We took a once in a lifetime trip over the long holiday weekend: it started with an 8 hour overnight train ride due north in a sleeper car. I (Bill) think our train had square wheels. We are now like James Bond’s martinis: shaken-not stirred. My (Linda) teeth are still chattering. We arrived in Lao Cai, just across the border from China. One of our guides said that the Vietnamese cross over to buy stuff – it’s less expensive.
Our guide/interpreter was an 18 year old Hmong woman, Chee, who stands about 4 feet 4 inches tall. She held Linda’s arm during much of the 2 days. She is a huge fan of the Backstreet Boys, so she serenaded us through the 2 CDs she has access to, when she wasn’t singing a little Bob Marley. It was the only downside to whole trip.
And this is Yolanda and Begonia, two women from Spain we spent three days with. They were great companions.
We then took a van to Sa Pa, a mountain town, from which we took a trekking tour. It was described to us by the tour office manager: Day one – walk in, sleep. Day two – walk out. It was beautiful as we walked through a number of ethnic minority tribe villages (Black Hmong, Flower Hmong, Doa, and Tay), around many rice paddies, up and down mountains in a VERY rural area (very limited to no electricity). We saw no 4 wheel vehicles for ~36 hours.
A group of Black Hmong girls and women followed us for much of the time, hoping to sell us their needlework and jewelry. It is amazing to watch them scramble up and down the mountains.
After about five hours of climbing, I (Linda) had enough so I hired a young guy on a motorbike to take me to our next stop. He was thrilled. Motorbike taxis (xe om) are big in Vietnam; they are on every corner. I think I was his first customer. He wanted to engage me in a conversation the entire way down as I was reminding him to slow down and watch the road. The government is building roads in the area, but they are one lane and, like my driver said “road broken” way too often. I was so thrilled to get to the bottom of that hill. Bill and the two young Spanish women we were traveling with took the hard way and climbed down.
I waited at the house of this mom. Her little girl cried every time she looked at me for the first 20 minutes or so. The mom tried on my glasses and was so excited about being able to see. I wish I had an extra pair.
We stayed with a Tay family in their stilt house in Ban Ho. The mother of the family is the same age as me (Bill), so there were many toasts with homemade rice wine. When I asked the mother (through an interpreter) why she looked so much better than me at 52 years old, there were additional rounds of toasts. Then we had to climb 2 hand made wooden ladders to get to bed (on the wood plank floor, under mosquito netting).
This is the view of the village from the house.
This is the mom and daughter cooking our breakfast. Afterwards, the mom was slicing pieces off of a banana tree trunk which she would cook up and give to the pigs. Every so often, a group of ducks would walk into the courtyard, mom would feed them, and then gently shoo them out, when they would wander up to the next house.
Grandpa was enjoying his pipe.
The dad is a school teacher is very respected in Vietnam.
Day 2 we climbed to the top of a hill, back down for lunch, and then back to Sa Pa to check into a hotel. I (Linda) was really grateful. We enjoyed the homestay in Ban Ho, but the facilities were pretty rustic and we had been run pretty hard for two days. Not a good combination.
We saw water buffalo everwhere – in town, on the tops of mountains, on roads, on paths, at work.
This little boy was in charge of this water buffalo.
This work looked backbreaking.
Day 3 we took another trekking trip (14 km, most of it going up or down some hill) in another region. Incredible scenery. It rained like crazy the previous 8 hours so we had to take off our shoes and roll up our pants (which got wet anyways) to cross through a bunch of swollen creeks. A young (~8 years old) Flower Hmong girl followed us for about ½ the trip and really enjoyed watching us cross the creeks and slip/slide down some of the hills. She never said a word, but she had a wonderful smile and laugh. We were her TV for the week.
We passed rice, corn, and tea fields, saffron, cardamon, banana and coconut trees and houses that could only be reached by walking. It was beautiful.
The traditional clothes of the tribes are beautiful. These are from the Flower Hmong. The peddlers weren’t too bad.
This old woman did try to pull a silver bracelet off my (Linda's) arm. It was amusing to see an 80 year old, 80 pound women working to pull the bracelet off.
On the way back to the train home, our van got stuck in this village where the road had washed out. The villagers refused to help; I think we were just too entertaining. Especially watching our two Spanish friends, Yolanda and Begonia, give the driver instructions for getting out of the mud – from Spanish to English to Vietnamese. He finally had enough, managed to back out somehow, and raced through, throwing mud everywhere.
The poverty is difficult to see. We were reminded by the guide to not give money as they are trying to ensure the minority tribes do not become dependent on gifts from tourists.
We concluded our trip with another 8 hour overnight train home and now I (Bill) sit at my desk in bit of a fog after getting off the train with wonderful memories.
