Sa Pa and The Sa Pa Crew

What can I say about Sa Pa, Vietnam....it felt a little like both home in Bend and also in Garmisch. It was such a nice change to be in the mountains again and out of the sauna like conditions that I have been in for the past 2 months. And unlike the rest of Vientam where as I posted that everyone lied to you I felt that the people in Sa Pa especially the Black Hmong were the best people that I met in Vietnam.
I ended up spending my time with the Sa Pa Crew as I called them. You can see the attached pitcure of me with the crew. They consisted of a group of girl guides that were part of the Black Hmong. I met 3 of them while I was in Hanoi at the Bia Hoi Junction and they told me to look them up when I got to Sa Pa.
The crew was absolutly hilarious and I spent most of my time there either hiking around Sa Pa with Vu, drinking rice wine or playing pool on the worst pool table in the world. I thought that I was a decent pool player but apparently not in Sa Pa and especially not on there home table. Nothing like getting your a** handed to you by a bunch of girls.....(nothing bad intended by that statment I promise.)
The crew was very interesting because like almost every other guide around they were only about 18-20 which I found odd. But the reason why they were guides was actually very smart because not only did they make more money they also were able to get out of waking up at 4 am....yes 4 am every day to cook, followed by tending to the childeren and then either working in the rice fields or making clothing or bags to sell. So being a guide was a much more attractive option to say the least.
As I stated before I spent most of my time hiking around Sa Pa and the surronding area with Vu a very fiesty and smart Black Hmong girl. The first day that we spent was mostly spent around a very beautiful waterfall talking because of the monsoon downpour that was going on. Which was great because I was able to learn more about the Black Hmong culture which was very intersting.
The whole conversations got started on the way to the waterfall when I ask her about a story that I had heard from my guide in Halong Bay about a custom that the Black Hmong people have. When a man wants to marry someone apparantly what happens is the mans friend basicly goes and kidnaps the girl (but not in a caveman like way) and then brings her to his friends families house where the girl will spend the next 3 days durring which time she can not leave.
That was the extent of the story that the guide tolde me and Vu confirmed that this was indeed true but then she went on to elabaroate even further which was great. Apparantly after she is brought to the house which is not only to see if she likes the guy (which she more than likely knows) but also to see if she more importanly likes the family because after she marries she will be living with them and taking care not only of her husband but also the family, the families kids and the rice fields. During this time she will sleep in the bed of the mans sister...not the man's as you were all thinking.
After the 3 days is up if she does not want to marry the guy then she is free to go. If she decides to marry him then a wedding will ensue very soon. In which the groop will pay the brides family about 5 million dong or about $215. Then there will be 2 parties one given by the grooms family and one by the brides. the parties will last 1-2 days each and vu said that they will kill a very big pig, many chickens and have aloth or rice and alcohol.
So you can see that except for the 2 parties why these girls choose to work as tour guides and not get married. If you ask them as I did Vu. I told her that American women would never put up with this to which she was really surprised. She said "really"....followed by if she married a Black Hmong boy and she didn't cook, clean, take care of the babies and tend to the rice fields then after about 3 days the man would divorce her and she would be labled as being lazy. I ask her if she ever wanted to marry and she said "no way...I don't want to cook and clean all day long...I never marry a Black Hmong boy." So you can see why I said that Vu was really smart.
She told me that she sends about 80% of her money home to her family which is why she dosen't have to stay back in her village and work all day for the family which is not bad for an 18 year old that has never been to school before.
This fact that she had not been to school was interesting because while she had learned alot from the tourists that she was in contact with ther were also so many other things that she had no ideal about. I found myself explaining/teaching here about many different things. I felt at times like a time traviler that had gone back in time and was explaing things that had yet to become a reality it was an odd experiance and one that i had not had before.
For example one day before we were going to start a trek outside of Sa Pa another Black Hmong girl came up to here and ask her if she could use her cell phone to call the hotel and find out where her tourgroup was. Vu tried 2-3 times but could not get the call to go through. She then handed me the phone and ask what emergency calls only meant. So I tried to explain to her the concept of in network and out of network. finally I had to get some sticks and make a circle for the calling circle and a stone which represented Vu and her cell phone. It would of made a great comercial for a cell phone company.
All in all Sa Pa was my best experiance in Vietnam and it did change my views on the country and its people a little bit. But with that said Vu when I ask if about Vietnamese people she would always say "I am not Vietnamese I am Black Hmong"....So maybe my views still stands but I have a great view of my new friends the Black Hmong and the Sa Pa Crew.