If It's Thanksgiving, We Must Be In Sapa

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  Sapa, Vietnam
Thursday, November 27, 2008

It's Thanksgiving today and we just celebrated by eating a mountain of french fries and pizza (a hamburger for me) in this small mountain town near China. The past few days have been absolutely amazing as we have walked/hiked over things (up and down mountains, across narrow paths between rice paddies and narrow (i.e. scary) bamboo bridges - some with railings and some... without. The women here are unbelievable as several followed us as we carried our packs, quickly putting a hand out anytime they saw us start to slip or if the steps were slippery and/or far apart. The first day the woman helping me had a baby on her back (that's right) and the second day, my super-trooper woman was missing several teeth was probably well over the age of my parents (which is really really old) and she held my hand a good part of the trek. I'd like to think that she was just being friendly and liked holding my hand, but with three days of clothes in my pack and slippery footing, combined with my natural lack of agility, she definitely was a huge help. Our guide was fantastic and was a tiny little thing also dressed in the native clothing of her tribe. She literally hopped across the countryside that she grew up in. At least she was wearing tennis shoes and not the rainboots or the plastic Candies type sandles that the other women wore...

Of course when we got to the villages, including the town of Sapa, the most popular cry was, "Will you buy from me? Why you no buy from me. You buy from her but not from me..." The sound of it echoed across the mountainside and everywhere we went you could see women and young girls standing outside the stores waiting for us to go back out. At one point, Jen - the village whisperer had about 15 women surrounding her as she talked to them and made them all laugh. At another point we were at the first Homestay and one of the women came back by to sell us more stuff and she had three girls with us who we had seen earlier throughout the day. We were playing Yahtzee and they were fascinated by it. I asked the woman if she wanted to roll the dice for me but she refused since she thought we were gambling. After a little bit of explaining, she settled into one of the chairs with the girls behind her and watched us play for quite a while. We taught them to put their arms in the air and yell "Yahtzee" any time we happened to roll one. After a while the woman remembered she had a job to do and there were a few other tourists in the village so she left but the girls remained. The oldest of the three picked the game up quickly and while she was just watching, she added the dice (and our cards with our total points) faster than any of us. Here these girls were in this very remote village almost on the Chinese border, speaking English to us and learning our games. It's sad to think what their culture and the village will be like in 10 years but for now it remains only lightly touched by the outside world.

There will be more later but right now we have a bus and then a train to catch to get to Hanoi where we catch another bus to get to the boat in Holong Bay for some kayaking. Yeah vacations!
Happy Thankgiving to all!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Water buffalo. There were lots.	Just a normal bridge in Sapa	Hiking in Sapa - Day 1	Mo, our guide and Jen
Native women taking a break	My Super Trooper through Day 2's hike	Me and the girls who came to hang out with us

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