Is there anything so thrilling
Getting up in a new town that promises markets is like Christmas morning to me..you know it is all there just waiting to be unwrapped, surprises and delights await, it is so tempting to rush down and unwrap it all, but you learn to take your time in the pleasure of the unwrapping...ooh it is exciting..but first there is breakfast included, I am thinking it is included, why bother just get out there, but it is still before seven so I have tea and a pancake..and then with eager steps I follow the smell of the market.
Ooh this is a good one, much to see and smell..and many Hmong people, a little early for the tourists so they are going about their business first, getting breakfast, buying veggies and chatting. They are stunning looking people, and so funky in their traditional clothing. The women look so attractive , the men less so, but they are a handsome people.
I met Lee and her mother and we agree that tomorrow we will sit down and do some bargaining, I have told them what I want and they will bring it, also Lee gave me a bracelet so anyone else who asks I can tell them I have promised to Lee, so only one girl refused to accept that, Soon, and she has other stuff so I said ok, and now I have a promise the other sellers are ok and happy to let me be.
I walk around and around, then delve into share some Pho with some ladies who 'lunch' it is all good fun as we chat in sign language about how hot water and lemon is good if you sneeze..and work out how old we all are..then we see something we all think is funny. A group of Hmong come into eat at the next table, but the man with them, short as he is , dressed as Hmong, is not Hmong..he is a faux Hmong..he has all the gesticulation, and certainly I can hear him use some of the language but he looks like someone from Byron Bay. The women I am with think he is very funny, I'd love to know more but he has that air..I am too white to ask him with any sort of authority and I am sure he would be annoyed if I did, he looks the type. So I took his photo instead..
I'd bought some fruit which I gave the ladies to eat as a thank you and wandered back into the markets,it was all very pleasant..Sapa is a Shangri-la..
Not Hmong
Lady who lunches
Hmong
I have been to some beautiful mountain places , Mea Hong Song in Northern Thailand, Kalaw in Burma, Mountain Gunung Agung in Bali, Snowdonia in Wales, The Jungfrau, Sapa is up there with them, idyllic , clouds rolling in a great comfort in the sense of being settled in between the peaks..and the air..heavenly.
Ooh this is a good one, much to see and smell..and many Hmong people, a little early for the tourists so they are going about their business first, getting breakfast, buying veggies and chatting. They are stunning looking people, and so funky in their traditional clothing. The women look so attractive , the men less so, but they are a handsome people.
I met Lee and her mother and we agree that tomorrow we will sit down and do some bargaining, I have told them what I want and they will bring it, also Lee gave me a bracelet so anyone else who asks I can tell them I have promised to Lee, so only one girl refused to accept that, Soon, and she has other stuff so I said ok, and now I have a promise the other sellers are ok and happy to let me be.
I walk around and around, then delve into share some Pho with some ladies who 'lunch' it is all good fun as we chat in sign language about how hot water and lemon is good if you sneeze..and work out how old we all are..then we see something we all think is funny. A group of Hmong come into eat at the next table, but the man with them, short as he is , dressed as Hmong, is not Hmong..he is a faux Hmong..he has all the gesticulation, and certainly I can hear him use some of the language but he looks like someone from Byron Bay. The women I am with think he is very funny, I'd love to know more but he has that air..I am too white to ask him with any sort of authority and I am sure he would be annoyed if I did, he looks the type. So I took his photo instead..
I'd bought some fruit which I gave the ladies to eat as a thank you and wandered back into the markets,it was all very pleasant..Sapa is a Shangri-la..
Not Hmong
Lady who lunches
Hmong
I have been to some beautiful mountain places , Mea Hong Song in Northern Thailand, Kalaw in Burma, Mountain Gunung Agung in Bali, Snowdonia in Wales, The Jungfrau, Sapa is up there with them, idyllic , clouds rolling in a great comfort in the sense of being settled in between the peaks..and the air..heavenly.
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