Ever since we went on a guided hike which turned into a sleepover at Mae’s in the Hau Tau Village near Sa Pa 5 days ago, I wanted to write things down so as not to forget the epic 24 hours. Hopefully I haven’t waited too long. We met Mae, a 30 year old Black H’mong woman, on our first day in Sa Pa. She was eating lunch at the same place in the market as we were. She spoke some English, so we talked a little and she told us that she could take us to her village if we wanted. Mae turned out to be one of the nicest, best people around and we all cried when we said goodbye in Sa Pa. After that first lunch, we would see her almost every day and she would say hi (and always remembered Haley’s name – on the walk I gave up trying to teach her my name and told her to call me “G”, which worked) and often remind us that we still hadn’t gone on the walk with her. When we were finally getting ready to move on from Sa Pa we decided we better go on the walk with Mae or we were going to miss out.
We met her at 930am and walked out of town towards her village. It was a beautiful 4 hour walk through some stunning mountain trails above the valley, with some breaks to eat cucumber and coconut bread mixed in. We arrived around lunch time at her house to her husband, Kuh, and two of her three boys, Cha and Sun. Kuh had already cooked up all kinds of veggies (Mae had remembered from our one lunch together that we had been eating vegetarian) and we hung around, talked to Mae, and played with the kids while he set up lunch. Mae’s house is basically one room with lofts on either end for food storage (mostly rice from their own rice paddies). The walls are wood planks (with a 3 or 4 inch gap where the wall would normally meet the floor), the roof is corrugated metal, the floor is dirt, the furniture (of which there is not much) is as basic as you get, the heat (when needed) is a single fire, the stove is the same single fire, there is no running water anywhere, and there is one single light bulb. And Mae and her family could not seem happier. Chickens and dogs and neighbors and kids wander in and out all day. Everyone is welcome, everyone is smiling, everyone is friendly, and everyone gets fed and happy watered upon arrival.
hae and mae looking towards hau tau
lunch time for everyone at mae’s
While we were finishing up lunch, Nico, a frenchie who has been living in Hau Tau for 2.5 months (he just goes from house to house – often with people fighting over him – and is given room and board at zero cost), and a Swiss guy named Lucien, came over to help us finish the massive amount of food on the table as well as some of the rice wine (Happy Water) that was served up with lunch. After that, Nico and I (and later Mae for the first time in her life) smoked something that Mae called Happy Flower from a big bamboo bong. Everybody was having lots of fun. At this point we decided to accept the repeated invitation to stay the night, as it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. Mae dressed Haley up like a Black H’mong and Mae dressed up like a whitey and the party continued. We all hung around and drank and talked and went to the store (20 minute walk down a very steep hill – and then back up) for more Happy Water (and real water) and then we went to the waterfall to bathe before dinner.
black h’mong haley
getting clean before dinner
wasssssssssssssup
By the time dinner was served, there were about 20 people – mostly H’mong, us, Nico and Lucien, and another couple who had come on a walk with Sousou, another woman from the village – all ready to do some eating and drinking. Dinner was delicious, but the main course was pretty much Happy Water. Whenever you heard the word “chukah”, that meant that it was time to drink another glass of happy water (and no sipping either – the command was usually “Chukah…FINISH”), and that was a lot. At some point, I removed myself from the happy water circuit to help cook another course of dinner over the open fire. I stuck to the happy flower for the remainder of the evening. This was a good decision. Haley stuck with the happy water and represented us well, by keeping up with Mae and Kuh. This, however, was a bad decision. There was much laughing until late in the night at which point many people were too drunk to even walk home. Kids were everywhere, falling asleep in various mothers’ (or Haley’s) arms, trying on our sunglasses, and generally having a great time. At the un-arguable-with insistence of Mae and Kuh, Haley and I got the bed that Mae’s kids normally slept in (wood frame and blankets – no mattress) and the other hikers got Mae and Kuh’s bed (same set-up). Mae’s whole family slept on top of a tarp on the dirt floor – with zero complaints.
we cool
The next morning was rough. Haley and Mae were so hung over they could barely walk down the hill to catch a motorbike back to Sa Pa. But somehow they did it (with a lot of stopping and a puppy/mango popsicle stop at the store to re-energize) and we (mostly Haley) spent the rest of the day resting/recovering. It was a legendary hangover for Haley – Haley said that Happy Water is decidedly un-happy the day after. With nothing but a mango popsicle and a piece of bread in her for the day, she was able to eat a little veggie stir-fry by 8pm (balcony service to our room) but she had missed school and had spent the entire rest of the day in bed.
hae and mae struggling on the way out of hau tau
I think I did wait too long to write this, because I’m having a hard time describing how good it was. It was one of the best days of our trip, hands down.
When leaving Sa Pa we said goodbye to Mae (she even came to the bus to see us off) and goodbye to the kids at the school we were volunteering at (they loaded up our wrists with handmade bracelets and gave us lots of hugs). Sa Pa was good.
hae and mae saying goodbyes on our way out of sapa
musical chairs at sapa ochau. haley finished second.
train window view between hue and danang
After 26 hours of overnight trains and a day in Hanoi, we’re now in Hoi An. Hoi An is really picturesque, and really touristy. On the train ride here we shared a sleeping car with some really nice Spaniards and got to speak Spanish the whole time. We also went by some nice Vietnamese coastline along the way.Yesterday we went on a bike ride to the beach, went swimming, and talked about what we still want to learn and accomplish on this journey. After that we went to the best dinner we have had (in terms of both deliciousness and people) in a long time. This place is called ‘The End of the World’ and it kinda is at the end of the world, if your world is this small fishing village a 40 minute bike ride outside of Hoi An. We were the only tourists around and Trang (one of the most honest, lovely humans we have met in Vietnam so far) and her crew made us some spectacular peanut and onion stuffed squid with sautéed garlic eggplant on the side. Dessert was fresh bananas that we were too full to eat, and ginger tea.
As the sky had suggested might happen on our ride to dinner, two minutes after we arrived it began to pour rain….and it didn’t stop. Luckily we came prepared. After taking our time eating the delicious dinner and chatting with Trang and friends, we finally decided to brave it. The cook tied our ponchos on for us, making sure we had snug fits under our chins, we strapped on the head lamp and hopped on our bikes. It was an awesome adventure through the flooded streets of the village, and a very heavy tropical rain. There was so much water in the streets that a lot of time our feet were underwater on the down pedal. And a few times they were underwater even on the up pedal. We got some funny looks and a lot of laughs from the locals. It was an epic dinner and an epic ride home. We might go back again tonight.
hoi an beach swimming
ooooo… look at those squids
Other notes:
In Sa Pa, the village girls say ‘How you doing? Where you from? You buy from me later?’, and they are sweet and smiling.
In Hoi An, the store workers say ‘You, buy something, you. Buy something. Come my store.’ and there is nothing sweet about it.
In Hoi An you can rent bikes for $1 per day and draft beers are $0.19 each. However, there’s a shortage of awesome places to stay in our budget. Our room in Sa Pa might have ruined us forever on this trip.
Iced coffee is $1.25. What is wrong with this picture?
view of hoi an from bridge
haley at morning glory picking some good food
We’re starting to try to figure out when to come home.
The weather continues to be awesome despite having been in SE Asia for 2 months of the rainy season so far. We only seem to get rain at night and since we first got to Hanoi, we seem to be escaping the normal bad parts for this time of year wherever we go. Sapa was not rainy, Hoi An is blissfully cooler than Hanoi (this is all relative though – it is still hot as heck), and the rains keep coming only at night.
Happy 4th of July y’all.
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