MOUNTAIN VILLAGE OF SAPA

Saturday, August 10, 2013
Sapa, Vietnam


August 10

When we arrived in Sapa, we were greeted by the early morning mist which is
typical in this incredibly picturesque town that sits almost 5000 feet above
sea level and is located near the Chinese border in the Hoang Lien Son mountain
range known as “the Tonkinese Alps .” Sapa is famous for both its spectacular
rugged scenery as well as its rich cultural diversity with many ethnic
minorities living in and around Sapa. Of the approximate 36,000 population,
only about 3,500 live in Sapa town and the remainder are peasant farmers who are
distributed unevenly throughout the district. 
Of the eight different minority groups found here, 52% come from the
H’mong mountain tribe. Tiger would be taking us trekking through the mountains to visit
some of their villages and observe, first hand, how these simple people lived. 

After taking us to breakfast near the hotel, Tiger left us to wander around
the neighborhood and the local marketplace and would be returning in a few
hours to lead us on our mountain trek. 
As we started to explore the area, we were immediately struck by the
very young girls as well as older women, all dressed in their traditional garb,
who approached us, asking that we buy their wares. Many of the older women made
beautiful items such as ethnic-style clothes and blankets, and bags, all hand
embroidered, to sell to tourists . The young girls, some mere babies, who often
began to support their families financially at a very young age, were selling
trinkets to the tourists. According to Tiger, these women and young girls would
walk for several hours from their surrounding villages to reach the town and,
at the end of the day, some would catch a ride on a motorbike back to their
village, some would walk home and some would sleep in the market. He told us
that, in the villages, girls and boys get married around 15 to 16 years of age
and often have two children by the time they are 20 years old. Poverty has led to a great number of girls
leaving their villages each day to sell their wares in Sapa town and, depending
on their luck, may only have one meal per day.  

I was amazed at their command of the English language and was convinced that
they all most go to a “sell to the tourist” school as they all had the same
dialogue   Where you from? What your name? How old you are…to which I responded…”that is
a rude question….and the ultimate…. You
buy something from me please. All of
this evoked a mixed reaction in me as the young girls, in particular, were so
adorable and charming. However, once you showed any interest in one of them,
you were, invariably, swarmed by a dozen more and, they were so good at their
jobs that you felt guilty not buying something from each of them which would
have left us bankrupt.

We had a little time before our trek to explore the market place but would get to spend more time there later that day once we returned from visiting the villages .
It was, by far, the best one we’d been to and was filled with exotic
foods and booth after booth of colorful
and beautiful fabrics and clothing, bags, cloth toys, placemats and endless other
incredible handicrafts, all made by the mountain tribe people of Sapa. Even
though Bill kept telling me that I should wait until we got to Bali to buy
things, all of this was just too irresistible and when we returned that afternoon we ended up buying several treasures and would buy quite a bit more at the famous Sunday
Market in Bac Ha where we would be going the next day.

After a few hours of wandering, we returned to the hotel to meet up with
Tiger and begin our trek. We drove to
the starting point and then started walking through the narrow, meandering
paths, up and down hills, through rice paddies and streams for about three or
four miles. Very early on, we were joined
by two women from the Red H’mong tribe, one older, with three children in their
teens who spoke English quite well, and one younger .   I thought they were merely accompanying us
to their village where they would show us some handiwork to buy but, after a
few miles, Tiger informed us that their village was in a different direction
and they had things with them to show us. 
It became quite awkward as nothing they had appealed to me but we felt
guilty as they had spent so much time with us, giving us information about
their people, and, when it started raining, making sure we didn’t get wet and
that we didn’t step in any mud puddles. 
It was hard to know what to do so,we ended up just giving them some
money and just hoped it was enough.

The walk was magnificent as we encountered water buffalo, ducks, roosters,
bubbling streams, thick stands of bamboo, pigs, motorbikes, satellite dishes,
countless children who all seemed very happy, villagers strolling by,
scarecrows protecting the rice paddies, all while the mist rolled in over the
surrounding hills and the rain came down intermittently. It was amazing to see how these hill tribes,
who had been in this region for some 300 years, lived and, although the little
shacks they called home and their existence seemed very harsh, the spectacular
surroundings and peaceful environment seemed to make it all bearable and these
simple people seemed to be very content. I loved seeing the many children who were playing in the fields and pathways, seemingly far from their homes, laughing and carefree without any concerns of violence or gangs .

We passed through several villages, mainly of the Black and Red H’mong
tribes and stopped at one of the larger ones for lunch. We ate upstairs at what appeared to be a
youth hostel for young men and women who flock to this area for the fabulous
trekking. The meal was abundant and
fabulous and was included in our tour, all but the beer. Soon after lunch, we
met up with our driver in another village a little further up the road. This was a Red H’mong village that was filled
with women embroidering many different items that they would be selling. While we were watching them work, a bus
filled with tourists drove up and it was amazing to watch how quickly and en mass
they accosted these tourists with their sing song….Please buy from me!

We, then, headed back to the hotel for a little rest before Tiger returned
to take us back into the market and, afterwards, to take a walk around a lovely
lake in another part of Sapa town before we ate dinner in a little restaurant
close to the hotel .  

 

 

 

 

Other Entries

Comments

tina
2013-09-09

my gosh leaves, the photos are absolutely fabulous, and I must say thank you for sharing this with us. Besitos

Tara
2013-09-09

WOW!

Vidabeth
2013-09-09

Thank you so much, Susie, for sharing your incredible journey. The pictures are beautiful and your writing is excellent. The colors are amazing.

2025-02-16

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank