenon called ethnic/ culture tourism, and its effects. It was so evident to us the positive and negative of it. I don’t know if there is an answer~ do you avoid these areas to keep their culture in tact and pure? Do you go to these areas because they are, literally, the only culture like it on earth? Do you try to assimilate them? It’s difficult to answer.

During my time there, however, I thought of their lives; making the clothes they wear, trekking through the mountains in flip flops, cultivating rice on the sides of mountains. Then I thought of our cushy lives, settled into a laz-e-boy with a latte, after a rough day in the cubicle. Seeing this, it rejuvenates the spirit in me to never fall prey to taking things for granted. To always be thankful for everything in life, no matter what that is. I know I’ve said that before, but seeing the villagers slave over a handbag for hours to sell it for the equivalent of $2.30 puts things into a perspective that can only be had when you see it first hand. For that, and for so many other things in my life, I am thankful.

Now, if only I could catch a little shut eye on that clothes dryer they call a train, things would be wonderful. On to Hanoi… some waterpuppets, and then Hong Kong- The greatest city on Earth… (we’ll be the judge of that)!


***Also, Thanks to everyone for following my writing that has been progressing for this year. You’re support has really given me the confidence to continue writing about all the craziness here and to share it with people thought their publication. I’d like to share a couple things with you all about that, which I’m excited about.

I recently published an article on BootsNall.com called 7 Truths You Won’t Hear About Teaching ESL Abroad. It’s a good insight to some of the things that you go through while in an experience that Cass and I are doing here in Korea. It’s also probably fairly interesting for all of you back home to understand a little about this craziness that we’re doing, also. Enjoy the artice, and feel free to pass it on to anyone interested in ESL, and don’t forget to rank it on the website if you liked it or not~~ Thanks!

Beginning Friday, I will be joining Matt Stabile and the team at www.theexpeditioner.com (you may be familiar with this site because of my DMZ article I published there). I have been asked to become a ‘Contributing Editor’ of the travel website (it’s unpaid, but an awesome opportunity) taking a lead role while Matt is traveling Africa and then staying on to work with Matt into the future. I’m excited about this opportunity and ask that anyone interested to take a hop on over to the site and check out what it’s all about. It’s a cool, travel inspiring site that should be a lot of fun. It also has a community of followers on Facebook and Twitter so my writing will have a consistent audience and I will be gaining invaluable experience.

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Photos

crafters tools
you can see the indigo dyed fingernails

Comments

[joncasssouthkorea]

panorama
The two girls in the large panorama picture are actually weaving the strands they've prepared in order to make the cloth for their clothes. The girl on the right has a ball of it starting on her hand. As they walk and talk with the tourists, they are constantly weaving the string on their hands to make a ball of yarn(ish) to take back to the village and make the cloth... then woven into cloth, then dyed, then made into clothes, then details are added and then finished. whew...