This week started with a horribly bitter coffee. I think they meant well but they killed us with kindness by filling the drip filter with at least four tablespoons of coffee powder. Nevertheless we were woken up for sure to start our today’s trip after eight.
The forecast wasn’t that good but the weather stayed surprisingly sunny the whole day. Lucky us it turned to a outstanding tour. Passing the rice fields in the valleys and coffee plantations at the mountainsides we’ve seen many small minority villages again. Most of the mountain tribes Montagnards people don’t live from the wet rice cultivation as the other Vietnamese people do. They live from mixed farming, stock-breeding as well as nomadic cropping, often by fire clearance. The bigger villages we’ve seen are a mix between Montagnards and Vietnamese people which are settled by government to connect the mountain region to the rest of the country. Last but not least because of the natural resources of the north. As a result the Montagnards have become a minority in their territory as well.
Though it’s fascinating to see how these people, especially the women, still wear their traditional costumes. Very colourful embroidery at least for themselves still handcrafted. We have the proof. The lady working in a rice field from the picture yesterday in fact was embroidering something. We have to make a note of that because of what we’ve seen in Sa Pa. If we could give one single advice to all the people planning to travel Vietnam it would be the following: Buy a travel guide and just avoid ALL the places mentioned in it.
Like written before the trip was absolutely nice. The scenery and the streets were just perfect. The ones who did a mountain pass by bike or motorbike without traffic and comfortable temperature before know what perfect means in this context.
About twenty kilometers before arriving in Sa Pa the traffic increased rapidly and we got an idea of what’s waiting on us in Sa Pa. The whole of Sa Pa is one big traffic jam. Nobody goes by foot, every tourist needs to go by car, taxi, bus or scooter. We decided to go for a walk to let the huge chaos behind us. Unsuccessfully. Maybe it would have been the the better choice to go by motorbike to go further away.
If we would have seen people wearing a traditional costume the first time here in Sa Pa we would have been sure they only do it for commerce. Everywhere you can buy their embroidery, drapery, silver and clothes. There are lots of children sitting on the floor selling different souvenirs. It’s a pity to see this. We’ve met kids waving to us while watching cows, water buffaloes or goats. We’ve even seen a boy riding a water buffalo and he seemed to have lots of fun. Here in Sa Pa you seldom see someone smiling. And if they do, they just try to sell something. Our travel guide recommended to visit the Montagnards market. It’s quite possible this market once was nice but today it only seems to be a market for tourists where Hmong and Red Dao sell their souvenirs.
Until now we used to ask people before taking pictures of them. Most of them agreed and were glad to see the picture afterwards, some kids didn’t want to be kept on picture. This is because of the Dao’s believe their ghost is going to be locked-in by a picture. Taking pictures in Sa Pa is something completely different and it seems to be normal. We’ve seen people posing with children and their mum agreed.
Sa Pa is known as the coldest place in Vietnam so our hotel doesn’t have an aircon, but each bed has an electric blanket instead. Although its colder outside than it was on any other place in Vietnam we’ve been before I’m quite sure we won’t switch them on tonight.
Our dinner was just delicious again. First we wanted to have some street food as an appetiser. Asking for the prize we realised the vendor is going to charge four times the price we’ve paid in Da Nang. We relinquished and went to a small restaurant beside the hustle and bustle and enjoyed a local BBQ with different skewers and some suckling pig.
Returning to our hostel we just got aware of something we’ve seen on many different places. Most cheaper hotels and hostels are like homestays. The managers family always lives in one ore several hotel rooms while the lobby is their living room. Hospitable as usual the manager invited us to sit with them and have a drink. But this time we had to refuse. He’s kind of a chain smoker and the lobby is definitely not the place to be for any prolonged time.
Maybe we manage to get up early tomorrow to leave Sa Pa before the big chaos starts in the morning.
