Tuesday October 15

Tuesday October 15

Tried unsuccessfully to take a cooking class at Sapa Rooms where we had our finest meal yet last night.  Class cancelled. So I unenthusiastically signed up to join Larry and Netsy on another trek.  Calves, thighs, everything else creaking, complaining, aching, from the last  trek. Netsy started out before us and Larry and I were scheduled to join her in a minivan for the relatively flat part.  In fact we were picked up to be passengers on two motor scooters.The town of Sapa is on a mountain a mile high. We were to meet Netsy deep in the valley. What a wonderful ride!!  Very steep, very curvy, many hairpin turns, each one revealing the most wonderful vistas of terraced concentrically curved rice paddies up and down and all around. I wish I had taken photos but stopping on the downhill hairpins couldn't be done. Arrived after riding over a creaky, swaying bridge over a rushing river.  Netsy and our 19 year old Hmong (called Black Hmong which refers to color of clothes) arrived from their hour and a half walk down the mountain on footpaths between paddies. We had lunch, pho and spring rolls, surviving the women and children who circled every new arrival trying to sell their very beautiful crafts in much too much supply for tourist demand. 

I wasn't sure I was up for our walk, but, when told we could call for a motor scooter rescue if needed, I trekked on. And so glad I did. We walked from village to village on the floor of the valley, mountains all around above. These Hmong villages seemed to be in better shape than the ones we saw previously. I have so many questions about these people.  Their artistry seen in their absolutely gorgeous clothes, fabrics, handcrafts. They smile easily and beautifully.  Some live in the most difficult conditions.  Mud walls and floors, completely undecorated houses, electricity but no running water, fire pits, no stoves or refrigerators, animals in pens attached to the houses or wandering the landscape, water buffalo, pigs and piglets, ducks, chickens, dogs all share the space. The women wear elaborate woven embroidered clothes, layered with colorful scarves.  Their legs are wrapped with fabric, and, then, they're often wearing plastic flip flops. I have so many questions:  what kind of governing structure do they have? The national government provides them with free schools and healthcare, but what else?  What choices do kids have about how to set up their lives?  I need to read about the Hmong and other minorities here. I guess that's part of the point of travel, not only to expose us to the "exotic other" but to question and to learn and to lead to more questioning about our relationship to the rest of the world. 

We took the night train again, nine hours in a compartment with two bunk beds and stale air. Our fourth companion this time was a handsome young Vietnamese, student of the tour guide last time, leading a group of Dutch on a three week tour. And we had a good talk with their Dutch counterpart leader of the tour.  Seems like an interesting but very specialized kind of life, traveling the world with ever changing groups of strangers.

Our train arrived back in Hanoi at 4:30 AM. 

Took a cab to the hotel where we woke up the night clerk and took over the small lobby. We'll have breakfast here but won't be able to get into our rooms until noon.