Visiting the Hill Tribes in Sapa, Vietnam

May 8th

Natalya

We woke up to our train conductor yelling at the top of her lungs: "Lakai, Lakai, Lakai, Lakai, Lakai, Lakaaai!" as she was pacing up and down the train car. We think she intended to convey to us that we just arrived in Lao Cai and to please gather your belongings and exit the train car. We got our bags and got out of the train car. After exiting the station we were met by a driver and together with 10 other people he drove us to Sa Pa, a hill community in Northern Vietnam, which was about an hour away.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous yet seemed dangerous at times. Narrow paved roads kept twisting and turning along the cliffs, steep mountains and waterfalls. We drove through several areas that were affected by recent avalanches. Goats and water buffalo crossed the road in front of us and we saw many village tribe people going about their daily routine. We drove through viewpoints where we saw hundreds of rice patties carefully landscaped into steep mountain hills. Several minutes later it started to rain. Little did we know that the rain was not going to stop for 2 days.

We arrived in Sapa and were greeting by our guide Za, who seemed from her height and appearance to be about 10 or 11 years old. She was actually 17. She has never been to school, although we have seen 3 different schools on our trek. Her English was quite good and she knew the area very well. Za was wearing traditional tribal wear - dark blue shirt and skirt, embroidered belt, metal earrings and her shins were wrapped in dark blue coverings that were made of a thick fabric. Za was wearing blue rubber boots on her feet and on her back she carried a small knock-off North Face daypack. She also was carrying an umbrella and wore a thin plastic raincoat to protect her from the rain.

At first the trek seemed very nice and easy as we walked along a paved road. The views were spectacular. I asked Za where we were going (we were supposed to trek for 4 or 5 hours before stopping for lunch), Za just pointed straight ahead. In a few minutes we started heading downhill in the muddy soil and the path got increasingly worse with the rain. Several times I considered getting down on my bum and sliding down. I was wearing long cotton pants, socks and running shoes, a t-shirt and a Gore-Tex jacket. My running shoes provided some traction, yet I found it very challenging to get up and downhill through the mud. A few times I seriously considered giving up, but the walk back seemed very far, so I kept going. After about 5 hours of trekking we finally made it to the first village of Lao Chai. The village consisted of several shacks and a small school. As soon as we arrived we were swarmed by the local women and girls selling us blankets, hats, shirts, bracelets, earrings and many other local handycrafts. Dave bought me 2 metal bracelets, which I used later on to show to other saleswomen to indicate that I already had bracelets and did not need any more. I brought a package of Disney princess stickers with me and gathered a few little girls around me and gave them a sticker for a picture.

In a few hours we got to the Tan Van village where we were to have dinner and spend the night.

Natalya

Dave

The Village we arrived at was right in the middle of a mountain pass with rice paddies all around us. Arriving there was our first real chance to take in the scenery, as the treacherous hike through slippery, knee deep muddy trails the rest of the day, had not provided much chance to relax and take in the view.

The house where we would be spending the night was the only one in the village that had a television, but this was really about the only modern convenience that one would find in the village. The floors were still dirt, there were no lights, no flush toilet (just a small outhouse over a creek), and no running water. Our beds for the night were on a wooden floor surrounded by chicken feed, and with mosquito nets and not much else. It was surprisingly comfortable, but I don't think we would have enjoyed it as much had we not endured the muddy hike we did during the day.

During the evening I showed off a few of my magic tricks/card tricks to our fellow hikers from around the world, we played a few card games, and drank some of the local fire water. The best part of the whole experience is that we were with a great group from around the world including a girl from France, a girl from England, one German, a Californian, and a very friendly couple from New Zealand who had just left careers in the financial services industry to go trekking in the Himalayas and to find new jobs in London. Having a good interesting group like this definitely made the trek.

Dave

May 8, 2005

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