Vietnam variables

I've been in Vietnam for nearly two weeks now and in that time some things have become a little clearer. First, the country's permeating smell has nothing to do with vegetation and everything to do with garbage being burned. Along with the humidity it makes the air heavy and sometimes difficult to breathe. Second, the Vietnamese work all the time in order to remain as distant as possible from abject poverty which does not seem that far removed for most of them. According to one of my books, over 50% of the 87 million people live below the poverty line, however that is defined in a place like this. A final realization and one that is related to poverty is that the helmets people wear here are smaller than our own and would not provide the same protection in an accident.

The people work all the time. There is a constant noise in the cities of people fixing motorcycles, cooking food, hawking goods. It goes non-stop.

The hill-tribe people of Sapa, like the Vietnamese, are very hardworking. They are subsistence rice farmers because the climate in the north of Vietnam only permits one rice harvest per year. They are sometimes able to feed their entire family of eight to twelve on their harvest. In the past two to five years selling small handmade items to tourists has helped some hill-tribe folk to have a better life.

On my way to Sapa I met two Aussies, Kate and Ben, and a Brit, Adam, who became my companions while in the north. Our train left Hanoi at 9:15. It was madness getting on. The signs advertising the trains were almost all in Vietnamese and the conductors and station agents spoke no English. We all made the mistake of letting a conductor take our tickets and we realized how lucky we were to get them back after he returned them to us. The train took us to Lao Cai where we disembarked at about 5am. The train to and from Sapa was in pretty good condition although the toilets were really smelly. Good thing I travel with hand sanitizer!

In Sapa, Adam and I hired bicycles and a guide to tool around the countryside. It was a lot of fun but very hot! We were mainly biking uphill at 10 degree inclines. It rains a lot in the region because moisture builds up one side of the mountains and gets released on the other. The rice fields are tiered and it's a spectacular sight made more so by the realization that the hilltribe people need to clear the land of forest before they are able to create the tiers and plant the rice.

On my second day in Sapa, I did an eight hour hike and met people from five of Vietnam's 54 ethnic minority groups: the Red Zhao, Black Mung, Zhay, and Flower people (yes, that's their real name), and some Chinese people as well.

The Red Zhao, Black Mung, Zhay, and Flower people are very poor. Of these four groups the Zhay people are prospering the most because they are very good at rice cultivation and they seem to have good business sense. When tourism began to take off in the region, the Zhay people were the first to cooperate with tour operators and to offer things like homestays to tourists who eat and spend a night with a local family. I spent the night in a Zhay village, met a nice Zhay family, and also met some very nice people from Canada and New Zealand.

The Black Mung are the probably the poorest people in Sapa but it's difficult for me to judge since there are very few Flower people. The Black Mung also have the shortest life-expectancy. I am certain that this is related to malnutrition but it may also have something to do with the fact that their livestock live, eat, and sleep with them in their homes. They are considered to have lived a long life if they make it to 65.

After returning to Hanoi I joined a new group and we made our way south by sleeper train to Hue. Today we leave for Hoi An! This is exciting.. I am going to have some clothes made!

There is so much more to tell but I think some of my stories will need to wait until my return.

xo
E