Sapa

When I finished my last post, I decided to be proactive and call the company. Turns out, they forgot about me, but the train hadn't left yet. A sweaty man tore up to the lobby on a motorbike a few minutes later. He motioned me to jump on, so I tucked my skirt between my legs and closed my eyes. I realized about 3 minutes into the journey that I was clinging fiercely to him. Looking around at all the other passengers, however, I realized that I was supposed to just hold on to the back of the motorbike. I wondered if my fingers would be protected from all the rear ending, side-swiping, and close calls that flowed around me. "Is this your first time, motobike?" It all felt like an exciting PBS special.

I hopped onto the train and found myself in a six bed compartment with four 28ish Vietnamese that spent the night conducting a mini-gambling ring for our car, and a 70-something old Vietnamese woman. I was on the bottom bunk, so I really got to see all the action! I pulled out my phrase book, but it didn't serve much purpose. Everyone laughed too hard when they saw me to say anything. :)

We arrived at around 5:00am, got off the train in Lao Cai and were driven to Sapa. What a drive. The clouds napped lazily right on top of the divets in the mountains, and rice paddies were built on every incline. This would be an amazing place for a budding waterway engineer.

Once we reached Sapa, about eight H'mong Hill Tribe people chased us down the road, swatting at any other women that tried to join their group. Were they looking for someone? I had no idea, but their clothes were amazing. I couldn't stop looking at them. They waved. The van pulled up to a relatively swanky hotel where we were served a very decent breakfast. The other guests on the tour (four french students and an Israeli doctor) were just as impressed as I was. Wow! Here I was expecting not to get picked up at all, but for 67$, I would dine, ride, sleep, and covort with the posh village folk - for two days and three nights! At 9:30 we started our trek, or should I say, I started my trek. My guide left the rest of the people behind, and we went on our way. I was the only one who opted to do a homestay that night, so I would have to trek longer than the others.

We blew through Sapa and trekked to the villages of Linh Ho and Lao Chai, both occupied by the H'mong people. The H'mong are the majority here in this hidden paradise, but they are also the poorest (and seem to be the most picked on) of the ethnic groups. There are six tribes of H'mong here, four of which are differentiated by color. They first came down to the Sapa area from southern China some centuries ago. There are two other groups, the Tsai (I think), originating from Thailand as well as another group, Dzao, that came from southern China. Needless to say, there are many different languages across this valley. My guide was Vietnamese and living in Sapa. He said that Vietnamese people made up about 15% of the population here, and were considered outsiders because of their non-traditional clothing, higher socio-economic levels, and language. Throughout my trek, I was followed by H'mong women and children alike. They could all speak English much better than they could speak Vietnamese, according to my guide.

At first it was a novelty, being followed around, but then it became exhausting, as the women pressured and coerced you into buying something from them. It never amounted to costing much, but it felt so invasive. The trek was relatively difficult at points however. I saw a 15 year old boy fall from 30 meters down a very steep incline, when he mistepped in the mud. For this, the women were very helpful. They knew exactly where to stand, and once my crappy tennis shoes started to lose their grip in the mud, hands would grab me from all sides and prevent me from falling. They were sure to point this out to me when time came to buy their goods.

After lunch at Lao Chai, we treked to Ta Van for the homestay. I cracked and bought a complete outfit. My tour guide thought it was so strange that I wanted to dress like the "dirty H'mong." I found it strange that he said this. Tea, his name, took me down to the river so I could swim, after a long day of sweating. He left me there alone for an hour or so, and I was free to swim and breathe and soak in the beauty, which was almost overwhelming at points.

In Vietnam, I find my head racing all the time. I feel very distant from the present, and I was wondering why. I realized that Mongolia was 95% sky. Whenever things felt difficult to handle, the sky swallowed it all up. Sapa was rivers and rice paddies and women and wicker baskets and mountains and waterfalls and trees and buffalo and chickens and ducks and children with no pants on and clouds and then sky. There was actually so much beauty that it was difficult to relax in it all. The river helped.

I stayed in homestay, eating the most delicious food, with four English people and two French. After dinner, the woman of the house brought out "Happy Water," a vodkaesque concoction that was made from the rice that she harvested. Reminded me vaguely of the mare's vodka from Mongolia, although it burned going down a little more. Afterwords, I snuggled up in my silk sleeping bag, under my mosquito net, and dreamed.

The next day we trekked to a waterfall and the villages of Giang Ta Chai, and Su Pan. We had lunch and got back on the bus to Sapa to return, sore, sunburned, exhausted, and happy.

Arriving in Hanoi at 5:00am, I was supposed to leave for Halong Bay at 8:00am, but it was raining there, so they changed my departure till tomorrow. This was better, as I spent most of today with a touch of malaise.

I will try to upload photos soon. This place was truely gorgeous. I might have made a mistake by going to one of the most beautiful places in Vietnam first, but I don't think so. I'm still enchanted by the noodles and the motorbikes and the pace of living. I can't wait to see more. <3