Sa Pa is located 350 km northwest of Hanoi, very close to the Chinese border, and it took 11 hours by sleeper train to get there. We had a 4 berth to ourselves, and it was nice to be vertical, but we didn't get much sleep due the bumping and rolling of the train! This is Andy at 6:40 am!
At Lao Cai station we were met by a guide, and driven the 35 km up to Sa Pa, located at 1650m above sea level. Unfortunately, the city was covered in clouds and it was misty and raining, and it stayed like that during the 4 days we were there. We had a nice welcome at the Casablanca Hotel, and after breakfast our guide talked to us about the program for the next 3 days.
As soon as we left the hotel we were surrounded by local women greeting us, and asking where we were from. They were not trying to sell us anything (yet). Our guide, Tim took us through the local market where you can by some for us unusual things. Worms for dinner anybody?
and interesting medicinal drinks......
Yes, they do eat dog meat in Vietnam. No, you won't see a picture!
Followed by the Hmong women we walked down the valley to Cat Cat village, which is inhabited by the Black Hmong minority. There are around 800,000 Hmong people in Vietnam, and they have successfully preserved their language an many cultural traits, both physical and non-physical, defying changing environmental and social conditions.
They are really living off the land, and hard working people. They take the bark of the hemp tree and also uses flax fibre, and twist it by hand into thin strings used for weaving. Along the way, many of the local women following us were spinning flax fibre as they walked. Flax clothes is 3-4 times more durable than cotton.
They pick leaves from the indigo tree, and colour the cloth over many times to give it the blue colour. Andy bravely tested the colouring of the leaves, and had a memory of it for several days after!
To make patterns, they use melted bees wax to draw their chosen pattern on white flax clothes, which they then dye many times to get the desired colour. Then they dip the cloth in hot water to melt the wax, which leaves patterns on the cloth.
The Black Hmong sow colourful patterns on string of clothes and sow it on their clothes. Every time we took a break on the hike, some women pulled out their embroidery and got to work.
The animal and the children roam free.
Primary and secondary school are free for the minority children, and they learn their mother tongue, Vietnamese and English in school. They will have to pay for going to university. We were pleased to see so many schools in this area.
We then continued further down the valley to see a waterfall, and then made our way back up to Sa Pa in the clouds.
An enlightening day.
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