Not only an alliteration, but a surprisingly authentic experience.
Mark and I were more than a little sceptical, on our arrival in Sapa (the mountainous town right in the north of Vietnam) to go on a hillside village tour. It just seemed too touristy, too much like going to look at humans in a zoo, you know? Nobody in South Africa can go to a real working village (as far as I know), and the whole thing made me feel a little uncomfortable.
But then we saw a really interesting photographic exhibition, where they gave young girls from the local H’mong (the biggest tribe) cameras for a month, and then published the photos as an exhibition… Fascinating! Scenes from their home, work, friend and family life, and it made us want to find out more. So we signed up for a full-day tour, entirely unsure what to expect.
What we got was a 12km (at least!) hike through some completely unspoilt countryside. We were lucky enough to have booked through the Tourism Office, not a tour company, and as a result our group of six headed off on a different route, far away from the madding crowds. It took us a while to clear the crowds, though, and I could see how a whole day of that would drive me mad.
For the next four hours, we walked up and down narrow rocky paths that led to and through three different villages, over rivers, through rice paddies (literally through – I have the muddy shoes to prove it!) and alongside some truly spectacular views (take a look by checking out our Best Moment of the Day from that day). Extraordinary stuff. Our guide was a local Vietnamese man born and raised in Sapa, and could answer all our questions about the area (we had a whole heap of questions because the day before we’d gone on a shorter – although still strenuous – hike to a different village and a waterfall, and hadn’t been able to answer any of our ‘I wonder why?’ musings). To accompany our guide, six H’mong women tagged along, equipped with large baskets on their backs. Baskets full of things to sell. We were a little wary at first, but our guide assured us they would try to sell to us at lunch and if we weren’t interested it was no big deal.
I believed him.
For the next four hours we chatted to the ladies about everything from marriage to kids to daily life to the surrounding landscape, and they wove us small trinkets from ferns – hearts, horses and a crown of ferns for lucky old me! I felt like a fairy princess. The walk was hectic but fun, it felt like we were really getting into the heart of the stunning scenes we’d been looking at for the past few days.
And then we hit lunch. And a horde of about twenty women started hard selling us their wares. Our formerly friendly, very chilled walking buddies suddenly switched on a flood of guilt tripping, crowding us as we sat down to lunch and pushing their items into our faces. I totally understand that selling is necessary, especially after they’ve spent hours walking with us (we didn’t ask them to, but it was a treat). However, Mark and I have a strict souvenir buying policy (we don’t buy anything. If we’re ever tempted it has to be TINY, and all their goods were pillow cases and shirts and tablecloths. No good). Eventually we ended up ‘tipping’ the lady that had accompanied us, and we all parted ways with a bad taste in our mouths.
The problem, as I see it, is that the situation has been blown out of proportion. Five sellers to six tourists is not good maths. Not at all. I think what happened is that a random seller chanced upon this being a good way to sell (through personal connection) and now far too many people have cottoned on, and shrunk all the potential out of it. It’s a pity, really, because until that point we’d really enjoyed the tour.
After lunch we walked for another hour or so, and then collapsed (quite literally). Five hours is a lot of walking!
Diabetically, I was fine. I took very little insulin at breakfast and went high two hours afterwards (the usual testing time) but seeing as I still had another 2 hours of hardcore hiking to do, I let it slide. I tested again before lunch and I was totally fine, and then took slightly less insulin for the rest of the day, knowing the impact it would have on my blood sugar. I still ended up waking at 5am with low blood sugar (I thought I would), but seeing as we did all of nothing the next day, that was quite all right!
Well, not quite nothing… We looked at some beautiful gardens up in the mountains, had a good old-fashioned sleep in, and left Sapa for Lao Cai, and then the overnight train to Hanoi. And then! One of the ultimate highlights of our trip. I’ll tell you allll about it tomorrow, I promise.
(PS: More photos to follow, soon!)
