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Published: June 13th 2006
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H'mong darlings
These girls are just too cute to resist sometimes! These girls actually didn't sell me anything, but after I took their photo they gave me a couple of bracelets. Both children and adults where this tradition attire--dyed with Indigo, and all of them have blue hands. This is backtracking on our journey a bit, but we're finally getting this posted 😊 Be sure to check out the new photos on the Cruising China Seas/Wet and Wild entries, too!
Sapa was one of our favorite places we've visited thus far on our travels. It is a small town in northwest Vietnam, settled in a little valley up in the mountains not too far from the Chinese border. The clouds often roll in low, giving the town a mistical effect. Small villages around Sapa are home to several different hill tribe people, each with their unique traditions and dresss.
Getting to Sapa from Hanoi involved a night train...we ended up on a car with an older French man who didn't speak to us at all and a Vietnamese grandmother with her 6 yr old grandson. we got on the train late so we pretty much went to bed right away. Sleeping wasn't so easy though since granny and the boy were up and down all night, lights on, lights off, and talking in the only voice they know--VERY LOUD! Still, not too bad.
Arrived in Lao Cai, the border town to China where we had to
View from the top
We walked up Dragon Jaw Mountain in the middle of the town for some fantastic views of the town and valleys all around Sapa. get a mini-bus up the mountain to Sapa. Those who know me well know that I'm not the most social person in the morning, and when a couple mean train station workers nearly wouldn't let us get through the gate because we only had one receipt for tickets instead of the normal two (ours had a note on it in Vietnamese, but how are WE supposed to know that!) the steam was coming out my ears. However, Dan was calm, and thank goodness for one curious woman who came into the office, took one look at our ticket, and said no problem. Meanwhile, her co-workers growled as we walked out...they'd tried to get us to pay another US$40.
Side note: These little incidents don't really mean too much to us, we usually ride them out and things work out fine. It's just that this time it was 5am...such a vulnerable time! An hour later, we're laughing and adding it to the list of crazy things that we come up against 😊
Sapa is surrounded by cascading rice terraces, the main crop here. We're talking STEEP hills. So beautiful. Everything is so green, and the earth is a deep
Our street
View from our window. All the hotels look like these. reddish-brown.
The town is quite small, just a few main streets with hotels that tower up 5 or 6 stories so virtually all the good rooms have some sort of view of the valley below. We were on the 5th floor of the Queen Hotel and it even had a fireplace...too bad it was too warm to use it! Much cooler than Hanoi though.
We met up with our Canadian friend, Rob, and a new Canadian, Florence, who was also staying at Queen. We all wandered around the local market, admiring the fresh produce, souvies, and goods made by the hill tribe people. We were constantly followed by a few young girls from the hill tribe villages, all trying to sell us a bracelet, purse, or pillowcase. "You buy from me" seemed to be all we heard. Some of them were so darn cute, but we only gave in to a couple of them. Later on we found out we should only buy from adults because the little girls are kept out of school so they can make money for their families.
The young people all speak really good English...and they've just learned it from growing up
All in a day's work
A typical scene as we trekked through the rice fields. They have amazing natural 'step' irrigation systems here to keep the fields full of water for the rice to grow. The umbrella is merely to keep the sun off. around the tourists. The younger ones are excellent, besides the fact that they walk around town all day, asking so many questions, and the next time they see you, they will reiterate the info back to you, while we struggled to remember most of their names. "What your name? Where you from? That you boyfriend? When you get married? How long you in Sapa/Vietnam?...such a curious group of people 😊
Dan, Rob, and I did a 2/day trek, spending one night in a hill tribe village. We were dropped in a nearby village, and from there we walked about 13kms, up, down, around, and through the rice terraces as well as a few other hill trive towns. Everyone out in the fields, bent over, water up to their knees, and wearing their conical hats to block the sun. (Vietnamese women are very concious of keeping their skin light. They wear pants and long sleeves, plus hats. Some even wear face mask like scarves and wraps to keep the sun away during the heat of the day...and then the western tourists walk around in skimpy tank tops and skirts, go figure 😊
A few hill tribe women would follow
Buffalo Boys
Little boys seemed to always be in charge of tending the water buffalo. Sometimes only 4 yrs old and no adults to be seen. us for an hour or so, making a little conversation, but then you'd sit down to rest and they'd pull out their gear, pressuring to buy. One time I had 5 women all around me, and I was so exhausted, I finally gave into the pressure and bought one little bracelet, but the other women were NOT happy with me!
The village we stayed in was nestled in a valley, and we enjoyed swimming in the river and nearby waterfall after sweating so much in the hot sun. We were in a couple's home, their 3 kids are older and not living at home anymore. The people were nice, but didn't speak a word of English. Our guide, Thon (23), was great. He kept us informed and entertained. The home is pretty open to the elements, but the upstairs room made of bamboo floor, walls, and ceiling, was huge. We had our own mattresses and mosquito nets hanging above. Much more than we'd expected. Thon told us that having home-stays has really helped some of the local families bring in a little bit more income. For this family, their two sons have been able to attend school rather than
The Local Daycare
Hill tribe children seem to hang out in groups like this. No supervision, but they don't seem to be getting in too much trouble. But where are their clothes? Oh well, babies don't wear diapers here anyway :) staying close to home to work in the fields.
Dinner preparations took nearly 3 hours, and the food was wonderful. Our hotel hadn't sent enough food for us so the family provided some of their own to the meal...including a duck that was killed, plucked, and skinned right next to us outside the toilet (a squater). The food was all cooked over the open fire in the kitchen. They do have electricity (only for about 5 months now), but they only use it for a couple of florecent lights, a TV (which doesn't get any channels so they have a DVD player and watch kareoke DVDS), an old fan, and a refridgerator that is mainly used to keep cans of soda and water bottle cold to sell to their guests. No shower or bath, just the squater, but it had a little bit of flush.
I didn't try the duck, but the boys did. However, the duck blood soup with bits of spleen and liver were served only to our hosts and the two tour guides...hello, bird flu anyone!?!? The real kicker was the rice wine...a local drink, homemade by everyone. They served it to us in shot
glasses, and we had several different toasts throughouth the evening. It burned a little at first, but got better as we went. I had to start doing half-shots though 😊
The next day we hiked up to another village in the heat and came down to dip near the waterfall. I used to complain about cold water, but here, I loved it!
An hour walking up the steep hill to the food kiosk where the jeep would pick us up--I honestly didn't think I was going to make it. The legs were like jello, and there were moments when I questioned if I'd make it...we decided that we're definitely out of shape, especially compared to our guide who makes the journey a few times a week.
The afternoon was spent in cold showers and drinking cold drinks while we waited for the bus back to catch the overnight train to Hanoi. Such a good weekend, we were wishing we could stay for a few more days. It was wonderful being surrounded by such different cultures and really getting a taste of local life beyond the tourist track. These don't begin to do this place justice, but you
can get a glimpse.
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Kathy
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My Favorite
This has been my favorite blog so far. What a wonderful experience. I wish I could have been with you. It looks beautiful and the children are precious! Jelly legs for Heid - then I wouldn't have made it. Thank you for sharing the adventure!! Love you.