Sapa- 54 Ethnic Minorities

Okay, wow I feel like I have so much to tell all of you! I left for Sapa early on Wednesday morning from Hanoi. Sapa is the most popular place to travel in the northern, rural part of Vietnam. This is where 54 ethnic minorities live. The first map below is where Sapa is compared to Hanoi. The second is the area of Sapa and all the areas where you can trek.

The ride out to Sapa was beautiful and didn't feel like five hours long. We had a big van that took us with big comfortable seats. I traveled with my coworker Chi, and a couple from Canada who had come to church last Sunday, and who also came over for dinner. They are a lot of fun to travel with, and are video recording their travels in Vietnam. Check out their youtube channel at Halls channel .

The reason we were traveling to Sapa is because we are having some Sapa women embroider five pillows for us. Chi has told me that they are hard to work with because they are such simple minded people that if we try to get them to do anything that is different then what they have been doing for generations, then it's hard for them. Now seeing the way they live I can see why. These women are amazing, they hand embroider all of the fabric by hand and do it by counting each thread. It's mind blowing to me that they can do this.

Our five hour drive was a mix of rice fields and more rice fields. I was trying not to fall asleep to not miss seeing anything. I feel like I can't even describe how beautiful and amazing it is here. The rural part of Vietnam is very different from downtown Hanoi. It was really cool to see all of the bright green rice fields where the women and men wear the same pointed hats that you see in the movies. They rice fields are divided by mud and has stakes in them to keep it in place. When it started to get more hilly the rice fields were on terraces. They carve these out of the mountains with very limited tools. It's amazing. The homes are narrower here and consist of only one room houses. I have a lot of videos of this drive and lots of pictures!

We had a pit stop two hours into our drive and this place was like an outdoor store. I found it funny that you had to pay for toilet paper and to use the bathrooms. America has great public bathrooms! But there was one bathroom where there were just toilets with four feet tall cement dividers no stalls. Just go in front of everyone! All four of us then went on an adventure around back, and stopped fin front of someone's farm and home. We watched a women who was chopping down sugar cane, then up the hill alittle further, was a cow just staring at us. As we walked down the path, we came to this family's small home where a man was building a structure and a grandma was watching a small little boy. My coworker, Chi speaks Vietnamese which is such a blessing because she can fully communicate with anyone. She asked if we could take pictures and come to see the boy. He was adorable! He got his hands on a soccer ball, which of course, we played catch with. It was very cute and fun to see him smiling. What broke my heart is how these people treat a lot of the dogs here. There was a puppy a few weeks old that was so cute but they didn't treat it right at all. Just watch the video below...it broke my heart.

When we finally got to Sapa, it wasn't what I was expecting. But I'm not even sure what I was imagining. It has tall four-story buildings in the town with tons of restaurants. It has a beautiful lake that reflects all the multi colored lights from the hotels' lit up signs. When foreigners get off of the buses, the tribal women are picking who they want to sell to. They have on their traditional outfits and head dresses. They will be like "You buy from me, you pinky promise!" and if you do promise, they will remember you and will find you.

Chi and I then found two men to take us on motor bikes two hours down to the valley. IT WAS AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, AND BREATHTAKING. The amount of times I said wow and its beautiful is ridiculous! But the pictures I will show you, don't even do this place justice. I was just trying to take it all in. It was perfect weather, bright blue skies, and the sun was shining. I was in heaven being surrounded by all the greenery. It really is like a tropical rainforest here! Riding on the back of a motor bike is the way to see this place, not by taxi. You can see so much around you and smell all the smells this place has to offer. The roads were far from flat, so my butt is going to be sore for sure. The driver would get right up against the edge of the cliff and would drive fast around corners, it was a blast! I love riding motor bikes a little bit too much I think.  It was exhilarating to go through these windey roads going up to 50 miles per hour!

   

Opera house

I have the great opportunity to go to the opera house here in Hanoi. It's a replica of one of the two opera houses in Paris. This building is beautiful and huge! The theater it's self was three stories high with all the original dark wood and the old chairs. There was a huge chandelier in the dome like celling. I went with my aunt and some couples from the church. We had seat in one of the booths to the right side of the stage.

 The first part of the performance was an orchestra and a choir. It was a great show, I had forgotten what an actual symphony sounded like, its been so many years! The opera singers, if girls all wore exquisite gowns of all different colors and the choir in the back wore a traditional Vietnamese dresses or suit like attire. They played a lot of well known music. This night was special because they had bamboo instruments! I have a video and pictures of what they look like. The second part was a ballet, the performer  had talent but the story line was a little weird I thought. They had a guy wearing eight inch heels and dresses, just a little funky.

On the streets

I saw my first Vietnam rat! It was huge and disgusting! I tried to get a video of the things but it was moving way too fast. They really are huge, I couldn't believe it. I go on a walk or a bike ride every night to see more of Hanoi. This is a favorite part of the day to see the daily lifestyle here and to get to know strangers. It is a little weird how they will just stare at you and size you up because you're a foreigner. I don't understand this around where I live because there are plenty of foreigners in northern Hanoi. It just doesn't make sense to me. But it sucks in a way because I try to take sneaky pictures but you can't blend in at all. I stand out a little bit more with my light hair and eyes.  I just end of taking pictures of them and into their homes with them watching me.

This city never sleep, people are always on the streets getting ready for the next day. The streets are crazy then I think anywhere else in the world, from what I've heard from a lot of traveled people. Their are no traffic laws, no lanes for bicycles or motor bikes, street lights are sometimes turned off because no one follows them anyway. When you are trying to cross the street traffic doesn't stop for you they just move around you. So you just have to start walking in a slow and steady pace, it's kind of dangerous. I love riding motor bikes here because it's so exciting and such a fun way to see the city! I hope is to drive a motor bike at least once before I leave, we will see if it happens!