“Let’s go to Sa Pa!” This name brought with it a series of images that I had heard many people mention: “illegal” cars crammed with people, reckless driving, children soliciting tourists, noisy, lacking quality, etc. “Sa Pa is so boring!”, I was fed up and refused my friend’s invitation. However, ignoring all my refusals, my friend booked two tickets to Sa Pa. And so, we flew to Hanoi together one day in May.
unexpected gift from nature
From Hanoi, we traveled to Sa Pa by sleeper bus at 10 pm. The bus stopped in the center of Sa Pa city at 5 am. The homestay we chose was in Ta Van village, 8 km from the city center, we had to take a taxi for about half an hour to get there.
At that time, the road to Ta Van village was still under construction, potholes, gravel combined with the heavy rain that Sa Pa welcomed us made the taxi bounce up and down, creating the feeling of playing a... springboard game. The surroundings were still dimly lit, but I could feel that the road was very narrow, with a cliff on one side and a deep abyss on the other. I told my friend: "How can I love like this?" My friend remained calm: "Just calm down". Although I was not satisfied, the fact that I was here right now was also because deep in my heart I had a belief that if I went, I would not regret it.
After crossing the winding mountain pass, crossing another bridge, and climbing another narrow slope, we arrived at the homestay. The rain had not stopped yet so we went to our room and took a nap.
After about 2-3 hours, a warm feeling gently touched my fingers. I opened my eyes. It turned out that we had forgotten to close the window, the sunlight came to greet me gently. I rubbed my eyes, walked closer to the window and “Wow!”, I blurted out. Before my eyes was a colorful flower garden that I later learned was grown by the homestay owner herself. Behind that flower garden was the scenery of Sa Pa mountains and forests. I couldn’t wait any longer and opened the door and ran outside. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sun had already dispelled the mist, leaving behind green terraced fields and small, pretty ethnic houses. The scene was truly captivating, intoxicating, as if one had just drunk a cup of strong wine.
“Hey!”. Suddenly my friend called, I turned around and he threw me a helmet, next to him was a motorbike, apparently rented from the homestay. “In Sa Pa, going sightseeing by motorbike is so much fun” - he advertised again, and this time I didn’t ask much but got on the motorbike right away.
"The" quiet people
We walked up Muong Hoa valley, passed the ancient stone beach and slowly passed Lao Chai. Every 100 meters we could take hundreds of pictures, because the scenery of the mountains and forests at each moment we saw had its own beauty. Only then did I understand why the writer Nguyen Thanh Long once wrote inQuiet Sa Pa: “Every artist comes to Sa Pa, there they can paint freely”. Any artist and tourist would want to preserve all the wild and mysterious things of Sa Pa, in the past it was paintings, nowadays it is photography. I regret not coming here during the rice harvest season, but what Sa Pa is showing is enough to make me amazed.
After riding our motorbikes, we walked around the valley to learn more about the lives of the local people. Ta Van is home to the indigenous communities of the Mong, Dao, Giay, Tay, etc. They do many jobs to earn a living, mainly farming.
We stopped at a souvenir shop. This place sells clothes and accessories with typical ethnic patterns. The owner is Ms. Lan Sung, she wears traditional costumes of the Red Dao people. Although she was not sure whether we would buy or not, Ms. Lan still warmly welcomed us and told us many stories related to weaving and dyeing. "If you sell goods and share all the secrets of your profession, aren't you afraid of competition?" - I asked and she smiled gently and replied: "The more people know, the more our traditional profession will be preserved, I am happy". Then she picked up a dress with many patterns and introduced: "I will not hide anything from you, what we sell is all reused from different dresses and shirts. A new outfit is very expensive, so we collect things that other people no longer use to cut and sew again". We were completely surprised by this sharing, because the items displayed in the shop looked very new, it turned out that they had been renewed by the women, creatively designed and sold at a better price. She continued: “This idea is what I just won in the competition of the Women's Association of Ta Van village. I see that women just do farming but only to provide for their families, why can't ethnic women do business? It's still in its infancy so there are still many difficulties, but I will try…”. We ended the conversation by buying a few scarves and handbags from her, not forgetting to wish her business idea success.
Walking downhill for another 2 kilometers, we came across another agarwood shop. The agarwood here was shaped into a spiral shape, which looked very funny. I was looking for the shop owner to ask when I heard the sound of a motorbike behind me. It was Ms. Lan Sung.
“Oh, it’s you guys again?” She walked into the shop to our surprise. “This shop is also mine. I sell agarwood here. Sit down here and I’ll show you how to do it.” We heard more about her story of making agarwood. This is a type of agarwood mixed with many healthy ingredients such as cinnamon, star anise, cloves, etc. Her hands quickly scraped, crushed, pressed, shaped and dried each piece of agarwood. I jokingly asked: “Is this another business idea of yours?” - “That’s right. I want my hometown to develop further. Here is still too poor, life is difficult, I want women to have their own careers. I will open a class to teach tourists how to make agarwood, I also have to study English, I just assembled a computer and it’s too difficult to use, but I will try to learn.”
I completely admired and felt ashamed of this woman. If I only thought about the trivial things of daily life, then a woman from a remote ethnic group had such an ideal and a will. Not only that, she was also very kind when on the way back, she lent us her motorbike to ride: "Go to the fabric shop and then your husband will come down here to pick you up. It's okay." I promised to help her use the phone, computer and foreign languages to the best of my ability. When we got back to the homestay, it was just getting dark. Thank you, Lan!
I hated the look on my friend’s face as if he knew me. “How is it? Are you in love?”. But he was right. I didn’t think Sa Pa was that charming and I would definitely come back here during the rice harvest season. Hopefully, by then I would have seen Ms. Lan Sung’s “business” flourishing.
