I Don't Normally Like These Things, But

Trip Start Apr 27, 2006
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Trip End Apr 01, 2008


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Where I stayed
(Sapa hotels)

Flag of Vietnam  ,
Saturday, March 15, 2008

This won't be long because it really only covers a day, but I wanted an entry for the map because I am a dork.  I took the overnight train to Sapa, Vietnan, which is up in the hills near the border with China.  It is a bit of a tourist mecca because of all the local hill tribes in their colorful dress, the handicrafts, and the mountain scenery with most of the slopes terraced for rice and other vegetable production.  The only thing of note on the train is that all of the conductors converged on the restaurant / bar car to sing Karaoke, which I had stuidiously avoided until now.  Drats, foiled again!

The train got in at 5:30 and connected to a minibus that just went uphill for 25 miles or so into the mist and clouds.  We were dropped at our hotel, which probably had a spectacular view but the clouds obscured it, with time to shower and have beakfast before starting on our "trek."  Which actually was for once - we hiked 12 kilometers downhill throughout this incredible landscape of terraces and pools Drunk After the Wedding
Drunk After the Wedding
 .  We were accompanied by a gaggle of local hilltribe women and girls - mostly Black H'mong (their hands were indigo from the dyes used to make their clothing) and Red Dao (pronounced similar to "tzao" and with bright red headdresses), one of each assigned to each of us to assist, if needed, down the muddy track, and to try to sell you handmade crafts at the end.

We walked through three villages, having lunch in one - nothing weird to scare the tourists unfortunately, although our guide said the H'mong eat anything, but her tribe would not eat animals they also kept as pets.  The highlight, though, was that there was a wedding in one of the H'mong villages and we saw the aftermath.  In short, their men don't hold their rice wine so well.  At least four (and one woman) were having to be helped down the road, and they were not happy drunks. 

As the title alludes too, I generally feel uncomfortable in these "walk through a village and peer at the people and their wayof life like it is a zoo" trips, particularly because I have no interest in the handicrafts they sell and I understand that that is the tradeoff - tourism for money - and I find myself saying "no" hundreds of times.  That said, this was somewhat better because: (1) the scenery was incredible; (2) our guide spoke excellent English and was very informative about cultural mores (the girls marry at 15-20, depending upon tribe, for example), the agribusiness side of it, and it was outright funny to watch her and the other girls engage in what I have come to realize is standard here - a childlike glee mixed with a mock mean physical nastiness; and (3) in the towns we were the minority and mostly ignored because they were more populous than others I have been too and their lives (the wedding among other things) were taking precedence over the hard sell Football is Universal
Football is Universal
 .

That night, I checked out the town - sloooooooow, except for the toothless woman who tried to sell me more opium.  Even if I were interested, I was crossing the border to China the next day and was worried enough that they were going to confiscate my Lonely Planet (more on that next time).  I crashed and got up early to take a death ride shuttlebus back down the hill in the rain on a mountain road.  However, we only almost hit another vehicle once and only ran out of gas once.  I had intended to go to Yuanyang in China about 4 hours over the border for what were meant to be even more incredible rice terraces at sunset or sunrise, but I had missed the only bus and the rain promised little hope for a good sunrise or sunset anyway, so I booked a ticket to:

Kunming, China

My intention
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