SAPA

Sapa was one of the two side trips Melanie and I embarked on out from Hanoi. Sapa is about 500 miles from Hanoi and to get there it entailed an overnight train from Hanoi to a city only 2 km from the Chinese border and then a bus ride another hour up the mountain side. Sapa is central to many of the local minority populations that are present in the area as the city is situated overlooking an emmense river valley that has been cultivated by local people for generations. Living closest to the city of Sapa are the Black H’mong people and they were the most prevelant minority group in the city though also flower H’mong and Red H’mong.people and villages were in the area.

Sapa was probably my favorite part of my entire trip and we spent our two short days there walking to local villages and taking in the amazing scenery. The amount of work that has been put into this valley over it’s inhabited history is enormous and has created the thousands of terraces that cover valley wall to valley floor. Each terrace is irrigated as supplied by an intricate weaving of waterways. For the most part little technology is used in their farming. Buffalo are used to to plow and break up the ground, hoe’s are used to pull weeds, and lots the family’s hands are used to make the terraces and plant the crops. We even saw a wooden rice mill that used one of the waterways to power its up and down movement and husk the harvested rice.
However in contrast to the little technology used in the fields, communication technology is taking off. Our 16 year old H’mong guide was frequently recieveing calls while on our walks from family in even more remote areas than we were. One of my favorite examples we witnessed as a poster at a small store along the road, in the middle of a small village. The poster was Ronaldo juggling a soccer ball and advertising mobile phones that have both video and music playing capabilities.

As Melanie and I were discussing how vast the spread of technology is and if this poster was applicable we looked into the window of a bedroom adjacent to the store and saw a PC with internet connection, ADSL connection at that. This was just another example of how fast things are changing, and a mix of old and new, a few levels above the mix I am witnessing in Vanuatu.