I wake up at around five in the morning, when the family and the rooster wake up, but go back to sleep until seven. Breakfast is spring rolls, rice, slices of pumpkin and coffee. Like the previous two meals I have been given it is delicious. The children eat noodles using chop sticks, and they do it better aged two than I ever will be able to.
After breakfast Mu dresses us up in their traditional clothing. First to go on is a long sleeved jacket, with embroidery around the collar and sleeves. It takes a year for a woman to weave the hemp, dye the finished fabric and stitch all the embroidery. Over the top of the jacket goes long sleeveless tunic, also embroidered. The jacket and the tunic are then wrapped around the body with a think belt which is, of course, also embroidered. H'mong women then wear practical black culottes which are made out of a velvety material and reach just above the knee. Around their calves they wrap more of the same material which is tied off with embroidered ribbons. As I said in my first post about Sapa, the whole thing looks amazing! Although more so on them than me.
Whilst we pack and the two year old Tsu plays with a knife, Mu washes her hair and I get a change to see how exactly H'mong women manage to style it they way they do. Whilst her hair is still wet she bends forward and gathers it together in a pony tail. She then puts three sliver clips in the pony tale, starting at the base with the others about half an inch apart. Then she wraps the pony tail around the back of her head, passing the base of her neck, back again to her forehead, where she secures the end with a silver comb. She does the whole thing in about ten seconds.
With Chan on her back again Mu leads the way back throught the rice paddy. Today's walking is only a few hours to a waterfall, then to the main road where we will catch motorbikes back to Sapa. Unlike yesterday the walk is all down hill. Like yesterday it is very slippery and we all slip at least once (except of course Mu ad Tsu). After an hour we leave the mud track and walk on concrete paths through the rice fields until we reach the river and a water fall. Tsu points out travellers in groups of 20 or more who have organised treks through an agency in Sapa. She says proudly, "We never take more than six people and you sleep in our homes whilst they sleep in dorms.
After a quick dip in the waterfall (there isn't much room for swimming) we walk up to the main road where Tsu organises motorbikes to take us to Sapa, a journey which takes only ten minutes and probably less if there went two people on the back. In town we say our goodbyes and say thank you over and over in both English and H'mong (O Chau!). We also write a review in Mu and Tsu's note book for them show other travellers and I am amazed to find out that, after getting a beer, they will be on the look out for more people to take trekking tomorrow.
A few days later I am taking to someone on a bus from Hanoi to Hoi An. Herhad stayed in a jungle village in Cambodia, and spent a long time telling me how, "Its a nice life, but only because they don't know what they're missing.. there's no way 'normal' people could do it" and I have to disagree, I think Mu and Tsu know what a great life they have. They bring in the money and walk where they want, bringing their children with them or not. They can go for a beer and can teach themselves to speak new languages to start their own business. They get married young but to young men who have lived in the same village as them their whole lives. All of this which is much more than their mothers had, and much more than lots of the women I have met in the past four months. Yes, they don't know what else is out there. But I do and I still think they have a nice life, and I told them so.
After breakfast Mu dresses us up in their traditional clothing. First to go on is a long sleeved jacket, with embroidery around the collar and sleeves. It takes a year for a woman to weave the hemp, dye the finished fabric and stitch all the embroidery. Over the top of the jacket goes long sleeveless tunic, also embroidered. The jacket and the tunic are then wrapped around the body with a think belt which is, of course, also embroidered. H'mong women then wear practical black culottes which are made out of a velvety material and reach just above the knee. Around their calves they wrap more of the same material which is tied off with embroidered ribbons. As I said in my first post about Sapa, the whole thing looks amazing! Although more so on them than me.
Whilst we pack and the two year old Tsu plays with a knife, Mu washes her hair and I get a change to see how exactly H'mong women manage to style it they way they do. Whilst her hair is still wet she bends forward and gathers it together in a pony tail. She then puts three sliver clips in the pony tale, starting at the base with the others about half an inch apart. Then she wraps the pony tail around the back of her head, passing the base of her neck, back again to her forehead, where she secures the end with a silver comb. She does the whole thing in about ten seconds.
With Chan on her back again Mu leads the way back throught the rice paddy. Today's walking is only a few hours to a waterfall, then to the main road where we will catch motorbikes back to Sapa. Unlike yesterday the walk is all down hill. Like yesterday it is very slippery and we all slip at least once (except of course Mu ad Tsu). After an hour we leave the mud track and walk on concrete paths through the rice fields until we reach the river and a water fall. Tsu points out travellers in groups of 20 or more who have organised treks through an agency in Sapa. She says proudly, "We never take more than six people and you sleep in our homes whilst they sleep in dorms.
After a quick dip in the waterfall (there isn't much room for swimming) we walk up to the main road where Tsu organises motorbikes to take us to Sapa, a journey which takes only ten minutes and probably less if there went two people on the back. In town we say our goodbyes and say thank you over and over in both English and H'mong (O Chau!). We also write a review in Mu and Tsu's note book for them show other travellers and I am amazed to find out that, after getting a beer, they will be on the look out for more people to take trekking tomorrow.
A few days later I am taking to someone on a bus from Hanoi to Hoi An. Herhad stayed in a jungle village in Cambodia, and spent a long time telling me how, "Its a nice life, but only because they don't know what they're missing.. there's no way 'normal' people could do it" and I have to disagree, I think Mu and Tsu know what a great life they have. They bring in the money and walk where they want, bringing their children with them or not. They can go for a beer and can teach themselves to speak new languages to start their own business. They get married young but to young men who have lived in the same village as them their whole lives. All of this which is much more than their mothers had, and much more than lots of the women I have met in the past four months. Yes, they don't know what else is out there. But I do and I still think they have a nice life, and I told them so.
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