The moment we got off the minibus that transported usfrom the China-Viet Nam border to the sleepy touristtown, Sapa, a pack of teenage girls was ready to meetand greet us. Missing my students back in Korea, Icouldn't wait to chatter mindlessly with giggly younggirls. We dropped our bags in our room and headed tothe balcony to admire the lush mountainside view. Below us on the street the girls were waving madly andentincing us back to the street.
Once on groundlevel Tai and Soethe proceeded to tell us everythingwe could possibly want to know about Sapa from theperspective of 2 charismatic, friendly, middleschooldropouts dressed head to toe in traditional H'mongtribal clothing.
Tai and Soethe are 16 and 15 respectively. Ithought they were much younger though because of their diminutive size. Standing perfectly straight, theirheads barely reach my armpit, and next to Tra
vis theylook even smaller. Tai and Soethe belong to the BlackH'mong tribe. The wear dark bluish-black dress/vests made of hemp and dyed with indigo. Both girls havebluish palms and fingertips from the dark indigo dyethat characterizes their clothing. Their dressesreach just below the knee and underneath it they wearT-shirts. Their outfits are hand embroidered in long bands of color above the elbows, under the colar and in a scarf wrapped around the waist. Tai shows us a piece of embroidery she is working on for her New Years outfit. It is extremely intricate and will take a year to complete. The girls wrap bright ribbonaround their legs to hold up black velour leg warmers. Ontheir feet are plastic sandals. One girl carries a hugebasket as a backpack. All the girls have hugecollections of silver and woven bracelets on theirwrists as well as clunky watches, their onlynon-traditional accesory besides a bright plaidumbrella. Their hair is long and straight,but Tais's is the longest, falling well below herwaist in one thick ponytail. She wears massive silverhoop earrings dangling with metal triangles. Thehoops look heavy, but her lobes aren't streched abit. Both our new friends have beautiful white teeth, bright smiles and are very animated when they talk.
They love to talk! The girls walk us around Sapa, showing us a man-made lake and helping us locate anATM that will accept Mastercard, talking to us abouttheir tribes many customs- dating is a popular topic that makes them squeal and blush. Despite dropping out of school, Tai and Soethe are perfectly fluent in Englih,Vietnamese and their native tongue, however they admit their reading and writing skills aren't great. They can alsorattle off phrases in French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean,German... you name it. They learned all the languages simply by hanging out with tourists. Travis and I are extremely impressed! Talking to them is not much different from communicating with my students. Tai and Soethe, despite living in houses without any electricity and spending sunny days working in rice fields, seem perfectly up to date on the modern world. They know all about belly button piercings and the marriage rituals of Western countries and they use the Internet regularly.
Soethe has a very strange accent, and she like to do imitations. When she imitates other people's voices her own awkward voice become so strange, it'shard to follow the story. Fortunately, she repeatsthings a lot, and judging from her own laughter, it'seasy to guess when the story has reached its climax. When Soethe takes down my email address she whips out a notebook full of hundreds of addresses of previous tourist friends. She calls everyone her friend. The most interesting thing about Tai and Soethis is that their knowledge of the wider world does not deter them from maintinaing their own ancient traditions.
Both girls plan to live in Sapa, with their families, forever and not get married. Some girls in their traibe their same age are already married and having babies, but that's not the life for our friends. Tai and Soethe do not like boys! Even if they did, they say, it wouldn't matter because they can't choose a boyfriend. The boy must choose them. I ask the girls why they don't become tour guides. That was the magic question. The girls already ARE independent tour guides- for $5 a piece they'll walk us 7km to their village and back. They don't work through agencies or hotels, they say, because they don't trust the Vietnamese people. They tell us horror stories about local minority girls being kidnapped and disappearing. Because of this they never walk anywhere alone. Or maybe they are just more persuasive in packs...
Spending the day talking with Tai and Soethe was fascinating. Of course they weren't just trying to be our friends. They were very eager to take us to the market and help us choose things and negociate prices- certainly getting a cut of the sale themselves. These ulterior motives don't bother me in teh least though because the girls are both sweet and as long as they're walking us around town, no other people swarm us and try to force their postcards and blankets on us. Tomorrow we'll walk with them to their village.
Aside from hanging out with our little friends, we've had a great time in Sapa sitting on our hostel balcony, playing music and singing into the white foggy mountainside with other travellers. Viet Nam is lovely, and very very wet. And Travis has a mohawk, of sorts, now.
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Once on groundlevel Tai and Soethe proceeded to tell us everythingwe could possibly want to know about Sapa from theperspective of 2 charismatic, friendly, middleschooldropouts dressed head to toe in traditional H'mongtribal clothing.
Tai and Soethe are 16 and 15 respectively. Ithought they were much younger though because of their diminutive size. Standing perfectly straight, theirheads barely reach my armpit, and next to Tra
vis theylook even smaller. Tai and Soethe belong to the BlackH'mong tribe. The wear dark bluish-black dress/vests made of hemp and dyed with indigo. Both girls havebluish palms and fingertips from the dark indigo dyethat characterizes their clothing. Their dressesreach just below the knee and underneath it they wearT-shirts. Their outfits are hand embroidered in long bands of color above the elbows, under the colar and in a scarf wrapped around the waist. Tai shows us a piece of embroidery she is working on for her New Years outfit. It is extremely intricate and will take a year to complete. The girls wrap bright ribbonaround their legs to hold up black velour leg warmers. Ontheir feet are plastic sandals. One girl carries a hugebasket as a backpack. All the girls have hugecollections of silver and woven bracelets on theirwrists as well as clunky watches, their onlynon-traditional accesory besides a bright plaidumbrella. Their hair is long and straight,but Tais's is the longest, falling well below herwaist in one thick ponytail. She wears massive silverhoop earrings dangling with metal triangles. Thehoops look heavy, but her lobes aren't streched abit. Both our new friends have beautiful white teeth, bright smiles and are very animated when they talk.They love to talk! The girls walk us around Sapa, showing us a man-made lake and helping us locate anATM that will accept Mastercard, talking to us abouttheir tribes many customs- dating is a popular topic that makes them squeal and blush. Despite dropping out of school, Tai and Soethe are perfectly fluent in Englih,Vietnamese and their native tongue, however they admit their reading and writing skills aren't great. They can alsorattle off phrases in French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean,German... you name it. They learned all the languages simply by hanging out with tourists. Travis and I are extremely impressed! Talking to them is not much different from communicating with my students. Tai and Soethe, despite living in houses without any electricity and spending sunny days working in rice fields, seem perfectly up to date on the modern world. They know all about belly button piercings and the marriage rituals of Western countries and they use the Internet regularly.
Soethe has a very strange accent, and she like to do imitations. When she imitates other people's voices her own awkward voice become so strange, it'shard to follow the story. Fortunately, she repeatsthings a lot, and judging from her own laughter, it'seasy to guess when the story has reached its climax. When Soethe takes down my email address she whips out a notebook full of hundreds of addresses of previous tourist friends. She calls everyone her friend. The most interesting thing about Tai and Soethis is that their knowledge of the wider world does not deter them from maintinaing their own ancient traditions.
Both girls plan to live in Sapa, with their families, forever and not get married. Some girls in their traibe their same age are already married and having babies, but that's not the life for our friends. Tai and Soethe do not like boys! Even if they did, they say, it wouldn't matter because they can't choose a boyfriend. The boy must choose them. I ask the girls why they don't become tour guides. That was the magic question. The girls already ARE independent tour guides- for $5 a piece they'll walk us 7km to their village and back. They don't work through agencies or hotels, they say, because they don't trust the Vietnamese people. They tell us horror stories about local minority girls being kidnapped and disappearing. Because of this they never walk anywhere alone. Or maybe they are just more persuasive in packs...
Spending the day talking with Tai and Soethe was fascinating. Of course they weren't just trying to be our friends. They were very eager to take us to the market and help us choose things and negociate prices- certainly getting a cut of the sale themselves. These ulterior motives don't bother me in teh least though because the girls are both sweet and as long as they're walking us around town, no other people swarm us and try to force their postcards and blankets on us. Tomorrow we'll walk with them to their village.
Aside from hanging out with our little friends, we've had a great time in Sapa sitting on our hostel balcony, playing music and singing into the white foggy mountainside with other travellers. Viet Nam is lovely, and very very wet. And Travis has a mohawk, of sorts, now.
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