THE NORTHWEST HIGHLANDS
(Vietnam
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The next morning, at the bus station, there was no sign of the 6:00 bus to Mai Chau! Of course, we told everyone where we wanted to go and a driver pushed us on a bus to Hoa Binh, about halfway toward Mai Chau. Actually, it was sort of a minibus, comfortably seating 24 people and it made a minimal number of stops along the way. In Hoa Binh, we found that there was another minibus to Mai Chau in two hours, so we walked around town and killed a little time.
The bus to
Mai Chau didn’t have too many people, but it was loaded with cargo ranging from
an air compressor to potatoes to sheet metal to blankets, however, not a single
chicken! People gave the driver their parcel and an address and either paid him
or else the driver collected the transport fee on delivery. About halfway
between Hoa Binh and Mai Chau, we started hitting the mountains. Toward the end
of the ride, we were on a road cut from the side of a mountain and down below
in the valley we could see the small town of
In the
valley are White Thai ethnic minority villages. While they no longer wear
traditional clothes, they live in traditional, wide plank, raised stilt houses
with split bamboo floors and thatched or tiled roofs. We were struck by how
peaceful the villages seemed and how simple yet elegant the houses were. They
are benefiting from their proximity to
We rented bikes ($1 for the day for a one-speed clunker) and tooled around. It was a little tough on the legs, especially since we couldn’t raise the seats, but we took it slow and survived. Our survival technique included stopping for some Bia Hoi along the way. Bia Hoi is fresh brewed beer and we got a one liter coke bottle full of ice cold beer and some peanuts for about 50¢. It definitely helped cool us off from the exertion of the ride. Later on, we had banh khoai which was lightly breaded slices of sweet potato, deep fried. Can you tell we are enjoying the food on this trip?
From Mai
Chau, we headed to
While it
was larger, we liked Son La more than the town of Mai Chau and found it to be
cleaner, quieter and more pleasant. We decided to spend an extra day and take a
little time exploring the area. This led to one of our best and one of our
worst days in
We took a walk out toward a Buddhist pagoda. While looking for the turn-off, a young woman motioned to us and started leading the way. Walking with her, we met up with a group of 6 elderly ladies. The young woman was clearly with them and they were all carrying large grocery bags of offerings. She immediately put Paul to work and gave him a bag to carry, plus one of the women grabbed onto his arm for support while climbing up the steep steps toward the pagoda.
It must have been a special trip the ladies were making, given how much they were carrying and that they each had certificates to fill out. We sat down with them and there was a lot of commotion while they started unpacking and putting out the offerings. It was a bit of a time consuming affair with one woman orchestrating the show. This was where the inability to effectively communicate was really frustrating. Here was a group of very friendly people, asking us to join them, but we couldn’t ask what for, what’s the occasion, etc. After a while, not wanting to interfere with what was going on and not understanding it, we decided it was best to wish them well and left. Later in the day, we were in a similar situation, made a different decision and heavily regretted it for as long as it took the hangover to wear off!
It started
out innocently enough as we headed to a cave in the countryside. A
group of Vietnamese eating lunch outside, saw us and motioned for us to
come over. At first we were reluctant, but one came and invited us to share
some lunch and some ruou can, a very popular type of strong but smooth rice whiskey.
We have no idea how it happened (!!), but about two hours later, after many
shots, many toasts and much singing, we had gone through about three liters of the
stuff and everyone lay down and passed out.
We awoke just before dark and figured we had better return to Son
When we felt our stomachs could handle some food, we walked around looking for a lunch spot. Who should we came across but one of the guys who had drank (and passed out) with us the night before. He was eating lunch with friends and pounding the ruou can again! Talk about stamina. We stopped and chatted with him for a little while, but were not ready to do any more shots!
The next
day, we bid farewell to Son La and headed toward Lai Chau, where we hit the
first hitch in our plans. We got half of the way there and found out there was
no bus on the route we wanted to follow. Given how few private cars we had seen
so far, we decided trying to hitch would be futile and instead took a
different, longer route. The upside was that we got to see
Sapa is about 5000 feet high and is situated in the vicinity of a variety of ethnic minority villages. They come into Sapa every weekend for the market and to sell handicrafts to the tourists. This in turn brings in all the tourists (us included) who enjoy seeing the groups in their traditional clothes. As we walked around town, ethnic minority women who spoke amazingly good English, started trying to sell us various handwoven and hand embroidered textiles. Lois, being the material girl that she is, could not resist. She spent our first afternoon in Sapa trying to buy a little bit from every ethnic group. Paul took photos and enjoyed watching Lois being overwhelmed.
The weather in Sapa has been cool (low 50’s) and very misty. We hoped to go for a few walks to some of the villages, but thus far haven’t been able to see more than 20 feet ahead of us which makes it a little difficult to see much. Luckily, since Sapa is a tourist destination, there are lots of alternatives. As you might suspect, this means we spent a lot of time relaxing and talking to people from all over the world. There are all sorts of cafes and restaurants catering to tourists with pizza, granola, banana pancakes and a number of other non-traditional Vietnamese foods. Additionally and more importantly, they have fireplaces which are very important when it is cold and damp out and none of the hotels have heat!
All in all, the trip is going well and we will be leaving Sapa in a day or two. If things work out, we will be able to continue from here to the Northeast. We have been told it is possible, but you don’t know till you try…
Paul
& Lois
Sapa,
January 15, 2007