Sapa

Reverse cycle aircon and Netflix to bed last night … it’s a brave new world, exactly like
everywhere else. 😢

Up early and up the road for the trekkers set menu at a local, baguette, bacon, egg, banana and a late!
Before the 5 minute walk around the corner to the Office
of Sapa Sisters. I seem to be the only one prepared with what I want to carry with me as others are half unpacked in the luggage storage area.
I’ve got clean undies and socks and the clothes I have on.

So you can imagine the catastrophe that I averted when only 1 foot ended up in the muddy rice paddy. I had been watching where Sy put her feet and I knew before I put my foot down that where she had just stood was not going to work for me but momentum was already in charge. And in I slipped. Luckily, “granny in the gumboots”. My personal mobile shop caught me from behind. And with Sy from the front to set me right, I had only 1 muddy foot. I checked out all the other trekkers at lunch stops and I was not the only one. Sy tells me people fare much worse in the wet season,

We walked and talked, and I continued to put Zuen’s hat back on each time she pulled it off. Sy is very chatty and does this full time 5 days a week, sometimes just day treks and sometimes for a night. With a baby strapped on it is a juggling act between her, husband and family to collect the baby from her at different times of the day.

We did our best to skip the Homestay cafe/tea houses that were full of tourists and stopped in Loa Chai (fix spelling) for lunch.

Granny in the Gumboots then pulled out her wares, telling me
that if I bought something she could go home. So I did.

All of the ladies make, dye and sew the things they sell. Her hands and fingernails were blue from the Indigo and when her hands weren’t busy saving me from falling over, and helping me down and over things, before scampering up the shortcuts to help me over the next bit, she was working strings of hemp.

My banged up shin doesn’t like the jarring of going downhill and my corked thigh does not like the exertion of going up!! So after lunch I opted for the easier way to the farm stay. Which meant no tourists and through villages. Much nicer.

Greeted by our host and thimble sized cups of green tea, Sy and I then compared stories about all “things” and the similarities are in all things. Youth crime, domestic violence, lack of respect to elders (and traditions) and the good things too sometimes.

She shared the stories of generations, land transference, how divorce and even multiple wives (which is a return of old ways but a new trend) effects the lives of women-if they have children she and the kids must remain with the in-laws, and he can go off and remarry. If there are no kids she is cast out and can’t return to her own family.
And with each generation the parcels of land gifted or inherited get smaller and smaller and usually to the boys of the family. For women to inherit, the previous generations would have to have been wealthy with plenty of land.

A bit of yoga in the sun, and now sitting around the coals, trying to be warm and drying my shoes.

Hostess is busy cooking a second trekker has arrived - he’s currently scrubbing both his shoes 🤣🤣 and Sy has gone off on a borrowed motor bike to the last village where we left the baby.

Dinner was a feast of tofu, chicken, pork, vegetables, sticky rice and spring rolls. And after sitting on the tiny stools huddled around the coals for a little longer it was time to get under all the blankets in my thermals. Doona covers are velour, so moving was a bit difficult.Read more