Sapa, Vietnam - Meeting the Hmong

We took an overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa where we met a lovely Norwegian couple with whom we shared stories and gin. The beds were actually quite comfortable in the train and we had a good night's sleep.

The train was great, once we actually got on it. Before that it was a muddy, rainy, mess.

We arrived in Sapa and were immediately taken with its beauty. 

It's nestled in gorgeous mountainous terrain and filled with ethnic minorities including the "black" Hmong, "flower" Hmong, Red Dao, Giay, and many more. 

Red Dao woman.

Hmong women are the most prolific street vendors, trying to sell their delicately embroidered handicrafts, although sometimes their sales techniques are anything but delicate. 

Group of Hmong street vendors.

We encountered the same woman, Yao, a couple times and were drawn to her energy. We cancelled the trek we had booked and hired her to take us trekking instead.

Yao demonstrating traditional Hmong embroidery for Lauren.

Along with Yao came Lala, a thirteen year old Hmong girl training to be a persistent saleswoman and tour guide.

We hiked for two days through amazing picturesque mountains ornamented with waterfalls and rivers cut into valleys. The trails were slick with mud on account of the past week of rain, but Yao had asked for sun for our trek and we received it. 

Yao showed us the indigo plants lining the trails and how you can rub them until your palms turn green and after an hour they have turned dark blue. 

She showed us the different fragrant plants used in Hmong medicine and the 10 foot tall stands of marijuana used for hemp (to make their traditional clothes) and sometimes, reportedly, for smoking. 

We stopped into the village where she lives with her family and  watched her neighbor weave homemade hemp thread into cloth on a loom. 

Yao's husband made us bamboo walking sticks which made the remainder of the hike much easier for the graceless honkys. I became quite attached to my walking stick and was sad to leave it behind. 

We spent the night in the village where Yao's mother lives. We were fed a delicious meal, the highlight being fire-roasted chilies and green tomatoes mashed together in an apparently hundred-year-old wooden mortar and pestle. Of course the cooler climate means the chilis aren't spicy, just dense with flavor, like a concentrated red bell pepper. Su brought out some "happy water" before bed and L and I fell fast asleep. 

12 hours later we woke up to another nice day, our muscles tighter than the day before. We continued on through the terraced hillsides, the rice paddies already harvested and water buffalo bathing in the remaining ponds. L and I decided that almost every moment looked like it could be in a National Geographic piece. 

L had decided to try to piece together a short film about Yao so we stopped periodically to interview her and we ended up learning many interesting things about the Hmong culture and their relationship with the Vietnamese, which is tense.

We also learned about some interesting misconceptions propagated in Sapa with its blend of heavy tourism and very little formal education. For example, when asked, “Where you from?” we would reply, “America.” “Ooh, America, or California?” Hmm.. not California, so America I guess.

We learned that the Hmong people know about three races; Hmong people, Vietnamese people, and Tourist people. When talking to Yao, we got to the topic of Vietnamese-Americans. Yao wanted to know if some of the policemen in America are Vietnamese people, or if they are all Tourist people. We informed her that there are probably some Vietnamese policemen in America, but most policemen are Tourists.