Montagnards is what the French called the highlanders or mountain people. Today they are referred to as the ethnic minorities and they inhabit the hilly, mountainous regions of Vietnam. The government likes the term national minorities for the 15 separate groups.
I visited the area around Sa Pa, which involved two overnight train rides from Hanoi and back. The trains are slow and stop at many places along the way, but if you're asleep you hardly notice. There are 4 people in a compartment, each one has a bunk. I was the only anglo in my compartment, both going there and back.
Sapa or Sa Pa is 1,500 meters in altitude and it was cold. I layered up and wore three jackets. It turned out to be colder inside my hotel room than outside but the management provided a space heater which helped.
Sapa has an everyday market, in town up and down several lanes and also in an outside central marketplace. There are fresh vegetables and fruit, meat, clothing, and trinkets. In this high county there is only one rice crop each year, so for four months or so everyone is busy with that crop. The rest of the time people are making handcrafted items to sell at market.
Several different H'mong groups live in the area, the Black H'mong, Red H'mong, Flower H'mong and a couple of others. The Chinese border is very close by and these groups originally came from China.
The women's clothing is colorful with many layers. In the summer months, the clothing remains the same as the temperature rises and the everyone gets pretty hot as the clothing is made of heavy, substantial cloth.
Most of the men wear western dress, I only saw a few older men in traditional clothing.
The first day I walked down a steep canyon on a narrow, slippery path lined with an occasional household with goods for sale in their front yard area. The trail ended at the bottom where some lovely waterfalls cascaded at several intersecting streams.
On the way up out of the canyon, there were several plots of indigo plants, which are used to dye the fabric that is later embroidered. It was quite a hike. I had my own guide in this area and it was great to have someone be able to answer all those questions I have about, "what's this," and "how do they make that." I learned a lot more from his information that just looking at the stuff and wondering about it. It also made a rather vigorous trip more enjoyable.
Next we went to the central marketplace in Sapa to see what goods were available there. Nearby the central area was a Catholic church, which was surprising as the H'mong are animists and worship spirits.
The night market here was a bunch of food stalls running the length of one street. They all looked the same to me, but my guide said there are subtle differences. We went to one which had an English menu (the only stall that did), but I ended up pointing to the food I wanted. The food is skewered and grilled over charcoal, kind of a nice warm touch on a cold, rainy evening. I chose pork wrapped around mushroom, pork with greens, pork with chili powder, sweet potato, and grilled corn on the cob. Everything was quite good, although the meat was tougher than we're used to. The sweet potato was not orange on the inside and I was given a spoon to scoop it out with. The corn turned out to be seed corn grilled, the kernels were pretty much rock hard and evidently you are supposed to pick them off one by one and chase them down with the local beer or corn wine. (moonshine) I didn't know this and munched it off the cob, getting a mouthful of rock hard kernels. Everyone was laughing. I soon learned the pick and swallow technique.
I really wanted to have black chicken, but it was a little pricey. My guide said you can't tell whether a chicken is going to be black inside by the color of it's feathers. Hmmmm.
The next day we went to a Saturday local market at Can Cau. This is pretty much for locals only, it's there social time, trading/buying time. It is set on a slick, muddy hillside and is pretty far outside the town. Locals walk here or motorbike, bringing what they are going to sell. It's getting close to Tet, the new year's holiday in February and everyone wears new clothes then. Now's the time to buy as the prices go up the nearer it gets. So the women are looking at everything, trying to decide what will look good.
The food here was very local, the usual produce and fruit, but lots of other things I hadn't seen elsewhere. Mammal legs with hoofs were available, or you could buy the whole live animal in the live mammal section.
Or perhaps some poultry?
A pet?
Some fish from the fish farm?
Or something tasty to eat? Intestines/sasuage?
Colorful rice in banana leaves?
Tasty water buffalo hot pot? (stew)
Noodles?
Pretty much whatever you want is here. Afterwards everyone loads up and goes home until next week's market.
Have you tried speed dating? Here, there's a different twist.
Once a year in Khau Vai you can go to the love market and pick out a potential sweetie. If you see someone you like, both of you go the the man's parents house where there is a love room. You stay there for three days and nights and if everything goes well and marriage sounds good, the man comes out and spits. Everyone then knows that you folks are now a couple, ready to get married.
On Sunday, we went to Bac Ha for the Sunday only market. By this time the markets were beginning to kind of mesh together in a blur, but once again I saw very interesting people and sights.
Afterwards we drove to Lao Cai and hung out waiting for the night train back to Hanoi. If you are a Vietnamese citizen, you can cross the border to China for the day, but must be back in Vietnam by 10 p.m. If you are Chinese, you must have a visa to cross into Vietnam.
It was a great trip, a LOT of walking, but so very interesting. I'm hanging out in Hanoi again, my realtor friend is taking me to the night market this Saturday with one of her university buddies. It should be fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment