July 16th, 2009 
Sheila Simkin Jenny and Myriam visited the Sapa Market the day we arrived and noticed some dog meat for eating, tails still on. Walk down the steps into the main, outside Sapa market area with sellers displaying fruits, vegetables…View image, cooking Pho and other local dishes.
The inside section of the market has stall after stall selling earring, bracelets…View image, handicrafts, old wooden used and abused water buffalo bells, children’s hats, ethnic skirts from the minorities, fabrics, and bottles of snake wine. if I thought U.S. Customs wouldn’t confiscate it (they would have), I might have tried bringing one home as an icky conversation piece). There was also the Sapa version of cowboy hats that we’d seen and purchased in remote China.
Do your personal best to buy small items from the locals. Every Vietnamese Dong spent makes a difference in their lives If you can’t buy, perhaps we overfed people of the world should volunteer to spend a week on one of their farms helping with the farming and daily chores instead of paying small fortunes to “spa.” Cheaper, you’ll lose a ton of weight and have the satisfaction of helping these lovely minorities. Just a thought…
Downtown Sapa, if you want to call it a downtown, is still fascinating. The Black Hmong wearing embroidered indigo-dyed clothing and wrap-on leggings, carrying woven baskets on their backs…View image, buying and selling, outside and indoors.
God bless digital cameras. All the tourists were snapping away and using restraint, I shot off 800 photos (after deleting mega-amounts) during the two weeks. Red Hmong, White Hmong, Flower Hmong and Green Hmong tribes. It all depends on the color of their costume The Red Dao (or Dazo) women were taller and wore red cloth scarfs tied as turbans on their heads…View image…
…but one of my favorite Sapa sights had to be a man fixing the car while sitting on the motor! If that wasn’t unusual, don’t know what is.
Posted in 
Tags: 
