Sapa

The northwest of Viet Nam is covered by lush hills and mountains and is home to many hill tribes. The town which most tourists use as the "gateway" to the many villages of the Northwest is Sapa. After a few days in Hanoi and the comedically unorganized tour of Halong Bay, Sapa was the perfect place to relax for a few days. The weather was much cooler and the incesant noise of motorbike traffic is reduced to a bearable buzz. Terraced rice fields like those on the cover of my Environmental Science textbook span all directions.

Sapa, Vietnam
The "villagers" in Sapa are a curious bunch, especially the children. The H'mong girls by far have the biggest presence in the town, and the little ones all speak two or three languages. "Where you from?...You from America!", is the general greeting one gets when walking down the street. They are pretty aggressive, often slapping you on the shoulder if they don't get a response they like. The gentleman that I am, I often return the slap. Dressed in their traditional clothes dyed with natural indigo (which stains their arms and hands), these H'mong girls can often be seen in a bar playing pool or in a cybercafe playing CounterStrike when not selling their friendship bracelets or other miscelleanous traditional crap. I consider myself a decent pool player, and these girls would definitely hold their own in any New York City bar. I went 1-1 with an 15 yr old. The exclamation point to this odd juxtaposition of cultures had to be the moment when one girl was doing her embroidery while her friend was sinking the 8 ball.

Many people do two or three day treks to various villages around Sapa, but I was content with the two I visisted in one day, using the rest of my time to motorbike around the area (what a thrill!). Usually one has to pay an entrance ticket at the trailhead of these villages, but because I was with the Dzao women who invited me to their village, we sped past the post. Thankfully, the rail was up so we didn't get closelined.

Red Dzao Women