This past weekend, I went with a few friends up North to see three of the 53 ethnic minority people living in Vietnam. After a 9 hour train ride and 1 hour bus ride, I finally arrived to my destination of Sapa just in time for the morning markets! In this mountainous region, the Black H'mong and Red Dzao people live. After browsing the markets for a few hours and being bombarded by many women in traditional dress convincing me to buy things from them, the girls and I went with a tour guide, Hiep, to trek to a Black H'mong village. 
We treked through Cat Cat village, and saw their beautiful waterfall and streams, and among their few houses, tons and tons of rice fields! (and of course buffalo in the fields as natural plows). The homes they live in are relatively small, complete with an indoor fire for cooking, mini bedroom, large roof storage area for food, a sitting area, and an area for clothing. They cultivate rice for one season of the year, and in the last few years, survive mostly by entertaining the interests of tourists from all over. 
To my surprise, most people spoke English because they have picked it up from so many tourists! We then went with Hiep on a hike up a mountain to look out on all of Sapa for sun set. Seeing as Sapa has now become so touristy, I ate my first non Vietnamese meal at a delicious Indian buffet! I finally saw a few stars at night! I've been missing them so much since arriving to Vietman. 
We woke up very early Sunday morning to head out with other people staying at our hotel to visit another area where the Flower H'mong people live, in Bac Ha. Their Sunday market is very famous, as they sell both souvenirs to tourists, and this is where they do their food and clothing shopping. Many of the stalls were filled with fruits, vegetables, meats, fish... the usual. AND they had an area where people bought and sold live dogs, pigs, and chicken! I had tons of fun looking at the material they use to make their elaborate outfits and bought a few ribbons as memorabilia.
After the market and lunch, we visited a local village where the Flower H'mong live. In their very rural rice patty area stood a very new and fancy looking school, that almost seemed out of place. It was in this village that I realized I really enjoyed seeing the way they live but feel as though globalization and especially tourism is detracting from their simple way of living. On our way back to the train station to head home, we made a pit stop at the China border gate. I initially though this would be lame, but it was actually pretty cool, and it was fun to notice the differences between the Vietnamese side and the Chinese side. Of course, there was a pagoda right before the crossing point for anyone who would like to make a last minute prayer.
Before getting on the train, Marian and I stopped to buy some fresh vegetables for the family, which we have been eating all week :) The train home was definitely an experience! There were no more sleeper cars left by the time we booked the train, so the 4 of us girls sat in the lowest class, on the hard 90 degree angle wooden bench for the 8 hours home. Although I needed a serious massage after the ride and used two days to catch up on the sleep, it was at times fun, frustrating, and educational/ cultural to ride in this class. People were smushing extra bodies on to every bench, sleeping on the dirty floors (after a few hours I gave in and curled up on the floor), sold random chachkies in the aisles and made so much noise the whole ride. At least four different times, people tried to kick us out of our seats claiming it to be theirs. After a bit, we realized that of course people were trying to trick us as we were the only non Vietnamese on the train, but that all of those people had scammed tickets! Apparently it is a huge industry here, even the conductors sell these tickets. By the end of the ride, I felt truly delirious but was glad to have had the experience. And arriving to Hanoi at 4 am really opened my eyes up to a new side of the city.
Great weekend. Great to get some fresh air, enjoy the beauty of Vietnam, and soak in much of the traditional culture the country has to offer!
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