Xin chào!
Happy supermooning to all of you lucky enough to have a good viewing
spot! Iowans, I'm jealous of your crisp,
clear sky...is there any way to bottle some up for me? We didn't get a good view of the supermoon in Hanoi;
however, the supermoon did mean the official climax of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The streets of the Old Quarters turned into a giant carnival last night with
cotton candy vendors, large stuffed animals, balloons, and dragon dancers
galore.
The supermoon was a tad disappointing, but we have had some some pretty super moon views lately, particularly on the beach in Ha Long Bay. :)
The noise of
Hanoi's festival celebration was a bit overwhelming after being in the peace
and quiet of the Sapa countryside and Ha Long Bay for the past week...which
brings me to an update about our past week...
Like I
mentioned in my last post, we took off for Sapa via an overnight train. The ride was comfortable as I was able to get
a good amount of sleep until our arrival at 5:30 a.m. We woke up abruptly (no warning)
and before even exiting the train, we were immediately bombarded by bus/taxi
drivers. We knew we had to take a
"local bus" another 30 minutes or so to get to Sapa, but we didn't
know that the "local bus" would actually be minivans driven by locals. Turns out I simply cannot
bargain prices literally 30 seconds after I wake up--I just wanted to punch everyone
in the face (gotta work on that). Luke handled it all better though and
actually cut a good deal (we concluded later) with one driver/hustler that easily cut
our commute time in half by uncomfortably zipping along the mountain
roads.
We arrived to
Sapa and waited at the only church in town for our homestay mom, Ger, to meet
us. We had been given Ger's phone number
from other backpackers in Hoi An and had simply called her the day before to
ask about a homestay. My conversation
with Ger on the phone was very short and the specific stories from the Hoi An
backpackers had faded, so we really had no idea what we were getting into. Tiny Ger approached us with a big smile in
her traditional indigo clothes and bulky jewelry. Her brother rolled up on a
motorbike to take our big backpacks, and off we went to get breakfast. Over breakfast we found out it would be a 4
hour trek to her village--whoa--she pointed at the mountain in front of us and
said, "My village is on the other side of that." Ok, great!
Haha.
Sapa was
completely covered in a misting fog, and as we began our trek it actually
started raining full on. This made for a
rather slippery (slide-y as Molly would say) and cold (who would have
thought?!) hike over the mountain. We
had no view of the beautiful valley rice fields and distant mountains at
all--zero. At our lunch stop, Ger showed us pictures on her phone of the
view on a clear day and it was a bit funny but mostly heartbreaking. Here's my
picture from lunch...haha...
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| Woohoo. |
After lunch we had another 1.5 hours at least to Ger's village-up and down, up and down. It became of game of "Who is gonna slip next?" and more than once I considered sitting down and just sliding on my bum. We passed through 3 villages before arriving to Ger's village, each one a little different than the one before.
Ger is part of the Black Hmong ethnic group, which may sound familiar to some of you because there happens to be a large population in the US (refugees from the war). It was fascinating to learn about her culture during our 2 days together. There's too much to type out but here's a snippet into her life/culture: She cannot read or write in any language because she never went to school. Her village didn't have a school when she was a child, but now there are schools nearby ("near" by their standards, not mine) which her 3 children (14, 12, and 4) attend. She learned English by going to the Sapa market with her mother and speaking with tourists and her mother offering homestay visits for some tourists. Girls marry very young, around the age of 15, in their culture. That age is increasing a bit nowadays but not much (maybe 17). She wants her son to wait until he's 18 to marry. To marry, the groom's family must pay for the young bride, so that's why the men are typically older before tying the knot. The ideal family would be one girl and one boy. The boy is needed to inherit the land/possessions, and the girl is needed for the marriage income. If a family does not have a boy, families must buy a boy at a very young age from another village family. The children are told as they get older who their real parents are, but Ger said there aren't any hard feelings because the child knows they have a better life in the new family. People and animals live in harmony together as the pigs, chickens, dogs, goats, and water buffalo roam as they please throughout the village and homes. Ger's home was very simple. No running water, one light, one rice cooker, dirt floors, a wood table, a few wood benches, two plastic chairs, and bamboo beds. The village is basically self-sustaining. They grow all the food they eat, and if they have extra, they can hike into Sapa to sell. Most people in Ger's village grow indigo and hemp to make their own clothes. Here are a few pictures of the house:
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| Where all the cooking was done |
:
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| views from plastic chairs |
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| faithful guard dogs (or dinner?) |
Ger's husband was in the mountain for a medicine-making trip with one of her sons, so we just met the 14-year-old son. He was like any other 14-year-old, un-amused
by most things, asking to go out with his friends, and making sure his hair was perfect before he did. When the rain stopped for a bit, we walked from Ger's house into the village market to pick up some vegetables for dinner, met her brother and his family, and walked her daughter home from school. I had packed some Tootsie Rolls before I left the States which turned out to be a big hit and may have been the reason a few of the neighbor girls decided to hang out for the rest of the day! Just kidding, Khu and Pain (not sure about that spelling) were the sweetest of girls. We played together the whole night which was a blast but totally wore me out! It was raining, so we had nothing to do but entertain ourselves inside with clapping games, flips, dancing, and listening to the girls sing along to Vietnamese songs on Ger's phone.
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| Khu and Pain |
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| Luke's art lesson |
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| Kha, Ger's daughter |
Dinner was super yummy (rice and fried spring rolls) and then the local moonshine was pulled out...oh jeez...! We did our best to keep up, but Ger and her friend were born to drink that stuff...haha...so we had to be careful. We slept early and woke up early the next morning to the roosters. It was still a bit rainy/foggy, so we played with Khu and Pain (they missed school because they slept late) again until the weather cleared up enough for trekking.
Trekking the 2nd day was clear once we got down into the valley but still really dangerous and slippery to get there.
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| Rice fields |
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| For our moms ;) |
It was worth all the slips though because, as you can see, it was absolutely stunning. We stopped at a waterfall to wash the mud off our shoes, and then went back up the mountain to a village for lunch. After lunch, we said goodbye to Ger (sad!) and hopped on the back of a motorbike with our bags for a 30-minute ride back into Sapa.
I'd say the whole experience ranks as one of the top intercultural experiences in my life. The kind of experience that leaves you questioning (in a healthy way) your values, lifestyle choices, and worldviews. Sure these people don't have running water, but they certainly aren't lacking in the essentials: love and community with others. It was a privilege
to be able to share in a few days of Ger's beautiful life.
We stayed one more night in a noisy hostel (I blame the Aussie boys) in Sapa before taking a bus back to Hanoi for a fancy night out at a classical piano/opera concert performed by one of Luke's mom's friend.
More on that to come--this is far too long of a post! Tomorrow I'll give you all the scoop (and pics) on the concert and Ha Long Bay.
Cheers and love and hugs,
Kelly
