Sapa trip

Wed, 11/25, 6 am

Hi all,
Well I just got off the night train and am back in Hanoi after a good trip to Sapa (booked with Hanoi backpackers hostel and done through Sapa Pathfinders), though I have a number of caveats...

I took the night train on Saturday night and slept beautifully. Sunday morning we headed to a town called Bac Ha to go to their local market. The town primarily has 2 types of Hmong: Flower and Red. (In the US, our Hmong refugees are mostly White and Green Hmong, who are mostly from Laos.) The Flower Hmong, in particular, have beautiful clothing and the market was a lot of fun. It kind of reminded me of the Mayan markets in and around Quetzaltenango, Guatemala since we were in the highlands visiting an indigenous group of people who share (on the surface) similar practices, such as carrying their babies on their backs, etc.

It was immediately obvious, however, how many tourists had passed through this market over the last decade or so. No one even blinked at me or the other tourists and there was little hope of having any kind of genuine interaction with the locals. I chose to walk around by myself to try to be a bit more conspicuous and not so invasive. I plopped down in a couple locations to just observe and see if anyone would attempt to talk to me. I did talk with a couple of women and held one's baby though it wasn't for long. Unfortunately, mostly the relationship between tourists and the Hmong is commercial. There was a lot of "pestering" to buy things with the most common question being "Hello, you buy something from me?" Occasionally a woman would even grab you by the arm and basically drag you into her store/stand. I did buy quite a few souvenirs/gifts though because their textiles (wall hangings, scarves, etc) were so beautiful.

Afterwards they took us on the most ridiculous "tour" of a local village. I was absolutely *horrified* at how many tourists were tromping through this local village like it was a f***ing circus. You also have to keep in mind that many of the tourists here are not just backpackers - they're like middle age/retired, pretty nicely dressed French and British couples with ginormous cameras and seemingly no regard for how invasive they're being. There was also this American girl traveling with our group that was having this ridiculous existential crisis b/c it was her first time in a developing country and seeing "poverty" (this village wasn't that poor) and people that live in houses with dirt floors, etc. She kept saying that she was changed forever and how could she ever go back to her life in the U.S. now, etc. Okay, fine, I can understand - and am glad - that visiting a developing country would change one's outlook on life. BUT it was the ridiculousness of the situation that was making her comments annoying as hell. The whole couple hours in the village were contrived and a circus as I said - not a genuine, meaningful situation and every comment she made was very cliche. I felt sick to my stomach and very disgusted that I was supporting this activity. There are ways to learn about people's cultures and traditions that are much more socially and environmentally conscious - and it's my understanding that many such opportunities are in Laos which I'm looking forward to.

The next day was much better, which was mostly about trekking. There were 5 of us in our group - the American girl mentioned above, another cool Indian American guy who's originally from Ohio and now lives in DC (!), and a Swiss couple who were really sweet. I don't remember how to spell our guide's name, but it was said something like "zoom" and he's Hmong. The mountains around Sapa are GORGEOUS. They're hard to describe and it's no wonder the area has become a tour mecca. I got a ton of great photos, but no photo can do the area justice. The area gets pretty cold at night (maybe 40's? I bought a hat, gloves, and scarf) but warms up a lot during the day (probably hit 70 at points?).

We hiked around the area with our packs for the night for our homestay. I left a lot of my stuff in Hanoi in storage, but I don't have a daypack so still had to carry my big backpack, though it wasn't too bad. In the late afternoon we arrived at our "homestay" which was an "empty nester" couple who has a loft which can accommodate 15 tourists. The reason why I put "homestay" in quotes is because it's basically no different than a guest house with an attempt to not make it "too western" so the tourists could at least get a taste of how the locals live. But seriously, do any other homes in the area have indoor plumbing with hot water? Come on. Though it wasn't as weird as the day before because it was one of those situations where it "is what it is." While my group and the other group of 10 that joined us sat around and drank and smoked (Europeans smoke SOOOO much!!!) I decided to help the host cook. I mean I paid $22 in Hoi An for a cooking class and here was an opportunity for a free one. So I helped her peel and chop all the veggies, rolled the spring rolls, and cook everything in the wok. During and after dinner, we also got to drink a lot of rice wine - they're traditional drink - which was fun.

The next morning I wandered around the town alone and again, realized how many ga-gillions of tourists must have tromped through their town since none of the kids even blinked at my presence. On the one hand it's sad of course, but on the other hand it's kind of nice to be able to sit back and observe their daily life without being "attacked" like I always was in Ghana. I mean in Ghana, kids used to literally chase me and this was definitely not the case in the small town we were in. There wasn't anything too exciting going on except for this big debate how to best carry a squealing pig on the back of a motorbike.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the best day because the annoying American girl was hungover and not well enough to trek so she took a motorbike back. The 4 of us and our guide were able to do a bit more difficult hike and he also took us on a route he'd never done before, which included a nice spot in the river where we could wade. It was still a little too cold to fully jump in, but we waded, climbed around on the rocks, and I actually washed my hair (which was beyond dirty!). There were way fewer tourists around overall, a much more pleasant day. During our stop for lunch, I blew some bubbles for the kids and was able to have a few more genuine interactions with the woman. One of them let me hold her baby ("Fa") and then she put him on my back. So I got my now-semi-stereotypical picture of me with a baby on my back...I think I have one from each place I visited now.

So I'm back in Hanoi now, just for the day. I didn't sleep well on the train so I'm pretty tired and not sure what I'm going to do today. I think I'll visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and maybe a museum. Tomorrow morning I fly to Laos which I'm really excited about. Something tells me I'm going to wish that I would've spent most of my time there...it's supposed to be way less touristy and as I said, the cultural experiences one can arrange are supposed to be arranged by companies that are much more socially and environmentally conscious.

That's it for now! Such a long post...