November 12 Dien Bien Phu to Sapa

Red Hmong lady with Migraine Red mark

Rising early, we were on the road by 7:45 AM and we started seeing Thai Dam ladies with full traditional dress just a few miles north of town. About an hour out we started seeing Hmong women in full costume, the ladies looking smart riding motorcycles with their colorful skirts, and gathering in groups sewing at the side of the road to prepare new clothes for their New Year's festivities. Leslie was able to befriend them by admiring their work and offering them a sewing needle; Thai Dam ladies like small needles for fine embroidery, and Hmong prefer the big needles as they use thick threads or yarn. These Hmong ladies we were told were from the Red Hmong group. The lady in the photo graph here has a red mark on her forehead.  We saw many such red marks on the tribal people and we were told that it relates to a homeopathic remedy for migraine.  A buffalo horn is filled with spices including cinnamon and cardamon, then heated and applied to the forehead for about 5 minutes. The migraine is supposed to go away and the red mark dissipates in about a month.

Leslie's old Dhahran Stitch 'n Bitch Group in another form

We passed the town of Meung Lai with two hotels and a market with Thai Dam and Hmong ladies about two hours out. The road was under major construction for over 50 kilometers from Meung Lai, with a dammed-up river to the west and a better road being constructed further up the mountain, so the going was often rough but the scenery was lovely.

About four hours out we passed Patun, perhaps about midway, and Phong Tho a half hour later. We then started seeing the ethnic group Yao Mien, known as Dzao here in Vietnam. There are many sub-groups but all are skilled needle workers. The first group of Dzao the ladies were not wearing the red ruffed jackets but they were wearing the beautifully embroidered pants and their jackets also had embroidery on their shirts, selling vegetables and sewing at the roadside in groups, and Leslie was able chat with them. Some compared their reading glasses with David's - theirs were much stronger magnifiers! It was funny to see the way they never lost track of their glasses; with a string going from their turbans, down to the bridge of their glasses around a few times for a secure grasp and then back up to the turban.

We ate late lunch in Lai Chau, the first town we passed which had a traffic light. It was a noodle dive, but the hosts were very sweet, and the bill for the three of us (with driver) was less than $4 and it was delicious. The Vietnamese eat noodle soup at all meals of the day.

Interesting coiled headdress is selling David a man's hat

Next we started to see Black Dao ladies, similar to the Lanten found in Laos and Thailand, but their headdresses were different -coiled rope on top of their heads and some having tall metal headpieces. They were quite friendly and very anxious to sell their wares, including a hat for David. Leslie was very popular with all the tribal ladies, as she would give out sewing needles, shampoo packs, soap, or even lipstick or nail polish to the special ladies.

We passed two teenage girls carrying wood who were beautifully dressed. We think they are Blue Hmong women of Lai Chau province  as they are wearing a front hanging black apron with a wide, plain blue band around its outside (a guide during one of our meals advised this identification - we are not sure and will continue investigating). They were shy until Leslie gave them each a lipstick, after took her picture with them (the old hold your arm out poor picture) and showed it to them. They loosened up and enjoyed seeing their picture after it was taken. Wish we had a way to give them a copy of the photos.

Our car had been climbing in altitude, and the final hour or so we drove in thick mist, reaching Sapa at 5 PM. We spent a bit of time looking for a small hotel that had been rated No. 1 by TripAdvisor, but instead found a cute street full of nice boutique inns and restaurants and got a room on the spot at the Sunny Mountain Hotel, with wireless, TV, a heater, and a nice view, for $50 a night. This whole town is so cute and has so many conveniences that we have not had since leaving Thailand- hot water in the sink, a big choice of candle-lit restaurants serving hot mulled wine to ward off the chill, English speaking staff, even CNN and HBO on the TV! This place is filled with tourists and shops selling North Face trekking gear, so different than what we have been experiencing recently. It is a big shock after being in Laos where we would see no tourists in a full day's driving, and in which there would be only a dozen tourists in a whole province, and one decent restaurant, to a town where there are perhaps 2,000 tourists in a single square kilometer and maybe 100 restaurants, with all kinds of specialty foods! It reminds us of Ubud, Bali but there are not resident expats here that we know of. We had a nice Italian dinner for $20 and settled in for the night enjoying the luxury of our surroundings.