March 8

Not much sleep..not sure why. The bed and pillow were comfortable and a king bed. I was just restless 😟 Up to pack and for breakfast, which was a wonderful buffet. And of course the thick Vietnamese coffee. The manager presented each woman staying there with a rose for woman's day, which it turned out is an important day in Vietnam. We met our pre arranged tour guide Su Linh at 9:00 and started our trek. She spoke fantastic English.  We walked 12 km to her village. Three of her friends joined us part way and we were really happy they had. The road and the path were so treacherous with wet clay from the fog. The extra people helped me through the horrid parts, which was most of it. Su explained what we saw as we walked but sadly we couldn't see much. So she talked a lot about her life living in her village. She was married to a "good man" but she was not accepted by his family who lived next door. She had been saving her guiding money and bought some expensive wood to start building a house. Unbelievably the day before we were with her someone had stolen 2 pieces. She was very upset and sad to think that someone had done that to her. The cost of the pieces she lost was $1500 US. That would take years for her to save that much.  Gow, Sunny, My and Su on the trail...which is really a clay quagmire goat path.  They were all very helpful. Su tried to explain more about why it is important for Hmong women to have their own business. In Hmong society in Asia, males tend to hold more public and social power than females. From birth, Hmong females are seen as ‘belonging to their husband’s families’ because when women get married they must leave their birth family to live the rest of their lives with their husbands and in-laws and join his ancestral clan and derive her identity from that. Therefore, Hmong girls and women in Sapa face a number of hardships and setbacks just because of their gender. According to custom, only men can inherit precious farm land from their parents, so women’s right to land depends heavily on their marital status. Girls are often discouraged over boys from completing primary or secondary schooling and have very high rates of illiteracy. Yet, even so, many Hmong girls have taught themselves near-fluent English . Su's tribe the Black H'mong are the largest in the area with 2,500 people.  A break in the trek for some sugar cane  The women wear traditional dress every day, not just for tourists but the men only on special occasions. Her grandmother on her fathers side is 102 and is the village shaman. Su was telling us that her family is learning about the medicinal herbs her grandmother uses but none of them will inherit the shaman position because it is gifted from a spirit.  We stopped at her village for lunch, which was included. Then we visited her other grandmother's hut to see weaving and the indigo dyeing process. She asked us if we would like to visit her family and of course we said yes. Her boys go to school but they had the afternoon off for woman's day. We walked another 3 km through the slippery clay goat trail to her place.  Su is 24 and was married at 18....which is late for her tribe. Some marry as young as 13. She has 2 boys, Chong 6 and John 4. Their home is a small dirt floor hut 20 x 20 with a small room with a door which is where they all sleep. There is no power and they have a hole dug in the floor that they build a fire in to cook and keep warm. The walls have many holes and the wind, rain and the chickens come in. We sat at a tiny little table and she gave us some tea in what I think were teacups that came from a dolls set. And they were chipped but she proudly poured us the hot drink. She was telling us that in the winter the kids run out of clothes because they wash them by hand and they won't dry outside. Of course there was no toilet and I can't image how cold it must be to live in this house in the winter. It broke my heart ☹️ But the kids were happy and she was always smiling and cheerful. She was using some of her guiding money to send the boys to the village school and she was teaching them English. We fell in love with her and her initiative.  But we couldn't stop thinking and feeling very sad about her overwhelming adversities.  We really enjoyed our 5 hrs with Su and learned a lot. Even though it was a really horrible wet day it was special. The countryside that we were able to see was unbelievable. And once again I couldn't help but think how beautiful it would be in the sun.  Women planting beans and corn  It was cold and all the little ones had a lot of clothes on. And because there was no washing or running water many people and kids were dirty. But they didn't seem to mind. A lady and her son from another tribe. We had a choice between a taxi....of sorts...or a motorcycle to get back to Sapa. On the road it was only 10 km so we thought how bad can it be???? we'll take an adventure on the back of a motorcycle. OMG...that was one scary experience!!!! It was so foggy in parts the driver couldn't see anyone coming or anyone in front. And it was sooooo slippery and potholed. And the fog was so thick that we were both soaking wet. But we miraculously made it back...soaked and dirty but with one hell of a story. When we got back to the hotel to pick up our luggage we were soaked and so muddy/dirty. The people at the hotel greeted us and took our running shoes. They offered us a room with a shower to tidy up. When we came out they had warm cinnamon tea and had washed and dried our shoes so they looked better than when we got there. Now that's service. 😍 We hoped on the bus for our 5 1/2 hrs back to Hanoi. Unbelievably when we made our first pee stop I ran into Stephanie from our Halong Bay boat trip. What are the odds of that???? Lol