Northwest Vietnam: a two hour mini bus ride on ultra curvy roads put us back in Sapa. We had visited a week earlier with my parents before we all headed to Bac Ha. With visa's running out my parent headed for China while Adam and I decided to return to the town in the clouds. Compared to Bac Ha, Sapa is a little higher in elevation and has a bit bigger population, and over the past years it has received much more attention from tourist, giving it a completely different character. Accommodations, from grimy to plush, are overly abundant. Restaurants dish up western staples, and the main drag is lined with souvenir shops and tour operators--in general everything cost a little more. There is a more authentic side of town, which we discovered more on our second visit, but you have to seek it. Like Bac Ha, Sapa is also surrounded by minority Hill Tribe villages, but unlike Bac Ha where the tribes hardly take note of tourist, in Sapa tourist are a main source of tribal income. If you're a traveler looking to interact with these minority peoples there is no better destination, they'll find you before you step out of the van.
Sapa is set in a saddle overlooking this valley, but the views are elusive, appearing and disappearing one moment to the next in whiteout clouds.
The town has a Swiss Alp vibe to it.
Main Street
Typical
Red Dao Women
(note two chatting it up on their cell phones)
Westerns quickly amass an entourage of Hill Tribe women when walking the streets.
My parents in the thick of it--if you entertain buying their handicrafts a crowd rapidly forms, each women showing you her similar goods repeating their all too common line: "buy from meee!!!"
Red Dao (left) and Black Hmong (right)--Tribes can be distinguished by their distinct traditional dress.
Hill Tribe women are ever-present, they'll harp you to buy their goods in a joking manner with big smiles (their demeanor was the best of any street vendors yet) your first days in town until they get to know you. If you're respectful they'll treat you in kind, the product pushing stops (mostly) and they're happy to just exchange words. I have the utmost respect for these women's language skills--most have had little to no formal schooling and can't read or write, but just by talking to tourist they have a remarkable command of conversational English as well as Vietnamese and their native tongue, and some even add French and Japanese to that list.
We met this lighthearted Black Hmong duo, Chi and Coolie, shortly after arriving in town the second time. They talked us into a walking tour of the area to visit a few nearby villages and after a couple days of rain delay we were chasing them up slippery trails snaking out of town.
Into the Clouds
The views were all worth the climb.
Standard Hill Tribe footwear to tread the steep and slippery terrain--our guides motored along without a single loose step as Adam and I skated in our Chacos.
We climbed out of town and crossed through a pass (around the corner to the right) en route to Chi's village for lunch.
Tea growing in the shade.
Hemp is the principle fiber source of the Hill Tribes.
Large patches of Cannabis like this are everywhere.
Corn--largely grown for animal feed.
After making it through the pass looking down on the village we would visit later in the day.
Down we go.
Terraced rice is the most numerous crop.
A typical Hill Tribe home, many are only accessible by foot.
Cooking Lunch
Inside a Chi's home: the earth floor has been walked on and swept so much that it no longer emits dust. Processed hemp drying (left).
Looking out the front door: multipurpose space--Chi's son prepares timbers, kids play and chicken scratch. Chi's husband giving us a jewlery making demonstration (right), the box in the fore holds the extent of his tools.
View from the Village
These terraces blow my mind!
Our guides and I at the end of a full day on the trail--a perfect cap on two awesome months in Vietnam. Adam and I hopped a bus early the next morning and we were in China by mid-day.
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