Today Spend :
Cat Cat village of H'mong ethnis minority is the nearest hill tribe village in Sapa. Many of them walked from their bottom valley houses about 2 km up to the Sapa town. Organised tour from Hanoi includes a visit to this village, to experience and to learn about the culture, their everyday life and how they planted paddies on the steep hill slopes with primitive irrigation from the mountain stream. This village came under the care of the Sapa Tourism Board and a fee of 20000 vnd is levied for every visitor. There is a waterfall (not allow to swim) and a hall for cutural and musical performance, of course you had to pay to watch it for another 20000 vnd. The fee are not expensive if you compared to China, but I found the H'mong people are unfriendly and very seldom put up a smiling face when come to greet the visitors. They only interested in selling their handicrafts, rarely they want to strike up a conversation with the tourists, maybe there is no common languages,shy? or whatever, but the least they can do is to put up a welcoming smile for the many tourists who came here from all over the world. Shouldn't they feel proud and honour for that? Leaving Sapa tomorrow morning for a well deserve downhill to Lao Cai. If time permits, I will cross over to Hekou to stay.
Ticketing booth to visit the village 20000 vnd
Young girls carrying their sisters or brothers
On a winding road down the valley
Rice fields terrace
Black H'mong good walker
Close encountered with the paddy fields
Scenery on the down
Ticket checking station
Even if you want to....
Stoney staircase walkway
Buffaloes blocking the way
Hands,needles and color threads paintings
Handicraft shop
Some of the handicrafts in display
Down to the very valley
Waterfall not allow to swim
Wooden bridge across the stream
Hall for Cultural and musical performance
16 comments:
Hi Meng, from the waterfall picture,you look a bit slim than when you left for the trip, may be not enough good sleep and no good food. Hope you can reach the destination as schduled.
Chew
Hi Meng,
Thanks for the Sapa pics & review.
Ride carefully on your downhill trip.
It's the holiday season in M'sia now and my guess is the TTK kakis are on hols too. I'm sure they'll be back later this week.
Chong5
Hi Meng,
Where r u..., oredi in China ka?
Take care, bro.
Chong5
Hi Meng, Have not read any new post from you? where are you now or is it because can't find any internet to send your story? Hope you are moving forward everyday. Chew
Brater Meng,
Where have you been? Its already 10 days without any updates. Pedalling very hard or hardly any. TTK hope you are in good hand. The journey to come would be better, more exciting and action pack as we are waiting for your next move. Camera! Action!
Cheers!
I hope everything is OK with you and enjoying cycling more than blogging. If you got married to some local cycling princess, that would be the best excuse !
Take care.
Chris
Brater Meng,
Where have you been? Already 17 days and still no updates. Enjoying yourself or taking time off from the road. Anyway, wish you all the best & happy cycling from TTK.
Brater Meng,
Its aleady month of October, still no news/updates. Where have you been? Are you in good health and busy cycling? Hope to hear from you soon. Bye for now from TTK.
No update since sep/12... I'm afraid something happened to our friend. I just hope is not to serious.
Hello everyone. This is Brent the guy who was cycling with Meng through Thailand.
I think you shouldn't worry too much about him not updating his site. Blogspot is blocked in China and it's probable that he simply can't access it to update the site while he is behind the great firewall. I have emailed his yahoo account (hopefully it should be accessible, if he can get near an internet point) and will post when he emails back.
Thanks Brent !
Not to worry, Meng is fine.
Pauline
On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 4:25 PM, fook cheun meng wrote:
I am now in Deqen. problem in accessing my blog. I am ok but the weather here is getting cold. Had kept in contact with Ivan and Arnie, still working out on the permit to Tibet.
Meng
at least got good news from our bro,,,
happy cranking,,,
Chuen Ko,
Glad to hear that you are doing fine and still strong (and looking slimmer).
Take care and be safe
Brater Meng,
How are you? Have not heard from you for almost 2 months already. Where have you been? Doing great! Anyway, wish you all the best! Always from the TTK!
Interesting fact silver made in Thailand is only made in villages outside of the main cities by Hilltribe families. Most patterns have been in there family for many years and can only be made by large order. There are no stores or one central place to purchase Hilltribe silver in variety other than from the large wholesale shops in the city. Mondays and Fridays are the days families will bring their goods to the main shops for sale and to pick up new orders. A trip to a silver village is a real eye opener to see how families work together to make beautiful silver pieces of art. All Handmade.
www.oriental-catalog.com
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