Welcome to Vietnam. Put on your fleece.

Arriving in Hanoi is a reminder that everything is relative. The weather was colder and damper, and traffic moved a lot faster than in Cambodia. The temperature was in the 50’s and 60’s, but felt freezing after six weeks of weather that never dropped below 75 degrees. Crossing the streets was a risky venture for the first two days. I recalled my mom telling me what her father told her when he taught her to drive:  “Head on springs!”, meaning look both ways at least twice before crossing the road. Sound advice. I kept repeating it to myself and we have managed to avoid getting run over to date (thanks, Grandpa!).

The weather in Hanoi was a big disappointment. As mentioned above: cold, damp, foggy and misty (smoggy?). We never saw the sun the entire time we were there. We kept hoping the hot tropical sun would burn through, but every day the sun lost the battle and the dingy gray layer prevailed. Our fleeces and socks were put to good use.

Our first day in Hanoi, we ticked off a lot of the tourist attractions: Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh’s residence, the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Army Museum.

We found the Army Museum the most interesting; it had lots of heavy military equipment captured from the Americans during “The American War”. It was fascinating to see the war from a Vietnamese perspective, including reading exhibit signs about the “American aggressors”. As we learn more from readings, museums and our guides, it is eye-opening to realize that the Vietnamese have a long history of fighting (and winning) wars – against the Chinese, the French, the Americans, the Chinese again…and the American war seems to have a much smaller hold on the collective consciousness here than it does at home. Perhaps because they won?

Army Museum sculpture of destroyed American and French planes, tanks, etc.

We also visited Sapa, a town in northwest Vietnam near the Chinese border. Sapa is known for its beautiful mountains and ethnic hill tribes. To get there, we took a night train to Lao Cai. The train left Hanoi at 9:00 pm and arrived at 5:00 am, traveling at an average speed of 20 MPH (a fast biker could have done better).  We shared a 4-person soft sleeper car with two Chinese businessmen. Since our Mandarin is non-existent and their English extended as far as “hello”, we had a relatively quiet evening.

The town of Sapa is nestled in the hills and surrounded by terraces of rice paddies. Several hill tribes live in villages around Sapa, including the Black H’mong and Red Dao tribes. It was very easy to meet the tribeswomen, as there were several of them waiting for us as we walked out of our hotel. Two pretty young women laden with handicrafts attached themselves to us as we walked through town searching for a trekking guide office.

Their names are Bai and Moo, and both are 20 years old and from the Black H’mong tribe. Both are married; Bai has a two-year old son and Moo is hoping for a child soon. She has only been married eight months, so it is a little soon. They learned English from speaking with the tourists. We learned all this and more over the course of the 1 1/2 hours they followed us around town. They asked us several questions too, “where you from?”, “do you have any children?”, “how long you in Sapa?”, “how old are you?” etc.

Normally I would find being followed around by anyone very annoying. But somehow, it wasn’t – they were just so sweet. And sincerely sweet, we just couldn’t tell them to bugger off. Sure, they wanted to sell us their wares, but they were so absolutely charming about it. And so now we have two hand-embroidered pillowcases: one each from Moo and Bai.

Moo & Bai - incredible Black H'mong saleswomen

We spent the next two days in Sapa trekking through fields amongst villagers, water buffalo, pigs, puppies and chickens. Most dogs were not friendly in Sapa; even the puppies would run from a friendly foreigner.

We hired a guide from Topas Travel, Cuong, for an all-day trek. Cuong also brought along a guide-in-training, Tang, who is the little brother of a good friend (friendships and family ties are very strong in Vietnam, and strongly influence how/if things get done). We started in Sapa, and descended through fields of sorrel and watercress to the Muong Hoa river. We were glad to have a guide, because it felt like we were walking through people’s yards. It turns out the definition of public path or road is loose in Sapa.

We met several other tribeswomen along the way, but very few men. While the women dress in colorful and identifiable clothing, the men’s dress is non-descript. While many women sold handicrafts, men worked in the fields.

All the women we met spoke quite a bit of English, and many spoke French, Japanese and Korean too. All learned these languages from interacting with tourists, as they only learn Vietnamese in school.

I met one Black H’mong woman who is the same age as I am. It was a glimpse of a path not taken: she has three children, the oldest of which just got married. It definitely made us realize we’re a little behind the ball on the procreation front, at least by Black H’mong standards!

Same age, and she's a mother of three

Upon return to Hanoi we were joined by Mark’s parents, Donald and Ann. We spent a couple days in Hanoi, then traveled to Ha Long Bay and spent a night on a junk. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO Heritage site, and is comprised of about 1,600 limestone islands and islets.

Unfortunately, the tour was very tightly controlled and our junk followed 20-30 other junks around to the mandatory sights…while just in the distance we could see huge swaths of water and islands where there were no people or boats! Mark and I took a kayak out and decided that if we ever come back to Ha Long Bay, we will do a kayaking tour during a warmer season to get the best experience of the islands.

We flew to Hue two days ago, and have been enjoying sunny, warm weather and lots of tropical fruit. Hue is the ancient capitol of Vietnam, and is the religious and intellectual capitol of the country today. It is a beautiful city moving at a slower pace, and we’ve enjoyed it. Tomorrow we fly to Nha Trang for three days with no official plans. Mark and I hope to dive the local islands and perhaps visit a mud bath and hot springs resort.

Tagged as: hill tribes, Hmong, Sapa