This is our view to Sa Pa as we descend down to the villages.
Kinda a cross between the Alps and Kauai! The valley is full of terraces for planting mostly rice.
This is how we travelled. Tang, our guide, and two “personal shoppers”. These are H’mong ladies that follow you all the way down the trial, being friendly, making you little flower hearts, learning your name, telling you about themselves, then at the bottom, they hope you will buy something from them. Kind of a “pity purchase”. It worked, but Gloria only bought a $2.50 bracelet. We assumed they hiked all the way back up to town, but Tang told us they hitched rides on motorbikes. All in a day’s work. (Oh, in this picture, Tang is texting his wife, remember, they have been married only a month) Also—their cell phone service in this hilly country is way better then it is in Tuolumne County!!!
We stopped at a school in one of the villages, where we had Tang give away some of our left-over “Bouncy Balls” from our mission….bedlam. He finally told the kids that only the ones with the best grades got balls. He give balls to just girls! At least they are honest.
They have a nice medical clinic as well at the school, below is the poster about H1N1; washing hands and sneezing properly.
We also met an Army colonel . He and his retinue were making an inspection visit of the clinic and school. Tang introduced us to him; he asked where we were from, and I told him America. I would have gotten a smile if I would have said Russia or Cuba. (see below)
We did get to talk to Tang about his family a bit. He is one of 12 children, his parents are in their late 70’s, only he and his younger brother went to university, (his brother is a doctor), the rest are farmers. His mom had her last child when she was 50. I asked Tang if his father was involved in the “American War”, he said that his dad was a Viet Cong.,and spent his time in the tunnels outside of Saigon.
He told one story of where his dad and 11 other VC were in the tunnels and each day one of them was sent out to get vegetables for the group to eat. The day his dad was sent out, the tunnel was hit by a bomb and all 11 of his comrades were killed.
Tang did say that his dad was poisoned by Agent Orange, lost all of his hair and it hasn’t grown any since. I asked him what his dad thought of Americans, he admitted that his dad and many of that generation still hate Americans.
On to lunch. Spring rolls, stir fry noodles, and french fries. This is how you eat french fries in Vietnam.
Finally, before we leave for the sleeping train back to Ha Noi, we walk through the neighborhoods giving more balls out. We have to bounce them first so the kids know they aren’t candy.
