To ease my impatience for new material between journeys, this post will feature some of the photos which are still awaiting their proper positions.
So here we go – Sapa, Vietnam, where one can spend weeks and never see the view. This mountain top town is often enveloped in chilly cloud and mist. Every hotel is happy to organize a guided walk for you which most commonly involves a muddy slide down steep hills to some villages which are low enough to, unlike Sapa, be out of the clouds. The return is typically by minibus which makes the whole process of getting away from frigid Sapa relatively painless.
Three of the four Hmong girls who grabbed on to accompany us down the trail. They make themselves as helpful as they can and at the end you feel obligated to buy from them. A mixed bag on how it all makes you feel.
Here are some views of the trail: Is this the way??
The fellow scratching his head is our “guide”. I suppose our real trail guides were these four Hmong lasses who knew this trail intimately. As one of the Hmong girls starts down, you can see that there must be a route down there somewhere.
This is the Hmong village we are approaching – Y Linh Ho. It is still cloudy and misty, but the view is not so obscured as it had been farther up the mountain.
such sweet faces
The unique textiles associated with each tribe are astonishing and beautiful.
Most of the people we encounter are positioned to sell things to us. It is nice to be able to just watch these unselfconscious children at play.
As essays and trip report emails from the 2010 trip are gradually added in, these photos will move to their proper pages. Thus, the contents of this post will change often, as photos are sent off to illustrate their stories. At the end of this ever-changing post will be links to the posts containing photos that were previously featured here.