November 16th - 18th Hanoi and Halong Bay

We arrived at the Hanoi train station around 5 am. While we had the soft sleeper, best cabins available, we did not get much sleep.  The 4 person cabins had some AC, reading lights, pillows, blankets, complimentary water, crackers and tooth brushes along with slippers. The train rattled, shook, and screeched its way down the 9 1/2 hours with many stops along the way. We took a taxi to the Hotel L'Opera House and paid $86 for a few hours sleep until we could get into our booked room at noon. After we made that transition we headed out by taxi to the Ethnology museum which is a good museum with the various "mountainards" of Vietnam represented. We realized that after our 3 week trip focusing on hill tribe culture, we have still not seen it all! We highly recommend the gift store there on the premises and were sorry that we were going off to Halong Bay tomorrow as there was going to be a big handicraft fair at the museum tomorrow with the local craftsman all exhibiting and selling in their traditional dress. Several were checking out the museum while they were waiting their turn to register for their booth.

We headed next to the "old quarter" of Hanoi with its 36 narrow streets filled with shops. Each street sells a particular type of product.  We made for a store called Women's Craft Guild that our friend Martine had highly recommended.  She said to ignore everything on the first floor and go upstairs for the really interesting tribal items.  What a chaotic display to paw through, ask questions about, examine more closely and in the end make some purchases. We are going to need to buy a canvas suitcase to accommodate all our new purchases!  We had dinner at "Little Hanoi" restaurant which was not too exciting but was an air-conditioned place on a busy street corner so you could sit in comfort and watch all the madness outside. We were back at the hotel and in bed early for our early start the next morning.

Island of Halong Bay

Fishing sampan

We left our suitcase this morning with the hotel as we would be returning for 2 more nights and then walked to the Opera house to wait for the shuttle to Halong Bay at 7:15. Our travel agent had been informed that the Caravella did not pick up from hotels because guests complained of sitting in traffic while collecting various guests for over an hour so therefore all guests were to come to the Opera house.   Only the two of us were standing at the Opera house to be picked up....the mini van then drove all over the city picking up other guests. An hour later and 7 stops we were finally on our way.  The van stopped twice for two "shopping opportunities" for trapped tourists. Once at a handicrafts center with large marble carvings, embroidery etc and another quick stop at a pearl store.  

Dinner is lots of fresh shellfish

Leslie relaxing on upper deck

With the BB we sent an email to our travel agent, Topas travel to say we were disappointed with the shuttle.  Topas travel bugged Caravella for not sticking to the policy and we got an upgraded cabin for the night. Our cabin has a balcony, AC, decent bathroom with the shower and toilet included in glass together with the sink separate. Room is about 150 sq feet which is not bad for a little ship that can carry16 passengers. There are only 3 rooms on the second level like ours.  We boarded the boat around 12:30 with lunch at 1pm while we cruised out to the first stop, a cave.  Lunch was all seafood courses - those who don't eat fish would have been in trouble.  After a 30 minute stop at the cave, which David went into but Leslie remained on the boat, we cruised another 30 minutes into a throng of other boats where one could go swimming for 45 minutes or climb to the top of a hill. David was convinced to just sit on the deck of the boat and relax and enjoy the chaos all around, and the setting sun.

If lunch was fish, dinner was shellfish - which Leslie does not eat! It started with a shellfish soup that tasted like squid, then two large mussels each - David ate his two, but not Leslie- then, as we were hoping for some chicken, out came a plate with about 50 clams!  David ate his half, but asked for something that was not shellfish for Leslie - they brought her a fried egg finally.  Then a course of fish came!  Anyway, we will be "fished out" for a month or so.

The evening's entertainment was to be squid fishing, but we were not excited by the prospect and went to bed without trying to catch our breakfast.

Early AM embarking in rowboat to tunnel to hidden cove

Seashell lady in hidden cove

Returning through tunnel to our mother ship

Following a good night's sleep, we rose for a light breakfast (bread rolls, no fish,thank goodness) and climbed into a large rowboat to go through a tunnel under an island to see a hidden enclosed bay on the other side, where one old woman in a fishing boat was selling sea shells.  David bought a textile cone but noted it probably came from the Philippines! We glimpsed some of the small island monkeys at a distance, then returned to our boat to check out of our rooms, pay our bills, get a brunch at 10:30, cruise around the islands until we landed at 11:00 AM to await our nail-biting transportation back to Hanoi and our five star hotel.

November 14 and 15 Sapa Area

We met our guide, Tuan (0982844115, vuanhtuan@gmail.com) and he filled in our permission forms for our trek and filed them with the local authorities. Tuan is from the Tay tribe. We are headed for a Red Dzao village a hour and a half by car, then an hour and a half walk down the road, called Tan Kim Village to the southeast from Sapa, and about 2,000 feet lower elevation.

On hike to Ban Tan Kim

Ancestor alter in Red Dzao home

Woman working on red scarf headdress

Red Dzao sales women in front of Topas Eco-lodge

 Seeing many Black Mung and Red Zao along the road, we finally reached the Topaz Travel ecolodge, where about 20 Red Dzao women were waiting to sell their wares.  They would follow the foreigners for miles talking to them, hoping that acting as their "friends" would give them a chance of making a sale at some point. Our guide Tuan had said this ended up with the women wasting a lot of time waiting for the rare sale instead of doing more productive jobs. Although we told our two followers that we were not going to buy anything that day, they nevertheless followed us all the way down the very muddy road to the village, which turned out to be their own.

Making our way up a village path to the school, we met the teachers and gave them enough pens and pencils for the entire primary school.  We then made our way through the village, sometimes chatting a bit and giving out shampoo or sewing needles, until we reached a Red Zao home, where our guide took us in and showed us around the home.  The lady of the house was embroidering, and she was happy when Leslie gave her sewing needles. The village moved to its location 8 years earlier, when its location further from the road was subject to an avalanche which killed several villagers. While the concrete foundation was new, the village homes were constructed of wood which was from their homes in the old village, often ten generations old. We noted the home's shrine for ancestor worship and papers to ward off evil spirits or ghosts.  The Red Zao are both animists and ancestor worshipers. Tuan pointed out where the floor had been broken in order to have a fire directly on the soil that was needed for a ceremony to heal the man of the house when he had become ill. Shortly after the story, and the husband showed up, talked a bit and admired the lipstick that Leslie had given his wife.

After farewells, we went through the village, out the other side, and back up the road to where there was a local restaurant, where we had the picnic lunch Tuan had brought.  We then hiked back up the muddy road to our starting point, gave the sales ladies along the road each a lipstick, which made us very popular, and drove back to our hotel by about 4 PM.  The whole excursion, which was supposed to be a one-day treck reaching a village that was off the tourist track, made us realize that this area is in fact well covered by tourists, has modernized extensively, with roads going to all the villages, each house having at least one motorcycle, and Vietnamese taught extensively in the schools. That said, more  of the villagers, particularly the women, still wear traditional clothing than is the case in Laos.

Red Dzao lady in market still wearing helmet - 

!

Little girl in CatCat village - Black Hmong

2 Black Hmong women carrying charcoal in Sapa town

Next morning, after our sumptuous breakfast buffet, we headed down to CatCat waterfall and cultural village, about 1,000 feet below Sapa.  We discovered that we had to pay $2 each to get a ticket to enter the area, hiking down steps fringed with souvenir handicraft shops, and some model houses where the local ladies were dying hemp, sewing, or otherwise showing local traditions. There were many motorcycles waiting at the bottom offering to take us back up for $1 each, but we decided we needed the exercise and sweated up the steep road, stopping for lunch at a restaurant at the base of Sapa that offered views of where we had come from. We wandered through the market, where we again found some colorful people to photograph, then packed up our hotel room, took our luggage to the travel agency where our bus is to pick us up, and settled into our hotel lobby to try to get our our blog while we have WiFi and internet. We should have an hour and a half ride to Lao Cai, catch the night train at 8:30PM to Hanoi, where we should arrive at 5 AM on November 16.

November 13 In Sapa, 5,000 feet elevation in northern Vietnam

We rose early, had a great breakfast at the hotel, and walked out to the nearby market, taking pictures of the colorful hill tribe people, mostly Red Yao (Dzao) and Black Hmong, but with other groups as well, some of which we were not sure of.  Many of the men and women were in full costume.  The market is interesting because it is a mixture of items for the native hill tribes, but also caters to the many tourists.  Tourists vary from young backpackers to retired people.  The largest single group were French, who tend to travel in tour groups, but also a number of Germans, Danes, and a few Spanish-speakers. we did hear a few older people speaking either English or American English.

Giay women beautifully dressed in market having lunch

We did manage to get pictures of men with a mouth harp, and some Giay women in full costume, in addition to the more common groups.  One other aspect of Sapa was that there were many ladies with full tribal costume who were actively trying to sell local handicrafts to tourists, often following western tourists down the street and asking them to buy something they had. We had not seen this type of commercialism before on our trip.

We then visited the nearby Ethnology Museum to get a better handle on the hill tribes in the region, here called minority groups.  We still had some doubts, and at dinner in another Italian restaurant, were advised by the owner, who was a guide as well, but on reviewing our pictures and online sources, we were still not sure about several.

After organizing our boots and hiking gear for the next morning, we went to bed early.

Love the detail in the pants

Back of the Red Dzao costume but you can't see the bottom of the coat

!

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.

Nov.11th Muang Khoua across the border to Dien Bien Phou

family with child and goat on motorcycle

 We found the driver waiting in the Senally Hotel parking lot, where we had told the travel agency we would be staying, and told him we would be ready after breakfast. With yummy  banana pancakes in our tummies, found about a hundred yards downhill of the usual river view restaurant, we packed up and set off by 9 AM. The driver seemed a bit upset, saying we had indicated an 8AM departure, but with his lack of English, and our lack of Vietnamese, we were never sure.

The car was a huge improvement over our Laos vehicles, a New Mitsubishi Pajero sport with 4 - wheel drive, very quiet and clean. scenery was pretty and the road decent but winding.  We did not pass many interesting hill tribe villages so there were only a few photo stops before the border.

We reached the Laos exit place, had to call the official over to process our exit stamp, paid 10,000 Kip ($1) each, and we're into Vietnamese territory, but not yet processed in by their immigration post, which was a few miles down the now-deteriorated road. Reaching the post, a large building that could accommodate a hundred office workers, we found it was empty, and we're told the Vietnamese officials would come to process our passports in an hour and a half, at 12:30PM. We were told to wait at a roadside tea stall while our driver went with a soldier to see if he could make it happen sooner.

While we waited, two bicyclists we had seen at the Laos exit point came up, so we told them the immigration offices were empty so they might as well wait with us.  They were a Swiss couple who started biking in Vientiene, and we're headed for Hanoi, carrying all their stuff in waterproof saddlebags. At noon the officials came, changed our Laos remaining cash into Vietnamese Dong, and stamped our entry into Vietnam.

Traveling down into the valley, we reached our Muang Than hotel in Dien Bien Phu (last part pronounced as "poo") in half an hour, but found it without electricity, except for their own emergency system. A kind French tour guide who was checking in a dozen of his French clients explained that the electricity should come on by about 5PM. It was never clear to us whether it was a city-wide problem, or just at the hotel. We bought lunch there, but despite an extensive menu, found that we could have either fried rice or noodles, the other items being unavailable. The hotel was strange, a decent shell of a four star place, with carpeting, a decent bathroom with tub, a swimming pool and tennis courts, but gone to seed, no western news channel available, and pretty bad food.  Except for the French tour group, we were the only Westerners staying there. This hotel is the best hotel in town!

Hills surrounding Dien Bien Phou

We hired a taxi for two hours to see the sights - all related to the 1953-54 siege of a French army force of about 10,000 men that parachuted into Dien Bien Phu for reasons that are not entirely clear, since it was deep in territory controlled by Ho Chi Minh's forces. First we went to the commanding French Gen. deCastries' bunker, where he was captured after the base was under artillery fire for about four months. Quite a depressing place. Then we went to the war museum, all presented from the local's point of view. We saw a video in French that explained how the Vietnamese forces had used thousands of men to haul heavy artillery up the jungled hills, which the French had thought to be impossible.  They then pounded the French day and night from the mountains, first making it hard to resupply the French airport,then shooting down planes so that even by parachute, resupply was difficult.  The Vietnamese then built trenches around the French positions and overwhelmed them one by one, showing strategy and discipline that the French had not expected. The French surrender demoralized their forces and led to their departure from IndoChina and the agreement to divide Vietnam into North and South, pending a vote which never took place.

David at the French General's Bunker where he was captured

Across the street, we looked at the battle cemetery, which only had graves of locals that died in the fight. Presumably the French casualties were taken home, but it is indicative that their casualties were not even mentioned. Nearby, we climbed Hill A-1, which showed the bunkers and hardened trenches that the French had built, but which had been systematically overwhelmed.

We had a not so memorable meal at the hotel, watched a bit of an Asian soft news channel, and went to bed. The same car and driver would be used for our trip tomorrow and we were to be ready to leave by 8pm. We were pleased to have a call from our agent at Topas Travel inquiring if all was in order. The cost of this 2 day private car service was $625.

Nov. 10th Phongasli to Hat Sa by public bus and down the Nam Ou River by slow boat to Muang Khoua

Akha Nuqui on the packed bus

Rising at 5:30 AM to the public address system, we packed and breakfasted and were taken by our previous tour guide to the bus station.  Tickets to Hat Sa cost a few dollars each, but the bus filled up with baggage in the aisles, and a half dozen extra passengers standing and leaning on other passengers.  Some of the passengers included a large family of Akha Nuqui that were immaculately dressed, adorned with silver, very photogenic, but they did not want their pictures taken. Luckily, the trip on this overflowing bus was only an hour and a half, and we ended up on the bank of the Nam Ou River. 

After buying our tickets for $12 each, we asked for a toilet prior to the four-hour trip, but finally understood that there were only the bushes. 

Close up of silver headress of Akha Nuqui

The two ladies from our bus buying last minute items at the Hat Sa dock

 
Except for a German couple, we were the only foreigners in the area.  The boat started at 9:15AM with six passengers, stopped six times to pick up people on the banks of the river and to drop people and passengers off, with delays of five to twenty minutes per stop, and arrived at  2:00PM.  The boat went through rapids every few hundred yards, and we got a bit wet as waves sloshed over the sides, but we kept our cameras dry. We had been expecting a larger boat with bench seats like we had experienced on the Mekong River.

Nam Ou River Rapids

The 5 hour Nam Ou  Slow Boat Hat Sa to Muang Khoa

Arriving at Muang Khoua, we jumped into the water barefoot, then put on shoes to carry our bags up the hill to our Manhchai Guest House, a small family- run place for $10 per night with fan and hot private shower. This is across the street from the Sernally hotel that we had stayed at previously. The owner was very sweet and let me us an outdoor drying rack for our freshly laundered clothes. Dinner was at the most popular river view place, and we had an early night.

November 9 Phongsali to the villages 200 kilometers to the east and north

Map showing where we went

We started at 7:30 AM since we knew we had a long day ahead, loading the old van with 80 lbs. of salt, 200 notebooks, similar numbers of pens, pencils, packs of soap, shampoo, and some lipsticks and nail polish, as well as sewing needles to give to local villagers.  The first hour driving back to Boun Neua was on pavement, but the next four hours driving north along the border with China was on rough dirt roads with extensive mud, and we reached Yofam on the Nam Ou River, almost to the northern border of Laos, before we had lunch and turned back. Lunch had been purchased by Xia at the local market in Boun Neua.

Rice fields in valley with Thai village

Passing villages every few miles, the first village had Pinoy, next Tai Yang, followed by a group whose identity we have forgotten, then two Akha Nuqui villages, then a Pau village. When we found people along the way, Leslie would give out lipsticks or sewing needles to the older ladies, and pencils and notebooks for the students.

Akha Nuqui young girl

We stopped and distributed notebooks and pencils at an Akha school, and then talked to some of the ladies in the village, giving them sewing needles. Leslie purchased a bed weaving from a Tai Yang lady, who showed us her loom and where she lived. We hiked down a mud path into an Akha Nuqui village where there were an unusual number of cattle.  Although the chief had told us most of the women were still working in the fields, we found a group who were already at home, and had a good opportunity to get some pictures of them and their distinctive headdresses after Leslie made them gifts of sewing needles. Even when enticed with offers of sewing needles, there were some women who refused to come out of their homes to meet us, however. We have a lovely framed photograph from Victoria of several Akha Nuqui women that we believe was taken in this village.

Front of Akha Nuqui girl

Back of Ahka Nuqui girl at left with mother carrying bamboo and looking on

We visited a second Akha village on our way back, but it had started to rain, making the mud around the village very hard to walk through. The village was quite poor, and the people were anxious to get sewing needles and pencils. We were offered small stools to sit on and cold tea on the front porch of one house, while various men, women, and children would come to see us. The poorest villages also we gave each family a pound of salt.

We had intermittent rain during the day making the road even more muddy and slippery than it had been. The poor women and children walking home at the end of the day from working in the fields were obviously soaked and cold.

Akha Nuqui girl in second village in poor village

Finally we stopped in the first Akha village, but this time were mobbed by small kids anxious to get notebooks and pens.  We finally ran out of notebooks, but gave out soap and shampoo as well as ballpoint pens to those who missed out. We were reminded of the time in India when Aniesa and Jonathan were trying to give out pens from our train doorway and were mobbed. Obviously they had heard from villagers porting on their gifts received earlier in the day that they were on the lookout for us. It took Xia being the teacher that he used to be to get them to line up in 2 lines.

The scenery was lovely with fertile valleys with terraced rice fields and high lush forests. There continued to be some rubber and plantations. The butterflies in this area were abundant. 

It took several hours driving in the dark to finally get back to Phongsali, where we arrived some 13 hours after our morning departure. We went to bed after a quick dinner of bread, peanut butter and banana.

November 8 Phongsali and close environs to Akha Pixor and Akha Oma villages

The day started at 5:30 am with a loudspeaker blasting the "news" that continued till about 8 am and also started up in the evening. We suspect the the "news" had a particular slant. We were up early as we had made an appointment to meet a potential guide at 8 am at the tourist office. 

We headed first to the market to see if we could capture with photos any interesting hill tribe people. We were disappointed in that there was not much to see. We had breakfast at a small guest house just across the street from the market. The chefs here seem to use lots of oil in their cooking even with scrambled eggs. We then headed slightly down the hill to the tourist office to discuss a plan for the next two days. The gentleman at the tourist office said they did very basic treks and did not wander too far out of the valley. As we were particularly interested in visiting the Akha Nuqui group which is over 150 km away further north towards China on unpaved roads, he advised we go to the Amazing Lao travel office which was up the street and further down the road. So we wandered over there and met Xai who is the manager for the office. We arranged for an afternoon car trip to villages of the Akha Pixor and the Akha Oma that were about an hours drive from Phongsali. ($90) (email sivangxay@yahoo.com  GSM +865-20-55774354).  At the Akha Pixor village, after sitting with the the chief and being offered some Lao Lao rice whiskey, we went off to the school to distribute note books and pens.  The chief decided to come along carrying one of his grandchildren on his back. After this we toured the village but only a few women were around as most were still out in the fields working. The Akha women do just about all the work for the family, like working in the fields, cooking, cleaning, making the family traditional clothes etc. The men take care of the young children at home.

Akha Oma head dress from the back

One of the tribesmen, who do a lot of hunting, shared his basic .22 single shot rifle with home-made stock with David and the guide. Each took a couple target shots and David hit the bulls-eye on the 2nd shot. The first shot indicated which way the rifle's sights were set.

David trying a tribesman's rifle

Akha Oma school bag

We then drove about another hour on an unpaved new road to an Akha Oma village. We arrived after school was out for the day, and the women were returning home from the fields, so we took the notebooks and pencils and gave them to the teachers to distribute to the class later. We also gave them some of the Big Brother Mouse books we were still carrying. The best sight was the women bathing in their sarongs, and water buffalo getting into the act by licking the soap off the "laundry area". The Akha Oma are skilled needle workers and spinners, weavers, and indigo dyers. We saw some young boys enjoying a game of Pétanque using rocks instead of balls, their beautifully adorned school bags tossed carelessly on the rocks.

While visiting at the chief's house, his wife brought out some headscarves she wanted to sell. She modeled how to put it on and in the end Leslie bought one (an easy sales target). We then headed home and arranged to go with Xai and the same driver once he confirmed the battered van could make the trip we were planning for the morrow. A price of $220 for guide, driver and car was agreed on and a pick up time of 7:30am.

November 7th Muang Khoa to Phongsali

We started early as the drive is a long one - eight and a half hours, although the distance is less than 200 miles. After the first hour on the asphalt road, we travelled on a graded dirt track which is being paved as another route from China into Laos. Sometimes there was mud, particularly in a stretch where a rainstorm had just preceded us and our driver was having difficulty making progress uphill while a large bus was sliding down toward us and having trouble regaining control, but all worked out. The middle portion of road had sections with new paving mixed with sections of dirt, and we had several hold-ups while we waited for flagmen to allow us through single lane construction zones.

Various tribal villages were scattered along our track, with Kamu along the river banks, Tai Leu, and Akha at the higher regions. Most of the people did not wear their traditional clothes, but some wore at least the headwear and a few of the women wore their full costumes. We stopped at an Akha Pixor village and distributed notebooks and pencils, and Leslie gave a few ladies that were very friendly some lipstick or nail polish. Our driver and his wife were interested in all that was going on. On this second day of the trip the wife realized we were speaking Thai and that she could understand us.

We arrived in Phonsali at about 4:30 and found our preferred Viphaphone Hotel, the only one reputed to have Internet, but it turned out it had Internet cables in the room but no WiFi, which is needed by our IPad. The room was basic, had a view over the mountains, windows but no fan, was central, and cost $12.50 a night. We found another hotel down the street for Chinese dinner and checked it out: It also cost $12.50 a night and was supposed to have wireless, but we were never able to connect with our IPad, so we did not move. We called the guide Somtouy (020-2300-3309 / 020 9773-3114) who's name and number we had gotten from Martine. Somtouy was out trekking so could not work with us so he had a friend call us and we arranged to met the friend at the Tourist Office the next morning at 8 pm.

We organized our junk and collected laundry to hand in to the hotel, and retired.

November 6 Muang Sing to Muang Khua

We started early in our private minivan but the driver's "wife" turned up with him, which did not please us, as it is a common scam to sell extra seats although the car has been paid for already. In this case, based on the amount of back-seat driving she did, David deduced that she was indeed his wife just along for the ride.

We stopped at the village where Victoria had filmed a woman shaman named Lila doing a baby-healing ceremony to see if she was still there and if we could find out about the child's fate. Her relatives indicated she was at a village in the hills but would return in three days, but our lack of a good translator prevented us from getting more information.

Arriving back in Luang Nam Tha, we stopped at our Internet cafe to check emails, shopped in the market for more pencils, notebooks, shampoo, and lipsticks to give away in the next few days. Driving on for several hours on winding roads, we lunched at Oudam Xai, and then continued a few more hours to Muang Khua, on the river. We stayed at the priciest place in town, Serannaly Hotel, which was $25 per night but can be more than matched by the smaller places that charge just $10. Unfortunately, there was no WiFi to be found anywhere in town. There was a river view restaurant where we had supper.

It was a long day of driving in the car and would have been even worse going straight through to Phongsali.

Nov 5th Butterfly and Mein Villages

We were up early and out the door before 7AM to get some pictures of tribal people selling in the morning market. We probably got there a little too late unfortunately as there was not many women sellers in traditional clothes. We did notice that Indonesian cotton sarongs were being worn be several of the women which was a surprise . We bought some fresh limes and some fresh ginger to make a tea for David who has come down with a cold. The evenings, nights and early mornings are quite cool. After breakfast we walked out to the main road to explore and rent some bicycles to ride out to Bryan's house. Bryan lives in a simple two story house just across the street from the Butterfly school which they had built about 7 years ago through donations given at a fund raiser by the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA back in 2005. The reason Sisomphon thought that it was built by Singapore people and not Americans is that a relative of Bryan's had supervised some students from Singapore who did the paintings and they signed them "Singapore". We enjoyed a coffee with him and then agreed to meet him at the Tai Lue restaurant in town. He has helped them develop their menu over the years and the menu is quite extensive.

We cycled back into town and then handed in our bikes, exchanged some money and went back to our guest house. After lunch we hopped in our tuk-tuk along with Sisomphone and Martine who had decided to join us for the day. We headed North East near the Chinese border on a bumpy dusty road.

We stopped first at an Akha village where we saw the chief, and then distributed notebooks and pencils to the village schoolchildren, who scampered towards us from all over once they realized there were handouts. at first the chief ordered them into a line of about 20 kids, but after they had received their gifts, some were coming back for seconds, while others were rushing from far away. we did the best we could! None of the Akha men, women or children in the village were dressed in their traditional clothes, which they now use only for festivals.

We trekked away from the Akha village, followed by a dozen kids until we reached the boundary of the nearby Mein village, where they left us. Mein villages are described as having 'no village gate, ceremonial building or dancing ground - sometimes not even a well-defined village area'. You will know that a village is Mein if you come across 'groups of black-turbaned,red-ruffed women on low stools bending over their embroidery' (People's of the Golden Triangle, Lewis & Lewis). Sure enough, we did find some cute older ladies still in their red-ruffed coats doing embroidery, and Leslie was able to buy a nice embroidered baby-carrier and to get a picture of the woman who had made it. Instead of their beautifully embroidered trousers with their coats they were wearing very colorful Indonesian batik sarongs.

These two villages were both fairly close to the road, and both showed the rapid loss of using their traditional clothing. This seems very widespread in Laos, where the government has encouraged the tribes to move down from remote mountain villages and to establish new villages along the roads, where they have better access to schooling, transport, medical services, etc.

We returned to our guest house, then went out for dinner with Bryan Watt to Thai Leu restaurant, purchased some weavings from young Thai Dam girls who live in the village across from him, enjoyed excellent food and company and then hit the sack.

Martine showing cross stitch motifs speaking explanations of their meanings and placement on pants

One of the red-ruffed ladies we met in the village

Giving school notebooks and pencils along with Big Brother Mouse story books. One being read here by Sisomphone

November 4th Ban Nong Bou

We had a slow starting day but arranged to go with a tuk-tuk, Sisomphon and our new friend Martine to visit the Lollopho ethnic minority. Martine is a lively older French woman who is doing research on the Mien embroidery motifs, their placement on the clothes, etc. she is a volunteer at a beautiful museum of Yoa / Mien artifacts located in Avallon, central France.(www.museeavallonnais.com). As there is only one English speaking guide, we shared him to go to this village. We met first with the village chief and distributed a heavy sack of salt, school notebooks, pencils and soap. Martine asked questions regarding the Lollopho ceremonies for marriage, birth of a child and death. It was interesting to hear the differences in the practices between the Lollopho here in Laos and those in Vietnam. We walked through the village and took pictures. We walked past a school that was well built with nice bathrooms and colorful paintings on the wall. Leslie was sure it was the Butterfly Development Center for pictures she had seen on the website. Sisomphom did not know it by that name but said it was built by Singapore people which did not make sense at the time because Bryan Watt and his wife Dr. Leila Schour are Americans.

Martine was also looking to purchase a woman's Lollopho outfit in this village. This took some time, and finally she was able to buy a complete outfit, but the headdress is only the simple black scarf, not the elaborate embroidered one that is more typical. She had been to this village last year during the New Year's celebration when everyone was all in traditional dress.

We also walked to a Thai Dam village and were immediately besieged by women looking to sell their woven products. Martine and I both bought a few items.

We returned to Phou Ou Bunglaows and tried again with the Internet without much success. For some reason google does not seem to like Laos and does not let you easily access your email. We had dinner here at the hotel which is the best in town.

Lollopho woman smoking bamboo water pipe

Lollopho woman making pig food from banana tree stalk

Lollopho woman smoking a pipe

November 3 Luang Nam Tha to Muang Sing

Rising early, Leslie took advantage of the Internet in a nearby cafe to make a few phone calls and check for emails, then we checked out of our guest house. The total cost for three nights, laundry, and the previous day's bike rental was less than $40, or $13 per day!

We met our guide, Sisomphom, from the guest house in Muang Sing, who had come down to pick us up and show us a few hill tribe villages en route to Muang Sing. We first visited the local market where we bought about 80 pounds of salt organized in small bags to give to village people. We bought about 200 school notebooks, and similar numbers of pens, pencils, some sharpeners. Leslie found lipsticks and a few nail polishes for the girls, and sewing needles for the older ladies, and we bought a couple hundred small bars of soap and packs of shampoo. Having used all our Kip (Lao money), we went to an ATM to get cash for the next few days.

Just a few miles out of town we found Ban Nam La village, where we later realized Victoria had filmed a baby healing ceremony for the Hmong Deaw (Blue Hmong) people, performed by a woman shaman named Lila. We had a picture of another woman that Victoria had given us, and the first villager that we showed it to told us they knew the woman but she had moved a kilometer up the road to another village called Pin Hau. Sure enough, villagers there pointed out her house right on the road, and when she came out she was the same but seven years older, a little thinner, and she would not smile for our photos because she was sensitive that she had lost some teeth! She did insist that she get properly dressed in traditional garb before we took her picture, and said that she had missed seeing Victoria for several years now. We said Victoria hoped to be back within a few months, and we would give her a print of our pictures to,bring back to her Her name is Neung Siya, and she claimed to be sixty years old with six sons, no daughters, and 28 grandchildren.

We proceeded to stop at a few other villages, and distributed some of our gifts. We were disappointed that few of the people were dressed in their traditional clothes, and those that were in traditional were mostly older women.

Arriving down into the valley of Muang Sing at about 2,000 feet elevation, we checked in to our bungalow, which we had selected because it was supposed to have Wi Fi, but which does not seem to be functioning.

During lunch Leslie started to feel ill, and quickly developed severe stomach problems and a fever of 101 F. Because of the fever we asked Sisomphom where we could find a Doctor. His father took us to the local hospital around 6pm. The doctor understood little English, but we explained the problem in English/Thai, showed him our medicines, and he told Leslie to take our anti-nausea meds and supplied some antibiotic from the hospital pharmacy for us and charged us $4. Hopefully this will get her well again.

Neung Siya, a Blue Hmong that Victoria photographed 7 years earlier