Sapa and Ha Long Bay

Ten hours on a train followed by an hour bus ride to get to terraced rice fields in the misty Sapa mountains. I found a guest house for eight dollars a night and met very cool people there and ended up trekking with two French girls. With the absence of tools the Hmong people use ancestral technique to create these paddy fields. All the terraces must be perfectly horizontal to maintain constant water level so they can pour instantly into the terrace below. The minority people was my favorite aspect of Sapa. There are twenty four ethnic groups each with their own language, culture and traditions. They live in houses that up to four generations dwell together, some in bamboo stilt houses open on all four sides to let the breeze in. Each group makes a different type of craft and they are all beautiful. Everything from jewelry, blankets, embroidery on pillowcases and wall hangings, basket work and incense. The women are about four foot tall and soft spoken, wearing indigenous clothing. They follow me around asking me questions about where I am from and ask about my family as well. Many of them have never been out of Sapa before. We trekked for a whole day with one of the locals in the paddy fields covered in mud and dripping with sweat and I loved every glorious minute of it. She took us to two of the villages where the minority people live. They might look tiny and frail but don't let them fool you, these women are very strong from walking through these mountains everyday of thier lives. Us westerners struggle while they are passing us with huge baskets on their backs.
From Sapa I came back to Hanoi and took a bus to Ha Long Bay. Being typhoon season I have to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts. I slept in a boat in the middle of the jade waters of this mystical bay. There was fourteen of us total and everyone got along really well. The food was great, we went kayaking, trekked to the highest point of the bay and hung out on one of the beaches. The locals were going crazy taking picture of us. I'm talking about twenty cameras at once. It was quite uncomfortable, especially since I never before thought my Pennslyvania whiteness very exotic. At the moment I am exhausted, blissful, stimulated, homesick, exhilerated and everything in between. I need not food, for life is feeding me.