Sapa and Trek Back to Hanoi (March)

Sapa is a hill town located in northwestern Vietnam, and it is all about the amazing hill tribes, their villages, and terraced rice paddy landscape. To visit the tribal villages, you must have a licensed tour guide with you. We hiked through the hill towns and then left on a five-day, 4WD trek, through more hills and villages, with one home stay, back to Hanoi.

The women below are from the Black Zhao hill tribe, where blackened teeth are considered beautiful.




One of our hiking guides, April (not her real name), age 19, is from one of the hill tribes. She told us a bit about her family and arranged marriages in Vietnam. Her sister, at age 14, was betrothed by her parents to a man she didn't know. She committed suicide "by eating poison leaf." When April turned 14, her parents yet again arranged a marriage for her with a man she didn't know. She told her parents she was too young to marry, she didn't know the man, and she wanted to go to university to study music. Her parents declared that if she didn't go through with the marriage, she would no longer be their daughter. So she passed on the marriage, finished school, studied music, and now works as a tour guide. While she gets settled, she is living with her other married sister's family. Her parents passed away while April was in school. I told April that I thought she was very smart and courageous, and that it takes women standing up and saying no for sexist practices to change and women to control their own lives. When I told her about bride burnings in India, where brides are not only often betrothed, but must provide an ample dowry or the groom's family might douse her in gasoline and light her on fire, April was surprised to find that arranged marriage and other such practices occur in other countries as well. (Bride burnings are currently illegal in India but they still happen. One such incidence was reported in the newspaper while we were there.)

Women have come a long way in Vietnam (and most of Asia), but sexism and misogyny are still alive. When I mentioned to one 20-something man that women own most businesses in Vietnam, he agreed, but said that was because shop-owning is often considered too "simple" a vocation for men. When we arranged our 5-day trek with the tour agency owner, who had assigned April to us earlier in the week, he assured us that our new guide was "very good-- a man--not just a girl." Gar. We assured him that April had done a fabulous, knowledgeable job, and we would ask for her again.

So we had one paid tour date with April. Then she invited us for a hike the next day, her day off, "just for fun"! We hiked on and off trail, up and down rice paddies and through villages. At some more vertical points I felt like handicapped Clara trying to keep up with mountain goat Heidi on Grandfather's mountain. (But I was vindicated during my visit home, when I hiked sweat- and huffing/puffing-free through previously challenging trails.)

Here's a picture of the kitchen area in one of the village homes.

On our trek back to Hanoi, we visited villages Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Son La, and Dien Bien Phu, site of the 1954 57-day siege between the French and Vietnamese that ended French occupation in Vietnam and paved the way for Vietnam's division into North and South. The Vietnamese, with paltry arms compared to the French, won Dien Bien Phu, with the French general committing suicide. Subsequently, before the American/Vietnamese war, the French warned the Americans that interfering in Vietnam would be ill advised. [cough]

French Bunker and Trenches in Dien Bien Phu

French Prison Hoa La

La Toilette: Where Prisoners Wrote Their Manifestos and Escape Plans

Eric and Our Guide Manh on French Tank



Vietnamese Artillery ~ They had no tanks

Vietnamese Hero Who Through Himself In Front of a Cannon Blast
to Save the Rest of His Company

Execution Wall

Vietnamese Hero's Grave ~ or, War, What is It Good For

Traditional Vietnamese Thai Village Family House

Duong (left of me) started talking to us as we walked through one of the villages.

We Are Family

Duong invited us into her home for tea, where we met the rest of her family. Duong has had a couple years of English and showed us her textbooks. As we have found for ourselves with foreign languages, Duong could understand some of what we said but hesitated in speaking herself. Manh, our guide, was our interpreter. As we were leaving, Duong's mother invited us for lunch too.

Inside Duong's Home

Duong's home was much like the home where we spent the night on our homestay. The family lives on the second floor, with rooms divided by sheets strung between the walls and support columns. Often, livestock live on the ground floor.

More pics from Sapa hikes ~



Scorpions and snakes in liquor are popular drinks, especially to sell to tourists. When Eric had a glass of wine that had been stewing in goat testicles, I made him brush his teeth before coming near me.

Mah-jong, anyone?

Sapa, Vietnam (Early to mid March)

Sapa is a hill town located in northwestern Vietnam, and it is all about the amazing hill tribes, their villages, and terraced landscape. To visit the tribal villages, you must have a licensed tour guide with you. We've gone on two day tours and tomorrow we leave for a five-day, 4WD trek, through more hills and villages, with two home stays, back to Hanoi.

I'm getting a bit journaled out--will continue sometime soon.

I have some pics in a disposable camera, destined for CD then uploading later if they turn out. Meanwhile, here's Sapa:
http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/vietnam.sapa.all.html

Sad, Sad Camera Karma (Early March, 2007)

Well, I left our little HP PhotoSmart camera in my purse at a restaurant (I use the term loosely) near the Cao Lai bus terminal. So I'm back to a disposable film camera until I reach Hanoi or Singapore. Also in said purse was my USB hub (my Valentine's prizie from Eric), so I have to postpone posting pics I do have left on the one SDRAM I still have. Gar.

Hue and the Demilitarized Zone, Vietnam (February)

Up the coast we went by bus, from Hoi An to Hue. Hue was once the imperial capital of Vietnam and suffered huge losses in the form of mass executions and property damage during the Tet Offensive, the Massacre at Hue, and other Vietnam/American war events. Like the Killing Fields in Cambodia, mass graves were evidence of genocidal atrocities that brought the realities of the war into closer focus worldwide. Today Hue is a pretty town with lots of shade and the remaining citadel (ancient city). We also visited the Ho Chi Minh museum and took a day trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

The Citadel

The intersection below is typical of Vietnam traffic. Once in a while there is a traffic light, but not so often, and you can't count on vehicles stopping, traffic light or not. The strategy for crossing the street is to walk slowly across until you get to the other side. If traffic is lighter or going in pulses, you can try to move across without being mere feet away from looming large metal objects. In general, though, you just walk. Speeding up or stopping because something is coming right at you is often ill advised. Instead, it's kind of a zen thing. You just step off the curb and walk, and the traffic parts around you. It's actually not quite as scary as I had thought; kinda like getting on a plane and knowing your fate is out of your hands. You can sweat it or just go with it. After crossing, you step up on the curb and there's this feeling of accomplishment derived from making it through once again, with your whole life ahead of you!

Billboards

Auspicious Little Piggies (during the Year of the Golden Pig)

Saint Frances Xavier Church

Something for Kids of All Sizes, or, Guess Who Took This Picture

The Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hue

Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the communist revolution in Vietnam, and became Vietnam's Prime Minister and then President. Especially in the north, "Uncle Ho" is revered as the People's revolutionary. Southern Vietnamese still refer to Ho Chi Minh City (as it was named after Saigon fell) as Saigon and say it is only Ho Chi Minh City to the government, the north, and on maps. Many towns in Vietnam have Ho Chi Minh museums. Like southern Vietnamese and other Asian Buddhist businesses with their altars to Buddha, many businesses in northern Vietnam display portraits of Uncle Ho along with their ancestors. Like Abe Lincoln in the USA, stories abound about the integrity of Ho Chi Minh, who spoke much about the morality of the revolutionary and being a good example. Uncle Ho refused to live in the palace in Hanoi, preferring a simple wooden house on stilts on the same property as the palace. He saved the palace for entertaining dignitaries from other countries. When his followers surprised him with air conditioning in his modest home, he said that it would be wrong for him to live above the common man and had it removed. (We visited that home in Hanoi.)

It's interesting to hear history from the point of the "other side's" view. In northern Vietnam, the war museums refer to the US as "American imperialists" or "American dictatorship"; pictures of US soldiers are often those of the Americans "panicking" on the battlefield, surrendering, or being taken prisoners of war.

Uncle Ho Chi Minh

Leaders of the World Proletarian Class

Unifying Congress to Establish the Communist Party, 1930

Uncle Ho's Clothing

Hue Buddhist Monks and Students on Hunger Strike "Against America and Diem (the leader in the south)"

We took a day trip out to the demilitarized zone, which didn't stay demilitarized for long. We went to the Ben Hai River, which was the physical boundary between the communist north and pro-western south, and part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We also went to a war museum at former US base camp and battleground Khe Sanh, as well as walking through one set of the tunnels and trenches where North Vietnamese civilians hid for years. I lost my camera containing pics of this. This site has a lot of the pics I took and more: http://www.globalgayz.com/VietNamDMZincludingKheSanh/

Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island, Vietnam (Late February to early March 2007)

My dad often comments how, for Eric and me on this trip, every day is unique; we are always doing something new. This is true. One morning you can be finessing the fine art of the squat toilet on a grimy, jolting, clanky train; that afternoon in your favorite Bangkok salon, three angelic Thai aunties literally wait on you hand and foot (and hair), massaging your shoulders to boot. One day you are exploring ancient ruins; another your partner is digging a tick out of your side. One morning you awaken on ship, amidst the mist and islands of an amazing bay; that afternoon you wonder if the gent hosting tea is former Viet Cong. . . .

[Queue Gilligan's Island theme]

Along with nine other intrepid adventurers, we set sail aboard the junk Santa Maria for a three-day tour (a three-day-ay tour...). Along the way, on foot and in kayaks, we explored some amazing caves and a village complete with school floating in the bay beneath monolithic karsts. On the second day, as we were on a longer tour than others, Eric and I transferred boats and were taken to a small, empty cove, where, just for us, the crew set up a beautiful wooden table and chairs, linens, lovely crockery, and a delicious multi-course Vietnamese meal. That afternoon, we pulled up close and waded ashore to the northwestern side of Cat Ba Island. This part of the island is shaped like a crown, with high walls all around a central valley, all of it dense forest. So from the water, the guide, Eric, and I stepped up to a vertical trail of wet rocks and mud, held on where we could to vines, trees, and boulders, climbed, and climbed, and climbed, then descended into the valley. Along the valley path, dogs barked as we approached a small farm. The farm wife ran out to greet us, mostly in enthusiastic Vietnamese, and we were led to a small open shack containing a long table and chairs, and a platform containing a bed mattress. Across the path sat the other building of the home: a small shack containing pots, pans, a counter, food, and a washbasin. Between the shacks was a fire pit. The farm wife spread grains of corn and chickens and chicks came running. We sat at the table, across from the wife and her husband, who served us green tea from a large, ancient thermos. As we chatted he graciously kept refilling our cups. The couple was in their seventies (he told us he was 73). His right eye was permanently closed shut, and he wore an old, green, hand-sewn Army-type shirt that said "Viet (Thung? Hung? I can't remember now. Might have been his name, actually...)" The couple has lived on this farm for thirty years. While we were there, they had a visitor, who had walked through the jungle the eight kilometers from the nearest village. Walking to that village is also how the couple shops for what they need and visits others on the island.

After our tour, we had the boat let us off on the other side of Cat Ba Island, where there is a small town and a few hotels and beaches. We had one morning on the beach and then the weather got cold, so we had some time for walks, reading, and recuperating from our earlier jungle trek.

(Note: My pictures have taken a detour; see this site for pics of Ha Long Bay, junks, caves, and the floating village)

http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/vietnam.halong.html