Summer in Vietnam

marty mopar

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This is my 14th summer in Vietnam. Married a Hmong woman from here. Met her in 2004 when travelling in Sapa (in the very far north). In this area there are at least 6 ethnic minorities.
All speak a different language and their clothes are different. Common language is Vietnamese. Our hotel costs us 8.50 dollars a day. A big room/2 beds and it is a 9 room hotel. The owners love us
and we have use of their kitchen, we eat together and cook together. So it costs us nearly nothing compared to a hotel in the USA. The market is about a 15 minute walk and we buy all of our food fresh. We are here for 4 months.

Any of you want to visit I will buy the first bowl of rice!


pics here and will add more:



Sapa Vietnam May 2023

Skirts in the Market, Sapa Vietnam May 21, 2023
Sister Za visits us in Sapa, Vietnam 5-23-2023
 
My wife would never go, she thinks Japan is a third world country. She has many misconceptions of foreign countries.
 
Lucky! I've always wanted to go to Vietnam, and have heard many good things about Sapa. I just rewatched "King Kong skull island" which was filmed mostly in Ninh Binh, chosen no doubt for it's absolutely amazing scenery.
 
most of the textiles are handmade

To get an idea of what kind of destruction of the mountainside is going on
on the road below Sapa here are some pics. This is a fraction of the digging
away of the mountains and scraping hillsides to put up more hotels and other
garbage. It is everywhere.

Walking to the Village 5-24-2023 (The destruction of the valley)

Here are 2 homes next to each other. May's brother Yee built a new home on the same place his old one was and next
door his son built one too. However, the Vietnamese built a dirt road right above those houses but being idiots, they forgot
it rains...and rains a shitload. Surprise! It rained bigtime and flooded both houses this month. 2 motorbikes, a washing
machine and a refrigerator destroyed. Note all the sandbags alongside the homes and colorful tarps. Some of the rice fields
were trashed, toilets and more.
Some officials came by and took pics. They said they would get restitution but it may take time. And by that I mean it may be
when the Pope has a Bar Mitzvah. Lots of family were there and we ate well. Plenty of fog and some rain.

That big cicada in May's paw I caught on the tree outside the house. Really scary loud. And heard another one that sounded like
a siren. New to me because I've never been here in May. At night in the rice fields that surround the house were lots of small frogs
that were super loud. New to me also.

NOTE: when I first came to Vietnam in 2003 everyone smoked including old ladies, schoolkids, babies and dead people.
OK so I am exaggerating. But now it is super rare to see it, a shock really.


Lao Chai Village near Sapa, Vietnam 5-24-2023
 
So far, I have changed 590.00 USD into the local currency for the
Hmong and the Red Dzao women in the market and one Viet who
could not change dollars at the bank because: broken, less than 5.00, or the
old style without the new security strips in them. It would be nice if the clueless
customers with dollars would bother to change them into Vietnamese money.

The wood in the village used for cooking is bamboo and some hardwood sticks.
No logs or charcoal. May's brother has a propane tank and a small stovetop burner too.
Also, this new house has something I've never seen before in the village: a HUGE chimney over
the fire pit. FINALLY, a fire and no smoke all through the house. A vast improvement!

I was watching Ku (Mays' sister-in-law) cooking and noticed she was spooning something
onto a frypan from a 10-gallon vat. OH, BABY it was pig fat. I asked her if she could cook the
veggies with water and she did. There was no vegetable oil in the house just white goo from
one of many pigs that live (lived) in the pen at the house. A little bit of oink in all the food.

Water Buffalo: Normally one or two but Ku has 2 adults and 2 juveniles. They need to be taken
out so they can feed on the hillsides and then brought back to the pens. They are very expensive
to buy and often die when it gets cold here in the winter. It can snow here.........They are used for
plowing the fields. There are 2 dogs at the house. Nobody plays with them, and they are fed scraps
(mostly old rice). Their job: cleaning up crew and warning if someone approaches the house.
There are chickens and sometimes ducks at homes. No cats about but in the past, they were used for
mousing. Guess no mice anymore.

Toilets? Neither house had one but there were small rooms built for that but not completed. In all the
years in the past there never were any indoor or outdoor toilets. You just walked out and did your
business. Just like camping.

The babies in the houses had diapers.....in the past the kids would run around naked or have no pants
and **** all over. Progress? Maybe....where do those disposable diapers go? Not sure as there is no garbage
pick-up in the villages. Burning perhaps....oh great burning turds drifting over the house........or dumped outside.

Being in the villages will set your brain on this setting: "scrambled" because everything you know is wrong.
Was there a shower at those houses? Nope. Toilet ditto. Sink ditto. There was running water in the kitchen for
cleaning dishes down low about a foot off the floor.

A kilo (2.2 lbs. in case you forgot) of fresh tofu in the market is half a dollar and tastes nothing like what you would
get in the stores in the USA. ******* amazing and still hot if you get up early enough. Fresh bamboo is a real treat
to eat too here. Just great in all sorts of dishes.

Weekend markets are huge and the parking lot in front of the market
and along the sides are loaded with vendors. Here are some pictures
and a few inside the market also. Note the motorbike loaded with plants
for sale and a couple loading some huge heavy bag onto one. Who needs
a car or a truck?

Saturday Market in Sapa, Vietnam 5-27-2023
 
Been to Japan twice, bullet train out of Tokyo, visual treat most interesting to see.

China twice, both times Hunan province.

Amazing how they are both different from the other, and Vietnam is undoubtedly the same to both. Glad I've seen a slice of the world.
 
First, thanks for sharing your travels. Closest in travel was to South Korea. I agree the tofu is amazing when compared to what's in the US. The market looks like a great time, having folks who know how to prepare them is priceless. Vietnam and Thailand are on the list.
 
Thanks for sharing. That looks like a fun time, with exception of the whole poop thing.
Otherwise, that would be awesome to experience all the food.
What is all that? Have you tried all the different fruits and vegetables? Favorites?
 
Tried it? I eat it all the time as they forgot to have all the fast food places and all the other
rat-**** processed slop in the USA here. We cook at the hotel and once in a while eat out. The markets are
amazing and all of it fresh. We walk everywhere and never need to use any other transport.

Today I walked about 4 miles total and played 2 hours of frisbee in the park. I brought 3 of them with me
as you can not buy one here. Got a local guy who I taught a few years ago to play.
 
One of the best trips we’ve done was a motorcycle ride from Hanoi to Hoi An! We almost went north but it was winter and it does get cold up there. Thanks for the post. Following.
 
Thanks Marty. I "vacationed" in Viet Nam once, (68-69) To exciting for me.
Really though, I've heard nice things about going back there since
.
 
Don't think I will ever get to Vietnam since my wife is a Filipina who I met in the Philippines November 2000. Spent two weeks over Christmas with relatives in three different locations. One the family house and the other two resort spots. Being out in the province in a typical Filipino, shall we say relatively poor neighborhood, is an experience. The house on a hill with a million dollar view of Manila 20 miles away as the crow flies. The family...

IMG_4129.JPG
 
Well I think my wife's family size wise might be the winner:

when her mother died at the age of 93 she had 54 grandchildren

her mother had 13 kids

My wife had no kids and one of her sisters had zero and 3 died before the age of 8

one of my wife's sisters had 13 kids

So the rest were cranking out babies until menopause hit. Some had a baby every year.

Diapers nope ...kids running around on the dirt floor crapping everywhere.

I have a picture of my wife's mother and one of her sisters...the 2 of them had 25 kids

When I tell them I had a vasectomy years ago they think they cut the whole thing off....
 
1st 3 pics: Black Dzao /fake plastic braids and a "toaster" metal thing attached to it.
Do not see them much here but she was selling a few things. The rest of the pictures
are the Lu people. They have black teeth as they chew some plant material. They have
unusual skirts made with embroidery. Also do not show up here often.

Black Dzao & Lu People June 2023

Food

the drink stand where I get awesome smoothies. There is the owner. Also, bitter melon and some sticky rice
made by the Hmong. Tied by a strand of bamboo and wrapped in a leaf: 100% biodegradable


Food: Sapa Vietnam June 2023


Vendors

notable here is the handmade wooden gizmo that winds thread. Would love to bring this back but
way TOO fragile. The vendor gave it a spin for me.



Hmong Vendors: Outdoor Market Sapa, Vietnam June 2023

Night market

Night Market Sapa, Vietnam May 2023

May's sister visits us...she has on a light blue shirt

May's sister Za visits us in Sapa, Vietnam May 2023

May's sister in-law visits

2nd time I have seen here since 2004. She lives 6 hours away and is sporting a bandana. The young girl is 17 and already has 1 child. All of them are family and very poor. May's brother had died by the time I first came here.

May's sister-in-law & family visits us in Sapa Vietnam May 2023



Our hotel

Views from the roof and interior lobby where you park your motorbikes. No parking lot outside if you have a car. You park alongside the curb. That HUGE wooden piece of furniture is up on the very top roof floor. It is the shrine to Buddha and at times the husband of the couple that owns the place is up there lighting loads of incense. Ly is the wife and she is standing behind May.


Hotel Thanh Ly in Sapa, Vietnam May 2023

So far not a huge amount of rain YET. Plenty of fog and big time clouds.

We buy all our food fresh at the market and cook it at the hotel. Better than a restaurant and cheaper!

weather this week: high/low temps in F and a chance of rain every day

Tue
Thundershower

78°
69°
Wed
Thundershower

81°
69°
Thu
Thundershower

82°
69°
Fri
Thundershower

77°
69°
Sat
Showers

78°
69°
Sun
Thundershower

81°
69°
Mon
Thundershower

81°
69°
Tue
Thundershower

78°
69°
 
Looks like fun. Cool little machine.

Curious, do the Lu's younger women have black teeth? It's an interesting look for sure.
 
never see the young ones so who knows

when they smile it sure looks like all their teeth got knocked out in a bar fight

the 1st time I saw them was in 2004 when I 1st came here...it was a WTF????? moment for sure.

BUT then again almost every day here is at least one WTF moment.
 
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