Sapa
Off to Northern Vietnam, near the China border, to trek through the mountains and valleys to visit and stay in local ethnic villages of the Hmong, Dao, Giay, and Tay. Also where Vietnam's highest peak, Mt Fansipan, is located at about 3200 meters.
Simplest way to reach Sapa is by overnight train which was an adventure of its own!
Looking for my car ... There are a number of privately owned cars that are all pulled together by a couple of engines. The process of getting to the train included hundreds of passengers stepping over a number of tracks in the railyard - while the engine was backing up to hook onto the cars - people carting luggage darting between and after the engine while it was in motion.
The train ride to Lao Cai was about 8.5 hours and overnight. The different companies offered sleeper cars of varying quality. I chose the Fansipan line and was pleasantly surprised when I stepped into a 4 bert car. Clean sheets, pillows, blankets, snacks and water and flip flops. As I sat there I was hoping my car would stay empty except for myself ... the prospect of three bunk mates possibly being male made me a bit nervous.
You can purchase all the bunks in your car to avoid sharing the car but if the train is full, the companies will override your purchase and sell the bunks to other travelers anyway.
In time a honeymooning Belgian couple and Vietnamese man joined the car - he on the bunk over me which wasn't so great as he seemed to have a particularly active bladder, or something, all night long and frequently stepped on me while getting in/out of his bunk.
Forget the notion of being lulled to sleep by the rhythmic clacking of the wheels on the tracks - the train groaned and jerked to a fitful start then would unexpectedly lurch violently or bounce me up from the bunk such that I braced myself so as not to get pitched onto the floor. Heaven forbid you should need to use the washroom -- the lurching and bouncing had a definite effect on the 'aim' of fellow passengers.
Arrived bleary-eyed in Lai Cai about 5:30 a.m. and then a half hour bus ride through the mountains to Sapa, my trekking starting point where I met Gom, my guide. Gom was from a local ethnic minority called 'Hmong', looked like she was 14 but was a 23 year old mother of one. Breakfast and then we headed out to trek "off the main paths" to visit a number of villages in the surrounding mountains and valleys - me in hiking boots and Gom in flip flops.
House construction on the way out of Sapa - workers were barefoot!
Hmong woman with handmade basket for carrying food/firewood/goods.
Pig-on-a-stick -- still not convinced to change my vegetarian ways.
Of course -- Vietnamese pot belly pigs!
Water buffalo grazing along the rice paddy terraces -- can be unpredictably cranky.
Momma water buffalo and baby.
Hmong woman who had followed us for 2 hours with the hope that she might sell some of her handcrafts. Same age as myself and she was helping me down some more difficult paths!
We stopped for lunch at Gom's brother's home where her daughter was staying.
Gom's sister-in-law preparing our lunch.
Boys playing in the rice paddies -- planting time in the mountains, where they get one crop a year (central Vietnam has 2 crops and southern Vietnam has 3), was still a couple of weeks away.
Well deserved beer at the end of the day.
Home stay at Ta Van village -- making spring rolls (the odd shaped ones are the results of my efforts).
Feast! Later, the widow that owned the home I was staying at, brought out a small bottle with "happy water" (a kind of rice wine), and we tossed back shots to 'Mot, Hai, Bo, Yo!" (Cheers!)
Mr Meo warming his 14 year old bones.
My cozy bed for the night.
Walked into the village before breakfast -- kids at the kindergarten. In this area, education was free until high school which the cost of attending exceeded the abilities of almost all of the ethnic peoples to pay.
Selection of meats in a roadside stall.
Preparing breakfast with meat purchased at the morning's market - Mr Meo enjoying the trimmings.
The women are the hardest working I have seen - their days start at 5 a.m. and go to 10 p.m. - household chores and hard physical work outside.
Young boy not at school, babysitting his siblings while his mother went to the bamboo forest to get firewood.
Indigo plants -- important for the Hmong. Leaves are collected, allowed to ferment then oxidize into a paste or powder that can be stored but is not water soluble. Later mixed with rice wine or other liquids then boiled in a vat into which cloth is immersed the hung to dry. The cloth will be immersed and dried a number of times to deepen the color until it can even look black.
The cloth is made from hemp, grown and harvested. The women then strip off 'threads' from the stalks that are later woven into cloth.
Dyed cloth drying.
Rest stop at a waterfall.
Rice mill ... the 'ladle' would fill and tip, on the other end, it would pound into a large wooden bowl of rice.
Rice terraces ... a couple of weeks from planting time.
Heading off to hoe fields to plant corn.
Irrigation through channels of halved bamboo stalks.
while walking between the rice terraces, Gom matter-of-factor said "Oh, a snake."
I gave a little shriek (maybe not so little) -- black, a couple of inches thick, head going into a rice paddy on one side, tail still on the other side of the path. Gom told me not to worry, it was a good snake, only would bite and not kill you. Hmmm.
Ker, another guide, later told me of when her husband had been bitten by a green snake and his foot immediately ballooned and he could not walk. He was carried to a village with a traditional Doctor (hospitals would not know what anti-venom to use). The traditional Doctor would perform rituals and provide homeopathic medicines -- for a fee -- and sent her husband home. The family worked in round-the-clock shifts elevating and moving the swollen leg and one month later her husband was able to walk again.
Water buffalo in the right side of a fence ... they can be unpredictable and charge.
Ker, doing traditional Hmong embroidery for a belt, would take about 1.5 years to complete.
Gom's cousin preparing dinner.
My lodging for the night.
Beehive
Preparing her fields to plant corn.
Rush hour.
Trekking done ... scooter ride back to Sapa.