A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
In a fit of efficiency (and/or idiocy), Heike and I decided in planning our week to do the Halong Bay and Sapa Mountain Trek trips back to back. In theory this meant we didn't have to hassle with finding ahotel for one night in Hanoi. In practice this meant we had a three hour layover after leaving the bus from Halong Bay in which to repack, have dinner, do email and accomplish any other necessary errands before boarding the night train to Sapa. The whole process was a bit tiring, but that's what happens when you're trying to fit lots of activity into two and a half weeks!

Sapa is a small town way up in the mountains of northwestern Vietnam, not too far from the Chinese border. During the early decades of the 20th century the French started building hotels, using Sapa as a mountain retreat from the stress of colonial rule in Hanoi. For centuries the residents of the region have been members of minority hill tribes -- not ethnic Chinese or Vietnamese -- who migrated to its fertile mountains and valleys from most of the countries of southeast Asia. The advent of French tourism and plantations substantially altered the lives of these "Montagnards", a collective term used for many different mountain tribe members. Many families and tribes were displaced from their traditional hunting and agricultural areas and transformed into plantation labor rather than collective farmers, and thousands of ethnic Vietnamese laborers were brought into the region as well, ultimately competing for scarce resources and land. During the Vietnam War the Montagnards occupied key positions along the Ho Chi Minh trail (used to supply and move troops from North to South Vietnam) and were recruited by both sides for their expertise in guerilla warfare and knowledge of the territory.

Although the French are gone and the war is over, the culture of these tribes is now under siege by tourism as thousands visit Sapa each year, trekking through tribal villages and taking innumerable photographs. As a result, the local economy has expanded as the individual tribal cultures have deteriorated. Literally hundreds of Black H'mong girls in traditional garb wander the streets of Sapa and its surrounding trails and villages, hassling tourists unmercifully in their efforts to sell silverplate jewelry and beautifully woven and embroidered textiles in the form of blankets, pillow cases and various types of clothing.

If this sounds like a huge pain in the ass, you're right, it is. But the stunning vistas of lush green mountains, terraced rice paddies and traditional villages and homes more than makes up for it. We spent three days hiking around the area and just couldn't get enough. And in fact the swarming textile vendors did serve a purpose -- with so many of them around, it was fairly easy to get decent photos of them dressed in their layers of indigo embroidered fabric, tubular hats (which would seem more for fashion than practicality) and dark cloth wrapped around their bare lower legs. Each girl wore many silver bracelets, necklaces, and large hoop earrings that eventually greatly elongated their earlobes. The other notable Black H'mong fashion statement (apart from their extreme dirtiness) was their hands. As the dye they use for all their clothing (and the tourist goods) is not set, many women have permanently stained dark blue hands.

More on Sapa tomorrow -- I'm off to buy my ticket to China.

Copyright 2003 Katy Warren



posted by Katy at 9:28 PM