Northern Vietnam - Final Chapter (SAPA, 2/9-12)

Journey to Sapa - Hill Tribe Trek
Okay, so we arrived by overnight train (a nice recently wed Vietnamese couple shared our room) to Lao Cai. Pretty comfy actually and they gave us water and a little roll for breakfast. Not bad, Carrie wasn't up for trying it. Next portion was minibus to Sapa at the Mountain View Hotel for a shower and then to meet up with our guide. Hmmm, could this tiny girl dressed in hill tribe gear truly be our guide? Wow, she looks about 12 but turned out Ger is 18 and part of the H'Mong Tribe around Sapa. There are lots of tribes in this area, she told us they came from Mongolia so they do look different then other Vietnamese. Ger turned out to be an incredible girl and guide all wrapped up in one cute and funny hill tribe guide. This area is very close to the Chinese border. We were the only two in our group, but met people in our homestay. Carrie was happy we didn't have to keep up with any other trekkers. Before we really got going we stopped at a woman's home where she fried up some sticky rice slices (with bean and maybe pork inside) - pretty tasty but she kept cooking more and we couldn't eat half of it! This was the Ta Van village and she was from the Zay tribe. Turns out she was 35 and already had 4 children, yikes. She looked so much older but I guess the children and the hard life will do that to you.

The weather in this region is pretty cool and rainy although our first day it never rained. However, the rain from the days before made the walking pretty sketchy - especially when we were walking on muddy rice terrace ledges about as wide as one foot. Two local women ended up helping us up for a good portion of our trek, they wore these rubber boats that we later found out had incredible treads and some tours recommended you buy them. Instead, our lovely hiking shoes became caked in sticky, gooey, and very slippery mud. So much for a good grip! It was like my first backpacking trip in the rain but much more difficult. Later I found out what the huge piles of shit belonged to, water buffalo per our guide. Despite the difficulty it was an incredible day, Ger even negotiated to get us some socks at the Vietnamese rate (they have one for locals and another for foreigners). Turns out the other tour groups also had help from tiny but strong as shit local tribe women. Even some big men! We never actually fell unlike many others we saw later on. Of course we bought something from our helpers, we would have been covered in mud without them. This is where we also had lunch of baguette, tomato, cucumber, hard boiled egg, and cheese. The Red Zao tribe women were here to sell more stuff, a bit crazy with the sales pitch. So many young girls and children as well, we had to stay strong in order not to buy everything! :)

At one point we ended up paying a woman to take some photos of her and her children (4000 dong total which is pretty cheap) and it was fun to show them the photos after on the digital camera! Ger told us that women in these tribes marry around 14 and the parents pick the husband. They have no choice at all and some girls she knew ate poisonous leaves because they didn't like their husbands. Pretty tragic and it sure makes you appreciate the freedom we have! Not many of the girls go to school because they have them selling crafts to tourists. Ger is paying for her youngest sister (10) to go to a type of boarding school but nothing like you might imagine. Not fancy at all, we stopped by to see her on the way.

We stopped at Ban Ho village and stayed with a local family. They do this so they can pay for their children to go to school. The family was very nice but didn't speak any English, Ger made us laugh so much and did all the translating too. What a warm and smart girl for not having gone to school. The house here was pretty nice with a cool water system that the villages use to carry fresh water by bamboo to the village. So simple yet involved process. The lower level is the kitchen, TV lounging area for family and porch area. Up one level is the family sleeping area and the two lofts above that are the tourist homestay beds. They turned out to be really comfy, well the huge blankets were and they had mosquito nets. I slept like a baby. The next morning the ground was really wet because it rained overnight. So, instead of taking a 4-5 hour trek to another village we were lazy and napped (Carrie), wrote (Jenn), and had our meals. After, we took a walk with Ger to the "hot" springs which was really lukewarm but felt great.

Ger told us that since we didn't have bathing suits we could just slip in the springs naked. As soon as we showed up and started taking off our jackets a group of Vietnamese men showed up and jumped in one side in their underwear (pants for the Brits). So, sports bras and undies were now our bathing attire (of course they never did dry out). Our new friend from the homestay showed up, Stephane from France as well as three guys we met earlier at Hanoi Backpackers. Too funny how you meet other travelers in various places. Back to our homestay to change, meet more guests (a Canadian family of 4), and eat a lovely meal all together. Ger and the three other guides (also H'Mong tribeswomen) brought out the homemade rice wine after and kept pushing the shots on us. I don't know how I didn't have a hangover the next day with at least 4 shots and almost three beers. Carrie, however, did not escape a bit of a hangover for our trek uphill the last day. Also, our friends Kiwi Kev, English Steve, and Aussie Brent showed up with some drinks of their own. Luckily, a singing session with the guides distracted us - can you believe we sang John Denver (West Virginia)? Poor Kiwi Kev's buddies walked ahead of him too fast and took all the torches (flashlights) with them. He had to come back and crash at our homestay because it was so dark and across the village, poor Kev!

The next morning we had a joint breakfast of pancakes with chocolate sauce or sugar and lemon. Not so nutricious but yummy. We walked through the village with Ger before taking the steep uphill trek back up to meet our jeep. Along the way a palm reader stopped and read our futures. Pretty interesting as she has bleeding gums and was chewing something like tobacco or seeds. So here is what she told us (thought you might get some laughs out of some of this stuff):
Jenn:

• When I was a baby I cried a lot but then I was very good.
• Something about me falling in the river when I was young.
• My first husband is with another but when he gets older he'll realize he misses me.
• My second husband (wow) will fall in love with me but I won't return the feelings at first
• I will have 4 kids and they will be very clever (guess they will all be adopted at my current rate of reproduction! :)
• I will have a good life (THE BEST ONE!)

Carrie:

• When young everyone liked her
• 1st husband was bad for her
• Will meet someone before year is out
• Will have 5 kids (WOW! watch out)
• Around 50 she will be sick but get over it and be good after & live til 85 or 90 (yikes!)

After a brief visit to the school we headed back up the mountain, funny to hear them singing their multiplication tables! It was a pretty steep and tough climb but not too long and the weather was nice. Then we sat at a hut for lunch of Pho soup (vegetable with an egg). A bit of a heartbreaking experience as a little boy had a hurt bottom (the little ones don't wear pants or diapers) and fell which got it bleeding again. They don't really have any medical care at all so Ger told us when something happens like getting burned nothing is done. We did scroung up some water and tissues to clean him up (the Canadian father did the work) and put a bandaid on him as well as give the mother some more to keep it covered. This all happened while we were once again SWARMED with girls and women trying to sell bracelets, pillowcases, etc. It does wear on your nerves.

We also found out during lunch that our jeep driver was now drunk so we had to hitch a ride with another tour group. Back to Mountain View for showers, lamentably Carrie ended up with a cold one which didn't do much to put her in a good mood. Understandably, as we hadn't showered since we left and were so looking forward to the HOT shower. We did find a cute restaurant called Baguette & Chocolat and met up with our friend STephane for a tart and tea/coffee by a lovely fire. We ended up going to an Italian restaurant for our final meal in Vietnam - pasta and pizza. I know it's terrible but it tasted really good so...Then back to meet up with the Dynamic Trio (Kev, Brent, and Steve) who were now playing cards (Shithead) with our guide Ger. Too funny, she was kicking their asses!

The minibus ride to catch the night train was horrible - one of my worse headaches from motion sickness but we crashed out on the train and arrived around 5:30 a.m. to the backpackers to get our big bags together and Carrie to take a hot shower. Then to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. Of course we made it more difficult because we didn't get our bags check all the way through to India so we had a bit of hassle getting everything straight there before catching the Indian airlines flight (about 7 hours I think). Carrie had the window and I was in between her and an INdian man (not so tiny) who proceeded to get drunk and then confess to Carrie (she told him she was a counselor) that he was a drunk. Then he passed out and pushed a bit more into my space. Plus, it was so darn hot on this flight - I knew it gets hot in the actual country but figured the plane would at least be cool!

More on arriving in India soon!