Monday, October 6, 2008

Sapa, Vietnam
















Young boy had been playing with his top.



Wearing traditional clothing we were greeted very early, 7:00 a.m. by female members of the Black H'mong ethnic group. Each one show us there goods just a foot away on the other side of the window of the cafe. "The sweet "Buy from me" chant was grating by the end of the day.

To get to Sapa we traveled by train. Almost the only way to get to Sapa, 223 miles northwest of Hanoi is to board a late night 8:30 p.m. train and get a soft sleeper with Air Conditioning. Ariving in La Cai at 5:30 a.m. we found a mini van with a guide and driver. In the dark we thought we were leaving town for Sapa but found ourselves at a very dark and closed gas station. After waking the sleeping guard, who woke the neigboring owner, who was able to turn on the pump, we got our 2 liters of gas to bring us right off of empty and proceed up the mountain to Sapa, which has lied forgotten for over half a century and was re-discoved in the early 1990's.

Originally French Sapa is the home to the tourist trade that travel to see some of the 5 ethnic groups that live close to town: Black H'mong 52%, Rwd Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2% and a small number of Xa Pho. Each of these ethnic groups is distinct in clothing, customs, and dialect. The things that they sell and the general facial features are unique by group. The groups do not mix and generally marry within there group. We found that the men tend the rice patties when needed and drive motorcyles. Some men stayed home with the children the day we visited because the weather had kept them out of the fields. The women take care of the children and they have many starting as young as 13-14, as well as make and sell goods primarily cloth based items. All the people we encountered were women or children. They all could speak English fairly well. Bev and I walked about 2 hours through the Black H'mong's hillside and community, despite the poor weather.

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