Sapa, Vietnam

We took the train on Wednesday night to go to Sapa, a mountainous region of northern Vietnam. The picture of the train cabin on my ticket looked nice--dark wooden walls, clean blankets and a granite countertop bathroom sink. Of course our room wasn't that nice. My sheets had hair and stains on it, the blankets looked like they haven't been washed, and there was no bathroom in our cabin.

We shared the cabin with two other Vietnamese men. One guy was a chatty tour guide who questioned our loyalty to Vietnam and our identity (are we Vietnamese or are we American?) and pretty much criticized us for not being able to speak Vietnamese well. The other guy kept to himself and went out often for smoke breaks. I put on my ear plugs and pretended to sleep and left my cousin to talk to the tour guide.

It took nine bumpy hours in a jail cell cabin to get to Lao Cai and another hour in a van packed with 20 other people up the foggy, windy, narrow roads to reach Sapa. The temperature dropped down to the mid 50's and it was so foggy that I could barely see anything.

When we arrived at our hotel, a group of 15 or so Hmong girls were crowding around the entrance waiting for tourists to come out so they can sell things to them. They wear colorful headdresses and embroidered black tunics and some have circular baskets on their backs that hold their umbrellas and other items. They scream out, "What your name? Where you from?" Later I learn that they learn English entirely from tourists. Impressive. Vietnam has many different ethnic groups with their own culture and language.

Our room was interesting--above the bed was a picture of a woman from the 80's on a motorcycle with her cleavage hanging out. The bathroom was the shower stall as well. The showerhead hung in between the toilet and the sink without any walls or door, so when I showered, the water got the entire bathroom wet.

We walked through town and made our way to a Hmong village. They make their houses out of bamboo, wood, and metal. Chickens, boars, ox and dogs freely roam around. Kids freely roam around too. Kids ran up to me and asked me to buy wallets and bracelets from them but I didn't like anything they had so I gave a girl 5000 dong (around 30 cents) and she left me alone. But the little boy who was with her started following me and saying something over and over again, making me think that he was putting a curse on me. He had tears flowing down his dirty face (all the kids have dirty faces, bodies and clothes). A guy from my group gave him some small bills and he took it without even saying thank you or smiling. Ungrateful child! I quickly learned to not give in to the tears-on-demand because once you give a kid money, their whole village comes crowding around you.

We crossed a bridge to get to Cat Cat waterfall. The river gently flowed down, tall bamboo trees colored the the mountains green, the waterfalls rushed down the rocks, and the light fog nestled along the hillside. I fell in love with Sapa.

On Friday we hiked three hours to get to another Hmong village in the Muong Hoa Valley. The roads were muddy and there was ox crap everywhere. Ox crap is huge. Sapa has staircased rice paddies all over its hills. Because rice paddies require standing water and the hills are sloped, people flattened the hills into multiple levels, similar to a staircase.

This time a group of Hmong girls and women followed us from the hotel to the village. I befriended a 15 year old girl named Dau and she spoke Vietnamese (Hmong have their own language). This is what I learned from Dau: she has four siblings; she walks three hours into town to sell things two to three times a week; men stay at home to cut wood and tend to the ox while women sell things because they can speak English; females typically get married at 18 and have 2 to 3 children (back then they had 4 to 5); there are 5 Hmong villages with around 800 people in each village; people don't leave their village to live in the city; the kids learn Vietnamese in school; they grow their own rice and vegetables; and some families have chickens, pigs, and ox (and dog) that they eat.

I ended up buying a Hmong belt from Dau for $6 (that could feed her family for many days). (I couldn't get her to lower the price. My bargaining skills suck. I'm not a true Vietnamese.) Later a Dao lady (another tribe) walked with me from the Hmong village to the road and showed interest in my life. She suckered me into buying a cheesy bracelet from her because she said that no one goes to her village since it's too far. Once I bought it, she left me. I felt kinda used...she didn't want to be my friend!