The music played for a few minutes and then someone walked down the hall knocking on everones doors. A loud Vietnamese voice came in the PA announcing our arrival at the Lao Cai station.
We slowly awoke and got dressed. It was dark and misty outside looking through the window. Thankfully it wasn't too cold when we stepped off of the train into the pre-dawn mist.
We made our way to the main station exit and were greeted by a guy with vega travel written on a loose leaf piece of paper. He instructed the 10 of us to hop into his van bus.
We crammed in and set off off on an hour long trip bus ride up the mountains to Sapa town. It was dark and misty but slowly the light started showing itself and through the mist I got a good view of my first rice terrace nestled in along the valley walls. This was one of the reasons I had come to Vietnam and it was great to be in the countryside away from all the hustle and bustle and honking of Hanoi.
The bus drove through several really small and poor looking areas. I was beginning to wonder what the quality of the hotel would be considering most of the buildings I saw looked really old and/or run down. Soon there were more and more buildings around the road and eventually we were driving through the main drag of Sapa Town. It's a really small town with only 1 sort of main area that you can walk across in 10-15 minutes.
We pulled up to the Holiday Hotel Sapa which looked to be one of the nicest hotels in the area. When we got out of the car, the air was cool and wet because the town was situated high in the mountains at the same elevation as many of the clouds going by. We made our way into the hotel and the smell of burning wood filled the air. There was a fireplace burning logs in the lobby but it looked like the flu was paritally obstructed so some of the smoke would spill out into the room. It was okay though because it made it smell like camping.
We put all of our bags down into a corner and made our way to the breakfast buffet. There was lots to choose from and everything was nice and hot. I put a whole bunch of food onto my plate and we sat down while looking out at the clouds outside the window. The sun had fully risen at this point. I ate what appeared to be a piece of cheese, only to find out once it was in my mouth that it was actually a stick of butter. lol. And the best part was that I found out Rob, and Rachelle (a tour group buddy/friend we would soon meet) also ate the butter sticks! They really shouldn't display them cut into blocks like that arranged in a circle on the plate close to the cheese platter!
We ate around 6:30am and we had until 9:30am to meet the tour guide so we took our time and mostly hung out sitting in the lobby and calling relatives on Skype because they had internet. There was a shower we were able to use downstairs which was nice. It was a bit dirty but I think it just seems that way because it's just 1 room with the shower and toilet and sink all together, so if you have a shower, everything gets wet. Though I think in many places around the world this is how the washrooms are constructed and we're just used to a different style in Western Culture.
Around 8:30am we had all had had our showers so we decided to check out Sapa town on our own for the next hour.
Upon leaving the doors of the hotel we were swarmed by all these little tiny women villagers who were wearing their brightly coloured hats, beautifully embroidered jackets and skirts, complete with plastic gum boots. These were the H'mong villagers who would trek into town frequently for up to 10km just on the chance that perhaps some tourists would buy some of their wares. We started walking past them but they started following us. Not in a scary way though, in a nice way. Almost like they were just hanging out with us. They started saying things such as "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "Ooooh that's a nice name" "How old are you?" "Oh you are so youuung!" I knew they were just trying to sell stuff but I enjoyed there company and talked with them quite a bit. Some knew English much better than others. One individual who seemed to be particularily attached to me was a woman named Zu. She had a little baby on her back all bundled up whose name was Ga. She spoke relatively good english and she had a very kind face and beautiful smile. I couldn't tell how old she was but she said she had 2 kids (1 on her back, and 1 she left in her village). She was very helpful and toured us up and through the Sapa Marketplace. We heard you could rent hiking boots so she helped us find some. Unfortunately we couldn't find the hiking boot rentals, and only could find where you could buy gum boots. They didn't look that comfortable and considering we were going on a 10km trek today, we didn't want to chance getting blisters. We would partially regret this decision not to buy the boots (although they didn't have our sizes anyways. our feet were too big)
It was close to 9:30am so we headed back to the hotel. I didn't want to buy anything that the girls were selling but I did want to give them some money for helping us out. I gave Zu 50k and her friend 20k just for being friendly. They didn't really want to accept it without giving me something so I just asked for a picture with them. They were kind and each gave me a handmade bracelet that was made from their village. And asked me that if I saw them later that maybe I would buy from them. I said if I saw them later I would look at their stuff and maybe buy.
We went back through the doors of the hotel and the ladies stayed outside. Here is where we met our tour guide Tou. He was a Vietnamese man maybe in his late 20's or early 30's with good English. He was very friendly and outlined our trekking route that we would be taking over the next 2 days.
After a few minutes of introductions we set off down the road through the town. The sun was starting to shine intermitently through the clouds and the clouds on the rice terraces slowly disapated and revealed some stunning views! Literally entire hills were terraformed with rice fields and it was just incredible the amount of land that was being utilized to cultivate the rice. Simply breathtaking! I should also mention that the group of H'mong villager women also had attached themselves to our group and we were now walking as one large group with half tourists and half H'mong people. Tou told us this might happen and that the ladies were all very friendly and just wanted to sell us something to make a living. He said they might walk with us for a few km or maybe even for the whole day!
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| Tou, our excellent guide from Vega Travel |
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| Zu made me a little reed horse. I still have it now |
After around 20 minutes of walking along the paved road we reached a small house on the side of the road. Tou gave us some more information about the area and then some villagers came out of the house asking us if we wanted to buy bamboo hiking sticks. Tou recommended it and for 5k (25cents) it was probably the best investment any of us made because they came in handy!
We now started down a muddy dirt trail off of the main road and into the rice fields. The first bit of train was steep and the bamboo already paid for itself a few times over. This was the beginning of our terrific trek through the rice patties of northern Vietnam. For the most part it was a mix of walking in between the patties on small embankments and on little dirt roads or paths going down through the bamboo forrests or along the side of hills overlooking the valley below. The mud was quite deep and our shoes were basically covered in mud within 20 minutes. Here are some of the things we saw:
Once thing I thought that was very nice was that Zu walked by me the whole day and if I laggered behind for pictures she would wait, and continually look back towards me to make sure I was doing okay. We would chat every now and then and I found out more about her life and the way of the H'mong people. When the path became steep she would help me out if I needed it by giving me her hand. The H'mong people walked this route daily and they could have literally ran down these muddy paths with no problem.
By mid-day and after some pretty slippery terrain only 1 person had gotten mud on their butts and it was mostly duet to the fact that their shoes were not meant for mud walking. We had reached Zu's village and it was time to go our separate ways. She was hoping I would buy something and I wanted to buy something anyways. After some negotiations I ended up buying 2 hand made and embroided bags and a scarf from the other girl who had given me a bracelet. Everything they were selling was so cheap and the craftsmanship of the kneedle work was amazing. It was a pleasure giving money to these girls and I wish them all the best. They have tough lives and I makes me realize once again that I can't complain about anything in my life ever again as I have been blessed with being born into the modern world with modern comforts and not having to be concerned about if I can eat enough tomorrow to survive.
Lunch was served on a cement patio of a small house overlooking a river and 2 suspension bridges connecting each side. We had veggies and buns with egg and sausage and fruits.
There had been one villager who I did not know who seemed to of tagged along and was trying to get money from me when I was buying from the two other girls who had been so helpful during the whole day. I didn't want to give her money because I didn't even know her so I had ignored her before lunch when I was buying from Zu. I don't know how she got the idea but she thought that I should owe her something and she was a little sad when I didn't buy anything and went for lunch. ANYWAYS so we're in the middle of eating lunch overlooking the river and then from behind us we hear a slightly annoyed womans voice echo over the concrete, "Hello! Remember me?!?" It really reminded me of a bad B-rated movie or something where like... the disgruntled village person would seek revenge on the mean tourist and haunted him by echoing that line. Some other lines that we heard from her that we thought would be good in our hypothetical movie were "You buy from her you buy from me!" and "Happy you happy me!"
After lunch we continued our trek onwards. Apparently the most difficult and muddy parts of the trek were behind us now (which was true). A lot of the treck now was walking through the villages of the H'mong people. It was really fascinating to see where they lived, how they lived, and what their daily lives looked like. Their houses were basically shacks made of bamboo or wood and if they were fortunate, they had corrugated steel for roofs, but some had just straw or wooden planks with tarps.
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| There is a small house in the center of this picture behind this larger barn with a blue tarp roof. That's Zu's house and we coincidentally bumped into her coming out. It was really neat to see her actual house. |
Tou led us into one house where he showed us how they use the water from the river to operate basic grinding machines to make rice powder and remove the skin from the rice grains. He also showed us how they make all their own clothing. Here's how it works:
- Harvest female hemp plants
- Peel the skin of the plant into long strips
- Dry the strips
- By hand, connect each strip together by twirling the ends until you have a some really long strings
- Use a loom to weave your fabric
- To dye the clothes blue they use a mixture of wild lilac plants, limestone, and then some urine to create a chemical reaction that makes a deep blue dye. They then soak the clothes in the dye and then leave them out to dry
- Some of the clothes have a shiny quality to them. This is accomplished by applying blackened bees wax onto a smooth stone, and then the cloth is put between one stone, and another stone that has the bees wax and they are pressed together and rubbed vigorously to distribute the wax evenly into the cloth.
- Now you have 1 piece of fabric and you repeat as many times as needed to make full clothes.
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| "Water Hammer" for pounding the rice. Powered by the creek. |
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| The loom in action |
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| blue pee dye |
The road through the villages was a mixture of rock and mud and compacted dirt. It was not too muddy. Two small girls from the village introduced themselves to me and followed us for a while through the village. We passed a limestone carving "studio" and stepped in to use the WC and look at the craftsmanship of the limestone carvings. There was so much detail it was incredible.
We continued on off the road again and back into the rice fields. Maybe for another hour or so as we made our way down towards the river. We stopped for a group picture and then it was only a few more minutes to the homestay!
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| This guy pulled this out from underneath a small fire. Dinner time! |
We arrived at the homestay just as it was starting to get dark. We changed into sandals and I went down to the river to wash my jeans and my shoes. A few others also went down to wash their shoes. It was getting misty out but it wasn't too cold and soon we would head inside for a great homecooked meal by Tou, the lady of the house, and another tennage boy.
We watched them prepare the food in their cement wall kitchen over an old blackened wok on top of a fire pit. It was really cool to see how the people here lived. It's one thing seeing it on TV but actually seeing it in real life really gives you that perspective shift that's sometimes necessary for you to re-evaluate what's actually important and to be thankful for what you have.
What then proceeded was a wonderful group meal with the family and the tour group around their long table in the dining room. Our group consisted of people from Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Vietnam, and Spain so it was quite a good international mix and almost everyone spoke english fluently so that really made for a good time together.
Plum wine was served along with the many delicious dishes cooked by the family and each country throuhout the night had their chance to have everyone toast in their traditional way and say why they give thanks for the meal. It was a really wonderful bonding experience for the group and a lot of fun too!
After diner Tou introduced us to some drinking "games". Some of which were actual games, and some were more like tricks. lol. He challenged us to pick up a cup filled with rice with only 1 chopstick, and we also did some other games involving balancing on bottles and spinning around in circles. I ended up filming a lot of the games so check out the videos on my Picasa as I can't seem to embedd them properly on here :P All in all it was a great and unforgettable night filled with delicious food, great company, and tasty plum wine!
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| Goodnight! |
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