On Wednesday night I took a night train from Hanoi to SaPa to start my 4 night/3 day trek with the Hill Tribes of Vietnam. I again used Handspan for this excursion. The SaPa hill tribes are comprised of varios ethnic groups among them the H'mong and Dzao people. These ethnic groups speak their own languages and do not consider themselves Vietnamese. Our trek group consisted of 6 persons: Eric and Lauren (our French couple), Michael (our British investment banker), Thomas (our Swiss Banker), Trine (the Dane) and myself. Our fearless leader was May of the Black H'mong tribe. The first day, Thursday, we hiked only a few hours from SaPa to the Ta Van village. The scenery and rice fields were amazing and again the camera does not do it justice. The men in the village mostly farm and drink (happy water) from what we could tell. The women hawk souvenirs which they claim they hand-make but they mysteriously all look the same - dismissed as coincidence? These ladies and young girls use some pretty strong arm techniques and we all fell prey to their tactics. We ate like kings that night along with some happy water. I woke up early the next morning and before I could I would buy from them. Around 10am we start our trek to the next homestay - Ban Ho. Oh, did I mention it started raining.....
1 comment:
Well said.
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