Trekking with the Black H'mong Tribes - Sapa, Vietnam
Sapa, Vietnam
Where I stayed
Tribal Village
Leah, Helen and I had decided to just stay in Sapa for one night rather than two as we had heard it was pretty cold up North. We booked an overnight bus there on the 5th, a home stay in a local village with a Black H'mong family on the 6th after a day of trekking, followed by another overnight bus back to Hanoi on the 7th.
The overnight bus there was pretty uneventful, we all slept pretty well considering we were at the back of the bus in a row of 5 'beds' with another English girl and an Aussie girl. When we arrived in Sapa it was around 7.30am and extremely misty. The temperature had dropped quite drastically from Hanoi which we were expecting but still not entirely prepared for so we threw on some extra layers and waited for the motorbike taxi to take us to the hotel.
A short ride from the bus station and we arrived at a very modern looking hotel, we handed our tickets in and was given an itinerary for the day. We would start our full day trek at 9.30am but before then we could use the hotel's facilities to have a buffet breakfast and a hot shower - perfect after a 14 hour bus ride!
At 9.30am we headed back to the reception where we met "sing" our guide for the day. Sing is from the black H'mong tribes who are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. They have a reputation to be fiercely independent and rich in their culture, art, religion, family life and martial history, and are distinguished by costume/dress (fabric patterns represent fruit, vegetables, farming, chickens, eggs, etc.) The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace; they have an oral tradition, but there are no written records except where other people have encountered them. Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another as well as through Hmong textile art or story cloths sewn by the women. Sing was wearing deep indigo dyed hemp clothing including a jacket with embroidered sleeves, sash, apron and leg wraps. These were combined with very brightly coloured embroidered traditional costume with beaded fringe.
We met 5 other people who would be trekking with us to the village, Nancy was also a solo traveller from Germany and two couples - one French Canadian and the other Dutch. We all wrapped up in layers, and stored our large backpacks in the luggage room, taking only a small rucksack with enough clothes in for the two days trekking and off we went. The first part of the walk was along a simple path which went through the town of Sapa, we had been informed that the first trek would be around 9km, then we would stop for lunch and continue another 3km to the village. After approximately 2km we started to divert off the beaten track towards rice paddy fields and forests of trees. Unfortunately the views were obscured by the mist which was a little disappointing but we were promised that it would clear up for tomorrow. Along with sing there were a group of other Hmong people who walked with us asking us the usual "Where are you from?" "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "Are you married?" The latter question causing quite a stir when we admitted we were not married and we did not have any children as apparently you should get married at 16/17/18 maybe 19 at a push but if you're not married by 20 you will be old lady and too old for children! Brilliant!
Sing was really informative as we were walking and explained about her home life, most families have at least 3 children and hope for boys, if a family does not have boys they loose all their possessions when the last male dies. The oldest boys can marry and start a new family, however the youngest boy can still marry but has to stay home and look after the parents. If the youngest boy is naughty or bad, he gets kicked out the house and the older boy has to come back home to look after the parents. Sing explained that her husband is the youngest boy so she has to look after his parents however her father in law had died recently and her mother in law drinks a lot of 'happy wine' (rice wine) which makes her angry. It was difficult to listen to some of the stories Sing told us about her life, however she pointed to the 2 month old baby on her back and said he was her third baby and he made her happy.
The morning went pretty quickly and before we knew it we were arriving in a little town where we would be having lunch. It was now that we realised why the other members of the tribe had wanted to walk with us as they started unwrapping bracelets, bags, scarves and other bits and bobs from the baskets on their back with a chorus of "I follow you, you buy from me" within seconds we were surrounded by young children trying to outbid each other with the 'better price' offering 'discount for you because happy hour' We all bought a handmade bracelet each from the person who had been following us but that simply wasn't enough as then we had the droaning rehearsed speeches of "you buy from her then you buy from me and then we both happy" Leah was soon established as the soft touch and the locals flocked around her trying to sell her everything. We eventually escaped and ran down to the room where we would be eating lunch. Lunch was served - pork, rice, cabbage and fresh fruit for afterwards. After an hour or so we began the shorter part of our walk to the village where we would spend the night.
On the way to the village we passed a local school which Sing agreed to show us around. The children were outside for playtime at this point and happily amusing themselves with chalk and stones creating a hop skotch style game on the floor and trying to understand how to use a skipping rope. The classrooms were brightly painted with coloured pictures on the walls, UNICEF bags lined the pegs along with small jackets. Work books were scattered on the desks and dual language posters outlined the walls. Sing explained that the first two schools were free to attend but if they wanted to learn English they had to pay to attend the third school which sounded like College. As most people cannot afford to learn English in a school they learn it through talking to visitors passing through the village.
We soon arrived in the local village and was pretty surprised at how commercialised it was. We were expecting traditional houses in remote locations with nothing around however we were faced with brick buildings, a restaurant advertising Belgium hot chocolate, free wifi and hot wine. A large wooden sign announced the 'rules' when in the village naming "no sexy clothing" "no taking photographs without permission" and "no walking in the street after 10pm" this was soon contradicted by a bar claiming Karaoke night between 10pm and 1am!
We were introduced to a local family who's house we would be residing in and went to check out the room. We would all be staying in one huge bedroom with mattresses lined up on the floor. We all laughed and left our bags to go downstairs, this was a short stay however as the lady told us to go and explore and be back for dinner at 5pm. The view was still pretty limited so we headed down to the small restaurant we had seen on the way up for hot chocolate, mulled wine, apple pie and a hot log fire for us to huddle around. We spent a couple of hours here chilling, playing games and amusing the little 3 year old Vietnamese child who had overcome shyness pretty quickly and was bouncing around the room. Just before 5pm we headed back to the home stay where we were seated around a table with two plates of fries. Dinner seemed to be taking a while so we decided to get a beer out of the fridge - We had been told upon arrival that we can help ourselves and just mark on paper what we use, there was also a set of ipod speakers if we would like to play music from our phones! This amused us all greatly as we discussed where we were all from, where we had been or were going and simply got to know each other. The food eventually came at around 7.30pm and it was delicious. A range of dishes covered the table and we all tucked in not realising how hungry we actually were. We invited the family to join us but they had set up their own table across the room to watch the football on sky TV which was again a little disappointing as we were hoping to get to know them a little better and ask what life was like in the village.
Once dinner was finished the family brought us a pack of cards and some rice wine to try. The rice wine was not the nicest thing I had ever drank and we soon renamed it "le mort" or "death". It was pretty obvious that we were expected to entertain ourselves this evening so we started with the only thing we could - drinking card games. It was still pretty early on when Leah, Nancy and the French Canadian couple decided to head to bed so the Dutch couple, Helen and I continued playing until the family started to put things away around us. We took this as a hint that it was time for bed and looked at the time to discover it was only 10pm! We headed upstairs slightly worried about how cold the room would be but luckily the blankets provided were so thick we were easily warmed up.
After an unexpected really good nights sleep we were awoken around 9am for breakfast pancakes, honey and sugar. Sing met us around 10am and we set off on the half day trek back to Sapa village where we would have lunch before getting the night bus back to Hanoi.
Luckily the weather predictions had been correct and the sky was blue advertising the gorgeous views of rice paddys and a range of greens we had missed yesterday. Like yesterday, another group of locals decided to walk with us across the rice paddys and through the forests, this time though we were prepared for what was to come. The trek was so much nicer today as we could see the wildlife, waterfalls and the strangest sights such as two young boys rolling logs down the hills attached to ropes and buffalo walking side by side with you. We walked through little towns where people were carving ornaments and statues, sorting through herbs and spices and sewing purses and clothing. Half way along the people walking with us started pulling out the same local produce for us to buy. Helen, Leah and I decided to buy three bracelets the same as a little souvenir which may as well have put a huge flashing neon sign above our heads to the other locals who crowded around us showing us the beautiful creations they had made. Eventually we managed to get through and climbed to the road at the top of the hill. From here we got a mini bus back to Sapa town where we had food and a shower before getting the next night bus at 5.30pm.
All in all I was personally a little disappointed with the home stay part of the trip as I expected it to be more natural rather than commercialised, where we could live like locals and learn the daily routines but luckily we had another good group of people which we got along well with. If we were to do it again, I would definitely try and do it ourselves rather than through a tour agency but Sapa is beautiful and I would still recommend people to visit.