SAPA Trekking

Just back from Northwestern Vietnam where I headed for some light trekking in the hills surrounding the town of Sapa. I ended up extending my stay by a day so I could spend the night in a Black Hmong village. The photo above is of some Black Hmong girls. Other than the one with the baseball cap and jeans, they tend to still dress traditionally. At first we figured it was just for the tourist, but during the trek we tended to see a lot of people working (mining, farming, etc.) in traditional dress, so figure it wasn't just for our benefit.

The Black Hmong women and girls are intensive merchants -- they love to sell and are very difficult to ignore especially when they follow you for several kilometers on your trek. They speak very good English and some can be decent conversationalists, but I guess that's because they spend all their time following western tourists around instead of going to school.

The other prevalent minority group in the region is the Red Zao. Thankfully the Red Zao aren't as persistent. The Red Zao women shave the fronts of their heads and eyebrows when they are at the marrying age and wear brilliant red (obviously) headresses with decorative tassles. They don't like to be photographed (believe the camera captures their spirit) so I have no photos of them here. However, here's a link to an existing photo out on the internet. Obviously this guy was a little more instrusive than I wanted to be :) red zao women

Our trek lasted 2 days and ran through various hilltribe villages. At the end of our first day, we had a homestay in a Hmong village where we had a fantastic "Thanksgiving" Vietnamese meal cooked over an open fire in an iron wok (see photo 2, cooking spring rolls), accompanied by some very strong rice wine. The sales girls (Black Hmong) didn't quit either, but continued to drop by the house we were staying at. By the end of the 2 day trek, I had enough handicrafts to start my own store (yes, I'm a sucker). So I did..... as the girls asked me to buy something from them, I reciprocated with my mobile shop "I sell you, I sell you" "You buy from me, you buy from me" Both parties got a good laugh from it and I didn't find myself pressured to by anymore, thank god! The pressure was now on my fellow trekking companions :)

After another sleepless night train, I'm back in Hanoi for 2 more days before heading to Siem Reap, Cambodia and Angkor Wat.

Hope you all had a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving weekend. More later....