Curses. Drat. And yes, even a rare "fiddlesticks!"
My weather luck chose a bad time to run out... after fantastic weather on Kilimanjaro, near Everest, and throughout Vietnam, the rain finally caught up with me.
For my second day in Sapa, I was filled with grand aspirations to go hiking up north to some more remote villages, or failing that, picking up with a trekking group near Cat Cat. Truly, an excellent plan.
Instead, when I woke up and looked out the window, I sure as heck didn't see the amazing view from the previous day. Nope, it was solid gray out there, with some serious rain.
So, intrepid adventurer I am, upon reflection, I, ah, decided to explore the interior of...well... the bar. So, it was an easy afternoon of computin', drinkin', readin', and writin' – sort of a backpacker's version of the 3 R's.
But the next day was much better – after seeing this sort of dawn...
...I met up with a combined walking tour, and we headed out east of Sapa to explore three villages.
Sure, it was a bit contrived, and very commercial, with lots of opportunities to 'interact' with the locals (basically meaning buy stuff from them), but still a great experience. The unique thing was that the local Black Hmong girls were out of school, so they were able to meet us at the start, then follow us all the way.
In fact, three of the girls had met me at my travel agency as I was making balloons for another kid, and they kept hounding me in such a funny way, that at their suggestion, I “pinkie swore” to buy from the, if anybody. Pinkie swear – not the phrase I expected to hear in the mountains of Vietnam!
The Hmong were very persistent and clever saleswomen – each sidling up to tourist and starting to chat in charming broken English, all the while setting us up for the sales opportunity at the end. But, even though we knew what was going on, they were still lots of fun, and also a source of good info about the villages. For example, school ended at 14, with girls getting married around 15-18... in the off-season, the boys helped out the fathers in the fields, and the girls got to sell to us.
I was pretty good at not buying, but a cute girl at our rest stop had some neat handwoven ornaments that would look great on a Christmas tree, so I bought a few for about $.75. She even threw in the photo op – and loved seeing herself on the screen:
We ended up seeing three villages all told. Our group ended up merging with two others, and that, combined with the very slow pace of the now 60 people, was irritating. I kept my normal hiking pace and just kept waiting up for them.
This meant that my Hmong woman seller was my guide, and she was a great source of info. We both had a chuckle when we were the same age, and she had a hard time fathoming why I wasn't married by now – the concept of Western-style waiting for 'the one' in your late 20's and 30's is a foreign concept.
Some other highlights... a rare sight of seeing a baby waving a hemp leaf (legal to grow, but not to smoke), growing naturally:
And a demonstration of what happens when the "honk and pass anytime you want" strategy fails:
Plus what has to be the smallest gas station... EVER:
But, my guide was great company, and after lunch, I ended up giving her money, not for products but just for the guide services.
Unfortunately, the three girls from the beginning saw me, and were upset that I broke my pinkie oath! I tried to explain that I was only paying for guide information, but that didn't seem to work, so they gave me a bit of the ol' stink-eye as we left. Not to disparage the effectivene3ss of their glares, but they looked so cute but determined, I couldn't help but inwardly grin at the display.
Lunch was a bit surreal, with all of the tourist groups packed into a riverside restaurant. Passing Hmong and Dzao kept stopping on the bridge, and it was an open question as to who was observing whom:
The rest of the afternoon was spent with a quick free shower at the agency, then a pizza and a coke to fuel up. I was facing another shuttle bus, with an overnight train ride back to Hanoi, ready to fly out to Sydney!
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