10 June
On our second day in Sapa we set off from our hotel at about 9.30am on a trek to two nearby villages. There were 7 of us - an older aussie couple, a young Spanish couple, and us kiwis. Our guide was a young H'Mong woman from a Village 3Km North of Sapa, by the name of Mayphong (sp?). The walk was a pretty gentle, mostly downhill one. However, it had been raining the night before and the tracks we took were pretty muddy and we both slipped atleast once or twice at times along the way. We accepted fairly soon that we were going to return to our hotel a bit muddy later in the afternoon. 
The scenery along the way was nothing short of amazing. We were walking around and through the rice terraces, down a beautiful and lush valley with a river running through the bottom. It was interesting to see this method of rice growing up close, and to see the 
villagers working in the terraces. Any hillsideisutilised, and terraces are dugout to create a flat, shallow bath using waterbuffallo-drawn hoe, and other manual methods. These terraces are filled with water directed from nearby streams higher up the hill through small dirt drains, and even halved bamboo. Water also flows down one or two grooves on each level, to the level below, taking advantage of gravity. No pumps here!
In the distance we could make out the village we were heading for - a cluster of basic wooden houses - which we reached once crossing a suspension bridge. It was a two hour walk to the village where we sat down for lunch. All along the way we were followed by young kids from the village - mostly girls for some reason.
The main people that live in this village are the Black H'Mong. There are five ethnic minorities (or tribes I guess) that live in this area - and three live in the two villages we visited on this trek : The Black H'Mong, The Dao (pronounced "Zao"), and the Dai (pronounced "Zay"). Each group has its own very distinctive dress. The Black H'Mong, who are the majority here, wear indigo dyed clothes : tunics, pants, and in the case of the Women clyndrical hats. The women also wear leg wraps - almost like leg warmers. There is alot of very intricate decoration added to the clothes - hand embroidered patterns of every colour in contrast to the base colour of indigo. Women wear large loop earrings of silver, and some have large necklaces which loop around the back of the neck and end at the collars - connected to the ends are chains which link to the belt. Some of them have alot of chains almost giving the impression of chainmail. In short, they look cool. 
The Dao wear indigo also, but add to it with alot of red items - headress which often looks like a red pillow or scarf ontop of the head, and generally more silver jewelry. The Dao women shave the side and backs of their heads so they appear bald with their red hats on. The Dai are quite distinct again from the other two groups. Their dress is much less ornate - however they make up for this with the use of very bright coloured tunics and hats. Green, pink, yellow, green, blue - all flourescent. Each person however only sports two or three colours so the effect of each individual isnt too psychedelic. They wear a headress of matching colour to the tunic which seems woven into a tartan-type pattern. Would like to know how they achieve these colours!
The village itself is very basic - wooden A-frame houses. Pigs, chickens, and ducks are penned into small stone,wood, and or bamboo structures. Rice terraces surround the village, and also fill some spaces within. Our guide points out the school to us - the most modern structure in the village. Fairly large relative. Schooling is free for the children, and they learn four languages - Vietnamese, Cantonese, French, English and their own native languages. Would be interesting to know what else they are taught - but I'm sure its probably a fairly strict curriculum maintained by the Vietnamese government! A number of youngsters followed us the whole journey, a few tagged along for shorter times - all of them saying hello, and asking where we were from. They, as well as adults we were in contact with, were very softly spoken. Alot of the time they were trying to sell various handycrafts to us - but were never very aggressive in their selling.
We were soon in the second village - there wasnt much of a gap between the two. At the end of the second village there was a large bamboo swing which several H'Mong girls were having a great time on.
A bit of an amusing aspect to our trek was one of our fellow tourists - a middle aged Vietnamese woman who setout with us on the trek sporting a white pantsuit, with black high heels and an umbrella. Much of the trip was steep, most of it muddy and also slippery. We thought she was mad. The 'smart Westerners' were in their full trekking regalia. By about halfway through the trek we were eating our words however, for as well as leading the pack most of the way, she was still spotless other than a few spatters of mud on her shoes, while the Westerners were pretty mucky up to our arses with mud! Still not quite sure how she did it.
Overall a very very worthwhile day. Infact one of the best days we've had on our trip so far. Stunning scenery very different to any other we've seen, and contact with cultures we are highly unlikely to meet again. A great experience.
We've been in HK for two days now, and it is a real shock to the eyeballs after SE Asia - especially Vietnam. Also suffering from severe bout of walletshock. Its expensive here. Well, seems about the same as NZ, but once again after SouthEast Asia, thats pretty darned pricey. What's more i've only got 1min30 left at this terminal in a starbucks type cafe as internet cafes seem to be virtually impossible to find. Well on HongKong Island anyway, where we are today. 
