More Sapa/Sa Pa Villages and Lao Cai
Downtown Sapa...if you want to call it a downtown...was fascinating. Nasty, rainy, cold weather but still fascinating. Minorities everywhere dressed in distinct outfits, carrying those woven baskets on their backs. Narrow, muddy streets with people buying and selling, outside and indoors. The people were primarily Black Hmong wearing embroidered indigo-dyed clothing and wrap-on leggings. There are also Red Hmong, White Hmong, Flower Hmong and Green Hmong tribes. It all depends on the color of their costume The Red Dao (or Dazo) women we saw yesterday were taller and wore red cloth and turbans on their heads.
Walking around the market, I was struck by the difference in sizes when this tiny woman carrying a baby on her back, walked by ex-Marine. If you graphically want it driven home what hard work and malnutrition does to a person, this is it. ex-Marine is only 5'11" so imagine how little this fully-grown woman was!
A break for a fast lunch on Cau May Street, where most of the restaurants are located before heading to visit another village.
The entire Lao Cai province is one of the poorest in Vietnam with an average income of $185 U.S./year, but tourism and cross-border trade with China is a growing source of income. All tourists pay, through their guides and agencies, to visit some of the homes and I certainly did my personal best to buy small items from the locals. A child's hat...used and abused ethnic skirt from one of the minorities (for display purposes only), "older" earrings from a shop in Sapa with the previous owner's name on the back in Chinese characters.... Every Dong I could spend would make a small difference in their lives...
Up to another small village where we entered the house of a family. Of course, the guide always gave money to the people for this. The conditions these minorities live under is really appalling. No heat...just a small wood, or charcoal fire burning...who knows how many children this woman had...it was freezing and there was a half-naked baby girl running around. Here we were, wearing gloves and hats, freezing our buns off, and there were they, with hardly any clothing on. At least the baby had a beautiful decorated hat on, usually made by the mother. We also saw lots of hand-made hats in the market.
Sapa would have been fantastic in good weather and we were seriously irritated with the Vietnamese tour agency for not telling us that December is definitely not to time to visit... A fast ride to see Lao Cai...absolutely nothing to see there but a bridge leading across the China border with people lining up on both sides to enter and leave the two countries...and to the train station for a Hanoi return...
