Ba Da Ba Sa Pa! I’m Lovin’ It.
When planning for our one week trip in October, I knew I wanted to get into nature and possibly hike if we could find a good location. With neighboring countries starting to open we decided to venture out of Thailand for our first Asia trip outside the country. Our first choice: Vietnam, specifically northern Vietnam. From the beautiful views of the rice paddies and mountains to the hustle and bustle of the historic city of Hanoi we knew this trip would be one to remember.
We flew into Hanoi, but the first leg of our trip started in Sa Pa. It is a small tourist town in the northern part of Vietnam. It is the starting point for treks into the rice paddies and local villages of various tribes like the H’mong, Dzao, Tay, and Giay (pronounced Zai).
Eric found a reputable trekking company called Sapa Sisters online. We decided to book a tour with them because they are a co-op of local women from the Black H’mong tribe who lead groups of trekkers through their villages and the mountains in the area. The company sounded like a good place to put our money towards so we booked a 3 day, 2 night tour with a local guide.
Getting to Sa Pa was a unique experience. A transportation company, arranged by Sapa Sisters, picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at a small office waiting area on the side of the road. After much confusion, many phone calls, and several hours, we were finally on a sleeper bus headed to Sa Pa!
At first, Eric was giddy with excitement for this new mode of transportation, and thought maybe it would be like being rocked to sleep. We realized soon after that the cubbies weren’t quite long enough for us to stretch out and the ride was very bumpy with several moments when the driver slammed on the brakes. So sleeping wasn’t really an option for either of us.
While we were waiting for the sleeper bus, we met a kind, young woman named Rachel. She was also on her way to do a trek with Sapa Sisters. We soon learned that she’s from Singapore and out on her first solo traveling adventure. We enjoyed chatting and getting to know one another. She recently graduated from university and is currently teaching English. She hopes to someday go into journalism making documentaries about the culture, food, and traditions of people in Singapore. I am thankful our paths crossed with a friendly soul like her.
We arrived in Sa Pa around 5 am, and gathered our luggage amidst swarms of locals asking us if we had a booking, if we wanted to go on a trek, or if we needed a taxi. After we separated from the bus stop, Rachel, Eric and I walk to the Sapa Sisters office where we would wait until our trek was to start at 9 am.
We walked through Sa Pa Town past hotel after hotel. Restaurants and bars mixed in every now and then. There was several places with neon lights to attract tourists. This town was clearly built for tourism.
Despite the fact that it was before daylight there were many people out starting their day. Some were preparing for the market, some were exercising along the lake, others were just hanging out like this was a normal time to be chilling with friends.
After waiting a few hours for the Sapa Sisters office to open, we finally met Coo, the person we had been in contact with about our trek. She was kind and helped orient us to the area.
While waiting for our guide to arrive, we went with Rachel to a restaurant next door to get some pho and spring rolls. We also picked up a long-sleeve shirt to keep Eric warm.
After a tasty meal and with our backpacks packed, we were ready to hit the road. Chai, our trek guide met us at the office and we were off!
Chai is a young woman in her early 30s who has been a tour guide for 8 years with Sapa Sisters. Soon after meeting her we learned that she never went to school and taught herself English through talking with tourists. Her self-taught English was impressive, especially considering she also never learned to read or write, in her tribal language, Vietnamese, or English.
Chai is part of the Black H’mong tribe, which is the ethnic group that most women from Sapa Sisters are from. She has never left Vietnam, instead the world has come to her in the form of travelers that she has guided in the Sa Pa area. She has dreams of traveling to Singapore and maybe someday to Australia.
Chai told us we could ask her anything, and she really was an open book. This led to many interesting and informative conversations and stories, some I will share here.
She grew up in the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range with many siblings, and her mother still lives in a remote village far into the mountains. Today Chai lives in the Ta Van village in the Muong Hoa Valley near Sa Pa. She has grown up hiking in the mountains, working in the rice paddies, and gaining knowledge about the flora and fauna that she would soon teach us.
We discussed our route with Chai day by day depending on the weather. Even though the first day was quite cloudy, Eric and I were most excited to hike up to a mountain peak. This first day would be the most difficult of the three, in part because of the steep incline and decline, but also because our bodies weren’t adjusted yet to walking 6 hours a day.
Our route started by walking through Sa Pa Town for a bit but soon veering off to a small unmarked alley. (This would be the first of many small paths we would follow.) This quickly became a lightly maintained dirt path. Chai let us know that all the paths we would be on henceforth would be trails farmers use to get to their farms, to the city, and more.
Our first lesson from Chai was about indigo. This plant is of great importance to her people. The women use it dye their handmade traditional clothing. She picked a few handfuls of the leaves and handed them to us and asked if we wanted to see the color on our hands. We said yes, of course.
After rubbing and squeezing it for about 2 minutes we slowly began to see the green color change to blue. Our hands became stained with the blue indigo color and it would last for the rest of our time in Vietnam.
We continued hiking up the mountain stopping to try berries Chai would pick and share with us. We also watched the water buffalo chill on the farms, in the rice paddies, or just in a patch of grass. We saw horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. This side of the river we would hike first had been burned by a wildfire a few years back so it was mostly grasses and bushes, no trees or forests.
We also passed by many fields/gardens of hemp plants. Chai has some plants herself that she uses to weave her family’s clothing. Most local people do not consume/smoke hemp/cannabis.
While hiking up we talked with Chai and learned about her and her life. It was beautiful. We knew we were in for an unforgettable experience. I will be including pictures of the scenery that we enjoyed as we listened to and learned from Chai.
One of the first stories she told us was about the practices of marriage in her tribe. It is common for girls and boys to marry quite young and start a family before turning 20, sometimes earlier. She said, “There are three ways to get married here. You choose your husband, you have an arranged marriage, or you get kidnapped and taken to your soon-to-be husband’s house.” Not many people get choose their husband. Her story was of an arranged marriage. And unfortunately, many others in her community are forced into the marriage through kidnapping.
This unfortunate fate was true for at least one of her cousins. There is a traditional New Years party, also known as “The Love Market”. She recounted the time she went to the party with her cousin at a young age, around 10 years old. She didn’t understand the practice of abducting young girls for marriage, so when the men asked her where her cousin was, she pointed to her. The men suddenly captured her cousin and took her to the family of her soon to be husband. To this day her cousin is married to that man. It doesn’t sound like a particularly happy marriage. Her cousin is now 32, the same age as Chai, and is a grandmother. She was married and pregnant by age 15, so now her children are around that age and have their own children.
After experiencing her cousin’s abduction as a young girl, she was resistant to her parents' marriage arrangement a few years later. They were trying to set her up with a boy she met and knew from working in the rice fields. She said no, I don’t want to marry him over and over, and yet her mother continued to insist he would be a good man to marry and had land that would be prosperous for her and her children. The guy her family had chosen also wanted to marry Chai and insisted that he wouldn’t marry anyone else except her.
The pressure that was put on her sounded immense. After years of resistance, her mother became worried that Chai would commit suicide due to the pressure and her resistance. (This is sadly all too common in hill tribes.)
So instead, they took her to the village shaman to find out what the future would hold (and to try and convince her). The shaman did some sort of ceremony involving two chickens. One male chicken that represented her, the girl, and one female chicken that represented the boy. I didn’t quite understand when Chai described what the chickens were doing, but the shaman’s conclusion was that the male chicken was always on top during the ritual. So that meant that they should get married but that in order to have a happy life Chai would need to be on top, or in charge. She would need the ability to build her life as she pleased in order to make the marriage a good one. After hearing that result she agreed to marry this man, at age 22, which is quite old for the average woman in her tribe.
The shaman’s prediction is essentially what we witnessed at her home. She and her husband, and two kids have a pretty happy life. Chai is very active and has her own job and runs the house. Her husband was and is exceptionally active in caring for the children, which many men around him are not. He helps out with cooking and housework, unlike many of the local men. She also had her children later at age 24, and insists that she only wants 2 children, instead of 8-10 like many local women have. This has remained true so far. I’m impressed that she has crafted this amazing life for herself despite the circumstances. Also, compared to the lives she described to us that her sisters, brothers, and cousins have.
As I reflect on her story, the shaman’s role is fascinating to me. He was a counselor and was able to identify a point of tension for her/them and release that so that they could find peace and a happy life in the future which we witnessed. But he also plays a role in continuing traditions that could be unhealthy for those involved. Like child marriage. It is also important to consider the lack of education that exists for many of these young girls who haven’t had the opportunity to learn there could be another way.
My mind was opened up to even more questions.… Are there ways to evolve their traditions so that those involved are more comfortable? Or is their young age and vulnerability significant to the tradition? I only know a small part of the story of a marriage tradition that has existed for hundreds of years, so it isn’t my place to say how they can change it. After hearing Chai’s perspective and story. I wonder how she would’ve wanted it to be different so she was more confident and less terrified.
Once we made it to the top of the mountain we gazed out at the clouds and thick fog. Chai described to us what the view would be if it were clear. It sounded amazing. Mountains all around with a view of Fansipan, the tallest peak in the region.
Eric asked about her torque type necklace that we had both been observing thus far in the trek. It is made of silver and has small loops on one side and a woven type of pattern on the other. She shared another story with us.
When she was young she became very sick, and she often would be fearful of bad things happening to her. So her parents took her to the shaman and he gave her this traditional silver torque necklace. She used to have a smaller hoop when she was a kid, but now has a larger one as an adult. Since then it has protected her as she walks through the world, as she hikes mountains, as she guides and teaches tourists today. She wears it at all times, even in the shower. It is good luck, and protection from fear and keeps her strong.
We noticed other women in her village and even her son who also had this traditional hoop protecting them.
After hearing this story I couldn’t help but think her silver necklace was a tool to combat/cope with anxieties that were building in her as a young girl. After the trauma of witnessing her cousin’s kidnapping, getting sick, knowing a forced marriage was likely, and probably much more stress, I can imagine the fear she would’ve been holding.
We continued hiking across the mountains and stopped at a small restaurant for trekkers. At each lunch stop there were three choices of food – fried rice, fried noodles, or noodle soup. The food was decent, but mostly was sustenance to maintain our energy for walking.
Once we finished our lunch we walked on the road for a while instead of the small path on the mountain. We chose mostly smaller paths during our trek because those led to the more beautiful views, and were less busy. On the roads you see more tourists and local women and children selling souvenirs to tourists. As we walked away from the restaurant an older woman followed us in hopes of selling us a souvenir. We were not interested because we had read that if you buy one item, they will follow you and insist you buy more. Even though we said no multiple times, she still followed us all the way to the end of our trek.
In the afternoon, the clouds started to clear a bit so we started to see a little more of the views – the surrounding mountains, endless rice fields, and farmland.
There were always water buffalo along the trails we walked. This meant we encountered many “buffalo chocolates” (buffalo dung). Chai made many jokes and shared a few funny stories involving tourists and buffalo chocolates.
As we walked down the mountain Chai picked some special plants to take home and boil to make an herbal foot bath for us to soak our feet after the long day of hiking. Chai’s mother is a shaman medicine woman who taught Chai many of the plants and herbs used to make medicines. She shared much of her knowledge with us as we walked through the mountains and forest.
It became clear that walking is still one of the most common methods of transportation out here. There are motorbikes and sometimes cars, but some villages and parts of the mountains are unreachable by any other way other than on foot. Chai’s mother still lives in a remote village that takes 7 hours one way to walk to, and there isn’t a way to drive there. Little to say, Chai doesn’t visit her mom often, usually her mom comes to the village to visit Chai and her siblings who live in her village of Ta Van.
We descended the mountain which turned out to be the most challenging part of our trek. Not only was the path rocky and unpredictable, the decline was very steep. It hurt my knees and feet to be going at that angle for so long. There weren’t switchbacks, just a slight zigzag and sometimes straight down path. I was significantly behind Chai and Eric who were galloping down the mountain at a much faster pace. I later learned Chai was trying to beat the rain.
Once we made it to the bottom we were walking through Chai’s village that sits in the valley between the huge mountains. We had another half hour or more until we would get to her house. After making it to the bottom we looked up the mountain and got a good look at how far we had come and why it was so painful. My body isn’t made for that type of walking. Chai’s is for sure.
These are Chai’s hiking shoes.
Finally, we arrived at Chai’s house! It began to rain minutes after. We met her two kids. The older one is a 9 year old boy and the younger one is a 7 year old girl. Both are cute and we often heard laughter and giggles in their room. We also soon met several of Chai’s animals – ducks, chickens (roosters, hens, and baby chicks), and dogs.
Her house was typical of this village. The bottom part is made of bricks and the top is made of wood. Her husband built it for the family several years ago. A big reason she was pushed to marry him was because of the land his family owned. Once they married she was part of the family and took advantage of the space they had. She now has a pretty big house where she often hosts tourists on treks. She also has a garden, many animals, and rice paddies just down from her house. She is lucky that all of her farm is close to her house in the village.
Many others are not as lucky. Some people have a house in the valley and their land and animals are on the mountain. Some people have a house and animals on the mountain and then go to the valley for their fields and to get food and supplies. So there is a lot of “commuting” from your home and work for some people.
It was fascinating to see how she and her family live. Her house is an important place in her community. Her neighbors who are mostly her in-laws, nieces, and nephews come to use their water to wash dishes, take showers, and use the toilet. Many houses still don’t have running water. Many of her nieces and nephews are in and out of the house playing, watching TV, or just hanging out.
She harvests her own stockpile of rice. This pile isn’t even a year’s worth.
I watched as her and her husband prepared dinner – cutting vegetables, washing dishes, building the fire all while sitting on the ground or a small stool. Some people complain about not having a dishwasher, but this is next level dishwashing in tubs on the ground.
Eric helped with some of the preparations, but Chai’s husband, Tinh, did much of the prep while Chai cooked all the food.
Hand-made knives, by Tinh.
H’mong women learn and master so many amazing skills, and I think Chai has mastered more than the average woman. Everything from preparing, dying, and embroidering clothes, making plum wine, growing and processing the rice to feed her family, cooking, parenting, taking care of her animals, preparing medicinal plants to care for her family, tending to her garden, while also having a full time job as a trek guide. I am amazed by the talents this active woman does on a daily basis.
Once the food was prepared we enjoyed a nice home cooked meal with her family.
Before going to bed, we soaked our feet in the herbal bath Chai prepared for us.
Then we retired to the bedroom for a long, hard, and much needed rest. We woke up a few times to the roosters crowing at 2, 3, and 5 am, but were able to fall back to sleep until about 8 am.
In the morning we enjoyed some noodle soup and tea before setting out for Day 2 of our trek.
Because it looked like the skies were a bit more clear we chose to take another mountain route on the other side of the river. This route would include lots of rice paddies, of course, bamboo forests, and many stream crossings.
Unfortunately, the woman we were going to visit for lunch was out for the day attending a funeral of a local person so we didn’t go all the way up the mountain like Chai planned. Nonetheless it was beautiful.
It was along the beginning of this hike Chai shared stories about funerals, both personally and culturally. The person who passed away in the village was part of Tinh’s family so she thought she might need to attend later in the day.
First, she shared the story of her father with us. At the funerals of her people there is always a singer who sings about the life and death of the deceased, and other musicians who play flutes made of bamboo. Her father was one such musician. He had a great voice and knew the traditional songs to sing depending on how the person died so that they can guide them on the path after life. The funeral lasts three days, which includes lots of eating and drinking together. Her father was a heavy drinker, as are many people in her village. All local families make their own rice liquor as well as other alcohols made of corn or fruit.
When Chai was around 9 years old her father went to a funeral to perform the music, and then indulged in many drinks. The house where the funeral was held was made from bamboo. Houses made from bamboo have to be rebuilt every 3 years in order to maintain their strength. This house had not been kept up with so it was a weak structure. Her dad passed out in the house after drinking late into the night. Then there was a bad storm that came through the village and knocked down the fragile house. Her father wasn’t in his right mind and was unable to escape the destruction of the house and he died in the collapse.
This traumatizing experience at such a young age has shaped Chai as she has grown older. It has served as a cautionary tale when it came to the structure of her house, but especially when it comes to drinking. She, her husband, and some of her close family members do not engage in heavy drinking. When there is a party - wedding, harvest, New Year, or even at funerals - she will have a drink or two but is not interested in the communal drunken stupor. This doesn’t sit well with much of her community. They see it as selfish, that she doesn’t care about the community, the culture, and doesn't want to have a good time. When in reality she is trying to take care of herself and her family; keep them out of harm's way.
After hearing the story of her father and about the rituals around funerals for her village, we asked if funerals are frequent, she said yes. She shared that the main cause of local deaths is suicide or accidents related to overdrinking. This reality was hard to hear and sad to process. Due to the circumstances of many local people and the limited options and resources available many turn to drinking, and sometimes kill themselves.
Chai is an impressively strong young woman who makes these unpopular decisions for herself. To be able to think critically about a situation, learn from the past, and make changes for her and her family that are healthy and safe. I remain inspired by her. She stands for a way of life that still respects and maintains the traditions of her people while also making safe choices. Not everyone has the strength to do that. The social fabric of her community is strong and influential.
Hearing these stories makes me reflect on my own family and social pressures. It is not even comparable. Yes, people in the states have pressure to marry, some more than others, but it’s nothing compared to the life many young women experience here. I am thankful for my parents and family who have been supportive of my choices whether they were what they wanted or not. Living a life as free as I have had the privilege to live is a gift. It’s not something I earned or deserve but am thankful to have.
While trekking with Chai, I am reminded of all the hikes I’ve taken in the US. I start thinking about what it would be like if a guide like this existed in America. Unfortunately most of the indigenous people who would teach and guide me through an experience like this describing ancient traditions and farming techniques are gone. Because of the genocide of native Americans by the Europeans this experience is nearly unavailable. Now, we just guide ourselves, not knowing the history of the land. What if an indigenous member of the Snoqualmie Tribe was our guide along a route in the North Cascades. That is hard to imagine, but fascinating to think about.
After hiking all morning through various terrain we stopped for lunch with several other trekkers. I chose an easier route for the afternoon that ended up being along a road, but thankfully we didn’t have any additional followers asking us to buy their goods. We stopped at one of the creeks and Chai filled our water bottles with fresh mountain water. It was the most delicious water we had our whole trip in Vietnam!
As we hiked down the mountain to return to her village in the valley she shared the story of Sa Pa Town. The town used to be small and really just had a weekend market that villagers would go to buy and sell goods. But around 2007 Vietnamese people from the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh decided to develop the area because of the opportunity to build up tourism there. So Sa Pa Town as it is today has really only been around for about 10 years. Now the city is rather big and lots of people come to Sa Pa Town. Some stay in the city and take the cable car up to Fansipan, the tallest peak. Some will explore the hill tribes via trekking through the mountains and valleys. Others come by car to the valley to see how the villagers live.
We walked through the villages in the afternoon – through Lao Chai where the H’mong tribe lives and Ta Van which is a mix of Black H’mong and Giay tribes. This part of the walk was more developed and touristy. We saw more foreigners, and stopped at a couple of shops to learn about local traditions for grinding corn by hand and using a water mill to grind rice. Chai lives between these two villages and soon we arrived back at her house.
Once we got back to her house she showed us how she dyes the hemp and cotton fabric in indigo. Then Chai showed us her traditional clothing that she wears for celebrations or funerals. It was beautiful. All of it handmade. Some of it hemp, which all local families grow and harvest themselves.
Once it’s grown the women pull apart each string then twist the pieces together to make one very long continuous string that they can use to weave. Then they soak it in ash and dry it until it turns white. Once it is white they put it onto the wooden loom that is made locally from wood by the men who build the houses. They weave it into fabric. Next the fabric is soaked in the indigo dye for hours. Chai dyes the fabric many, many times until it turns black (i.e. Black H’mong). Other tribes have other traditional colors and styles.
Chai showed us the intricate hand embroidery work that she puts into the traditional clothing that her family wears for special occasions. All designs and styles created by her.
There are a few types of H’mong tribes in this part of Vietnam and Southeast Asia who have their own customs and traditional clothing. White H’mong, Flower H’mong, and Blue/Green H’mong. Each has their own type of traditional clothing, customs, and traditions. All of the tribal groups are fairly peaceful and haven’t had much history of fighting according to Chai.
However, the group that is most different and didn’t used to be as accepted is the Green H’mong. This group used to sacrifice the firstborn son and eat it to celebrate. This was not cool with the other H’mong groups so they wouldn’t intermingle much with them. This is no longer a practice so now they are pretty chill with each other.
We had a couple of hours before it was time for dinner so we watched and played with her animals. We got to see the newborn chicks that mama hen had early that morning. Eric enjoyed befriending another group of little chicks and feeding them rice. It was adorable.
In the evening, Chai’s sister came by to help with dinner. She is 23 and unmarried. It seems she has learned from her older siblings and wants to wait for a good man before she agrees to marry. She recently finished school and is also a tour guide but for larger groups. Eric rode on a moto with her up to a local shop to get some beers for the night.
We ate dinner with Chai’s younger sister and kids. Then another woman, maybe a family member, came over. We chatted and heard about some of her memorable customers she has met over the years.
She also shared more about her family. Chai has an enormous family. When you consider that each woman traditionally has 8-10+ children, that will make for infinite cousins, aunts, and uncles. Her family lives all along the Muong Hoa Valley, which she said you can continue walking for 7 days and it just keeps going! Her father was one of 13, and her mother is one of 8, and she is one of 7, so she has tons of family members. She said that when she and her husband got married they were the first in her family to have a wedding, so her mom had to contact many family members to get names of everyone so they could invite them. There turned out to be more than 1,000 people at the wedding!
She was recounting stories of seeing aunts or uncles who didn’t know her but she knew them, and vice versa. Eric and Chai related with one another about their big families and what it’s like to not be able to keep track of them all.
After visiting for a while we retired to our room and rested up for our last day of hiking.
In the morning, we enjoyed a breakfast of crepes and bananas with honey and lime, and set off for our final trek. We started the day on a popular route through the village where we saw lots of tour groups, one being a group of middle schoolers from Vietnam and South Korea. I can’t imagine bringing my students on a field trip like this!
Soon after, we veered off the main trail, like usual, to a smaller path that took us through the lovely bamboo forest. Much of the path in this part was red clay which was quite slippery and sticky. Local people had covered much of the way with straw or rice skins to make it less slippery for walkers and even motos who traveled through.
We were on the forest-y side of the river where there were pine trees and plentiful greenery. At times the path was quite overgrown and we felt like we were bushwhacking through. Other times we were cautiously walking along the narrow rice paddy steps. All the while basking in the breathtaking views.
Along the way, Chai would stop to show us edible fruits, flowers and plants that could kill you, and she would make little figures with some of the plants for fun.
Later, we made it to a waterfall where Chai and Eric skipped stones while I enjoyed the beautiful view.
Then we began our final descent down the mountain. We walked through the Red Dzao village and saw a primary school. Chai shared a bit about the schools out there. The schools are run by the government and they bring in teachers from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to educate the tribal children. They learn to read and write Vietnamese. Some young people have begun writing in their tribal languages as well so they can capture and remember their home language, history, and traditions. I can only imagine the dynamics of teaching the younger generations of these ancient tribes with deeply rooted cultural traditions and ways of thinking.
We continued down the mountain and through more H’mong villages. Chai shared with us that the H’mong people came from Mongolia (after searching the history of this group, I found that they came from China, but I’m not going to argue with her). The Dzao people came from China, and the Giay tribe came from Thailand. This is why each tribe has their own language, customs, and history. Even though they cannot communicate across tribes in their tribal language, many of the young people speak Vietnamese and can communicate that way easily.
After returning to the valley we made it to our final lunch spot before getting a ride back to Sa Pa Town. We enjoyed a final bowl of noodles and fried rice and caught up with our moto drivers.
The ride back to the city was amazing. After trekking through and getting a first hand look at the forests, rice fields, and villages, we were now zooming past and getting a bird’s eye view which was awe-inspiring. I nearly teared up at the sight of it, taking it all in one last time. The roads on the other hand were terribly bumpy, unmaintained, and I could see why Vietnam is prone to road accidents.
We arrived back at the Sapa Sisters office, we thanked and said goodbye to Chai, showered, and re-packed our bags. We walked through the town to get some food and made it to the bus station with about 5 minutes to spare. PHEW!
We were off to Hanoi for the second half of our trip.
When reflecting on this experience in northern Vietnam, what sticks with me is the intense contrast, the striking juxtaposition of beauty and darkness there. The amazing beauty of the mountains, valleys, villages, fields, farms, and the kindness of the people. Next to the social pressures, drinking, lack of education, and frequency of funerals. It is a reminder that no matter where I am in the world there are simple things – food, love, smiles. And there are complex things – family expectations, critical thinking, making choices that are best for yourself. Of course there are things that connect us – love of nature, hiking, learning from others, but there are many things that are different and those are the things that stick with me, help me to see the world in new ways, to reflect on my own experience in the world and how it compares and contrasts to a woman in northern Vietnam.
Thank you, Chai, for sharing your stories and your home with us. Thank you, Sapa Sisters, for organizing an amazing experience. We know we are lucky to have the opportunity to see and learn about this corner of the world.
