We were suddenly awoken at 5am by a loud banging on our door, we were about to arrive at Lao Cai. As we stepped on the platform we were greeted by steady rain that managed to pretty much wet us through by the time we walked around the end of the train, jumped the tracks and walked into the station to search for our guide who was patiently waiting for us. Now for the hour windy drive up to Sapa, home of the hill tribe people of Vietnam. The sun struggled to permeate the thick fog and it was beginning to look like our day was going to be a bit grim. As the hotel we were booked into is being refurbished we have been upgraded to a four star hotel, perched on the top of a ridge. We were greeted with a refreshing hot fruit cinnamon tea. and after an hour the fog began to thin and gave us a spectacular view down the valley. Breakfast was an interesting meal for Richard as he went for the option of having 'Pho' - Vietnamese beef noodle soup which seems to be able to be eaten at any meal. In fact we had a pork noodle and vegie soup for lunch as well. I of course had trouble not having banana pancakes with chocolate sauce, even though I do love a bit of noodle soup for breaky.
Once we reached the village we then headed down a very long path of steps, and with each step I prayed that we didn't have to climb back up them. My prayers were obviously heard somewhere as we did a circuit and came up the other side of the valley, still steep but at least with no steps. Where ever we walked the paths seem to be lined with little shops selling H'Mong crafts. The advent of tourism has certainly boosted the economy of these communities and so far even though you may find yourself followed a lot, they do not really do the hard sell, and you can walk into shops or stalls without being harassed. We found a waterfall at the end of the path and sat down to enjoy a bamboo stick full of sticky rice that had been grilled on a slow burning fire. Then for the slow walk back up to Sapa, punctuated by stops along the way to catch our breath. We passed several young men with motorbikes who offered to give us a lift to the top, but it seemed a bit woosy to we laboured on. Richard ended the walk very proud of himself (even though our guide called him a whimp!) as we had to cross 3 narrow, high swinging bridges, once upon a time his fear of heights would have prohibited him from doing this and he would have had to turn around and go back.
The curtain of mist eventually parted revealing heavily terraced mountains used mainly for the one crop of rice that is grown yearly in the warmer months, but also for other vegetables and corn. As it has recently been harvested the terraces lay empty except for the water buffalo wallowing in the muddy water, many with young calves in tow. From Lao Chai we followed a gentle path to Ta Van village. Here we found another tribe of people called the Tay People ( the letter D and T are pronounced as a Z ) very much a minority tribe with only between 2000 and 2500 inhabitants who prefer to live in the lower reaches of the mountains, closer to the river. Their language is similar to Thai however they have lost the ability to write in the old style. They have been in this region since before 500BC but have started to adapt to the different cultures that they live in, namely Vietnamese and Western. These are the people who host tourist home stays, and thus are starting to adapt to different western practises. Their clothing is much simpler and has none of the heavy embroidery. They wear simple yet bright silky tops with simple black trousers.
The H'Mong were converted to Catholicism by the French during colonisation. Today they still follow Catholicism, however they continue to retain some earlier practices of worshipping the sun and moon for good agriculture and superstition still seems to be part of their life as many houses in the villages had a red cloth hanging over the door to ward off ghosts. Today the people of Vietnam tend to either be Catholic or Buddhist, however our guide told us that you cannot get high positions of office unless you are Buddhist particularly in government, and it is not good enough to just convert, they look back at 3 generations for links to Buddhism.
We returned to our hotel at around 4pm, rather weary after a long day of walking. All up the street are signs for massage and special herbal foot baths from the Red Dao people. We will have to check this out at sometime.
Once our bodies were revitalised with food, we headed off for what turned out to be a reasonable strenuous 3 hour walk, with breaks for shopping of course. We set off down a road that zig zagged down the valley, emphasis on the word down, remember that whenever you go down, then you pretty much have to come back up. We reached the village of Cat Cat with one H'Mong woman in tow, she accompanied us from Sapa and constantly chatted all the way down, determined to get to know us better so that we would then feel the necessity to purchase something from her. The H'Mong are the dominant tribal group making up 75% of the population of this region. Our guide told us that the H'Mong used to die a lot younger than they do now as they had genetic problems, supposedly caused by in-breeding as it was forbidden to marry into a different tribe such as the Red Dao. However more recently this has changed as the government has made efforts to improve education and such taboos as inter tribal marriage have been lifted.
Once we reached the village we then headed down a very long path of steps, and with each step I prayed that we didn't have to climb back up them. My prayers were obviously heard somewhere as we did a circuit and came up the other side of the valley, still steep but at least with no steps. Where ever we walked the paths seem to be lined with little shops selling H'Mong crafts. The advent of tourism has certainly boosted the economy of these communities and so far even though you may find yourself followed a lot, they do not really do the hard sell, and you can walk into shops or stalls without being harassed. We found a waterfall at the end of the path and sat down to enjoy a bamboo stick full of sticky rice that had been grilled on a slow burning fire. Then for the slow walk back up to Sapa, punctuated by stops along the way to catch our breath. We passed several young men with motorbikes who offered to give us a lift to the top, but it seemed a bit woosy to we laboured on. Richard ended the walk very proud of himself (even though our guide called him a whimp!) as we had to cross 3 narrow, high swinging bridges, once upon a time his fear of heights would have prohibited him from doing this and he would have had to turn around and go back.
In Sapa we met our driver again and headed about 20 minutes out of Sapa to the South through thick pea soup fog. We stopped on the road and again walked down the valley to another village called Loa Chai where we had lunch, this time we were assured that it would be a flat walk through a couple of villages and we would meet our driver at the other end. Once again we were accompanied by about 8 traditionally dressed H'Mong women who chatted all the way about family, ages etc. The crafts that they sell reflect their clothing. They wear heavily embroidered long tunics covering knee length skorts and dark leggings. On their head they often wear a thick black band that looks like a topless hat, or a coloured headscarf, or they put coloured combs in their long black hair which is generally worn curled around their head or sometimes just in a plait. The fabric of their clothing is generally made from hemp found growing everywhere in the region, and died dark blue. On their backs they carry a woven basket where they either place goods for sale; embroidered cushion covers, bags, pencil cases, wallets, belts etc or fill with supplies ranging from food to bags of grain, cement or wood for their fires. Or they carry their babies on their back. It seems that the women do most of the work, and this is not just my bias observation, but that of our male guide who said that unfortunately the men tend to drink too much.
The curtain of mist eventually parted revealing heavily terraced mountains used mainly for the one crop of rice that is grown yearly in the warmer months, but also for other vegetables and corn. As it has recently been harvested the terraces lay empty except for the water buffalo wallowing in the muddy water, many with young calves in tow. From Lao Chai we followed a gentle path to Ta Van village. Here we found another tribe of people called the Tay People ( the letter D and T are pronounced as a Z ) very much a minority tribe with only between 2000 and 2500 inhabitants who prefer to live in the lower reaches of the mountains, closer to the river. Their language is similar to Thai however they have lost the ability to write in the old style. They have been in this region since before 500BC but have started to adapt to the different cultures that they live in, namely Vietnamese and Western. These are the people who host tourist home stays, and thus are starting to adapt to different western practises. Their clothing is much simpler and has none of the heavy embroidery. They wear simple yet bright silky tops with simple black trousers.
The H'Mong were converted to Catholicism by the French during colonisation. Today they still follow Catholicism, however they continue to retain some earlier practices of worshipping the sun and moon for good agriculture and superstition still seems to be part of their life as many houses in the villages had a red cloth hanging over the door to ward off ghosts. Today the people of Vietnam tend to either be Catholic or Buddhist, however our guide told us that you cannot get high positions of office unless you are Buddhist particularly in government, and it is not good enough to just convert, they look back at 3 generations for links to Buddhism.
We returned to our hotel at around 4pm, rather weary after a long day of walking. All up the street are signs for massage and special herbal foot baths from the Red Dao people. We will have to check this out at sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment