Number Two: Climbing Mountains

Well hello again! In keeping with the promise that I made to you all and myself, I worked hard to get all of my lesson planning done early today so that I could write you the next installment of the things I’ve learned/seen/done since I wrote you in December—we’re on to number 2 now:

2. Climbed a Small Mountain in North Vietnam with Mom:
My Christmas present arrived in Vietnam 2 days after Christmas day itself, but it was well worth the slight delay. My mom landed at the Noi Bai airport in Hanoi looking wonderful for having traveled close to 48 hours and through several major U.S. and East Asian airports and I couldn’t have been more excited to see her. Unfortunately her luggage decided to remain in Los Angeles (or maybe Denver…. perhaps Seoul…. or possibly even Taiwan, depending on who you called at the baggage services desk back in the States…) so we embarked on our adventure together with 3 pairs of pants and 2 sweaters to share and a great sense of humor about it all. We definitely hit the ground running as soon as she arrived as I didn’t even let her sleep in a comfortable bed her first night in the country after such a long trip! Instead, we caught a night train to Sapa, located in the far north of Vietnam, immediately made friends with a very funny Vietnamese man who thought the fact that I could speak Vietnamese was absolutely hilarious, and then attempted to sleep on the swaying and creaking train. At 5:30 the next morning we arrived in Lao Cai, a city located about an hour away from Sapa, and were greeted by a van service to our hotel, the Topas Ecolodge. I had been to Sapa before with my friends for Thanksgiving so I was really excited when we arrived in the town itself, but then to my surprise our van kept driving right through the town and onto some very questionable roads. Remembering that the lodge had told me that it was located outside of the city, I told mom that it would only be a few minutes more until we arrived… 45 minutes later, after traveling on rocky dirt roads, through running waterfalls, and precariously close to cliff edges in the morning fog, and narrowly avoiding a dozen or so water buffalo in the process, we arrived at our destination. If any of you are planning a trip to Vietnam and are trying to think of places to go and hotels to stay in, let me recommend this Ecolodge to you. Located, as I think my description of the trek has probably led you to imagine, on the bluff of a mountain in a remote area of the country, the Topas Ecolodge is a beautiful series of bungalows overlooking a series of fabulous rice fields and valleys.. Each bungalow is very private and quiet, is beautifully but simply decorated and is run on solar power. On top of all of this, the food was absolutely phenomenal—everything from homemade (and usually warm) bread and jams for breakfast to delicious traditional Vietnamese dishes at dinner—we ate very well! I think the best part of our time in Sapa, however, was spent hiking and walking through the surrounding areas and villages.
The Vietnamese population is made up of 54 different ethnic groups and many of the minority groups are located in the northern regions of the country and in the villages surrounding Sapa. These groups face many of the same issues and hardships related to poverty, social discrimination, and access to education as is common to many minority groups throughout the world but the continually increasing stream of tourists to the Sapa region has led many of these groups, particularly the women and children, to become quite the entrepreneurs. As a result, they speak absolutely incredible English from mingling and bargaining with tourists all day. On our first day in Sapa, mom and I met our tour guide, Thang, who was about 28 years old and a very nice guy. We had opted for a trek to the top of Mt. Silverstone, which Thang told us would take about 3 hours to reach because the mountain’s peak was about 1600m and the hike was very steep. He also told us as we began our walk that many of the Red Dao (Pronounced Red Zow) minority women would probably hike with us and try to get us to buy some of the things that they had made to sell. Sure enough, as soon as we exited the lodge area, the women came running up to us, saying hello, asking us how old we were, where we were from, if we were married, and would we buy something from them. While the Red Dao speak their own language, they also speak Vietnamese, and so I surprised them all by responding to one of their questions in Vietnamese, simply out of habit! Soon, the attention was taken away from trying to get us to buy their goods and onto my Vietnamese abilities, and I spent a good portion of the first part of the hike doing my best to carry on an intelligible conversation. As the hike progressed and the mountain did indeed get steeper and muddier, many of the women dropped off in search of non thrill-seeking tourists but about 6 of the women, aged 18-60(!!!) continued with us the entire way. Mom and I both charged up the mountain in typical Robb form, and Thang soon took to calling us the long-legged women who wouldn’t slow down. We made it to the top of the mountain in about an hour and a half—slightly faster than had been predicted! At the top, we stopped for awhile to admire the gorgeous views of the mountains, valleys, and terraced rice fields that stretched as far as we could see before eating our lunch of bread, ham, and fruit. We then took a break to relax and talk with the women who had made it to the top with us before agreeing to buy some of their beautiful wares (I first made an agreement in Vietnamese that they wouldn’t try to get us to buy anything the next day if we bought from them that day—and sure enough, the next day when they saw us, they told their friends not to try to sell us anything, and didn’t walk with us on our hike—it was then that I realized I had finally achieved a “working survival” level of Vietnamese!) Since we were so ahead of schedule, Thang and two of the younger girls who had been walking with us decided to take a new way down the mountain that would let us see more of the valleys and farms and we soon set off excitedly. As it turns out, Thang had never actually gone down the mountain this way, and the girls had, as I heard them say to Thang, forgotten exactly how they had gotten down before. Mom and I thought that the prospect of being somewhat lost (really, all you had to do was go down and at some point you would hit a road that would lead you back to the lodge) was absolutely hilarious, and we happily walked along with Thang et al. through a few farmer’s backyards and chatted with some friendly water buffaloes on the side of a hill. After a few wrong turns, we finally found a reasonable path down to the road and made our way back to the Ecolodge, stopping first to drink a well-earned Tiger Beer at a small shop with Thang.
The next day, we set out again with Thanh and visited a Black Hmong village and had the opportunity to see more of the beautiful countryside. While we didn’t climb any mountains that day, we did have a few steep inclines to navigate and at one point I managed to gracefully step off the path and into calf-deep cold, muddy water with one of my feet. We also had the opportunity to have tea with a woman who invited us into her home and I loved telling her about myself and my family in Vietnamese and hearing a little about herself. Finally, mom got the opportunity to experience the joy of motorbike riding as we traveled into the town of Sapa itself via xe oms, did a little shopping, and then got picked up by the shuttle bus and taken back to Lao Cai where we caught the night train for Hanoi.
The rest of mom’s stay was also wonderful as we saw the sights of Hanoi, climbed to the top of the Perfume Pagoda (see previous post for a description of that place) in record time, ate delicious Vietnamese food, celebrated the new year in Hanoi (well, we were technically already in bed by the time the new year came, but it’s the thought that counts!), saw the water puppet show, and did some much-needed catching up. I hated having her leave (along with the luggage that came the night before her flight out!) but I felt so lucky to have had her here with me. My dad and grandmother (my mom’s mom) are coming this way in about 3 weeks, and I can’t wait for the adventures we’re sure to have--- I doubt they’ll involve climbing any mountains, but in Vietnam you just never know…

And speaking of active vacations—my next post will be about another one that I took more recently through the ruins of Angkor Wat—stay tuned, my friends!

Until then, stay well.

Lots of Love,

Hayley