Pictures from my week long stay in Sa Pa in the northwest of Vietnam. Since riding takes a significant amount of my time these days I do not have as much left to write stories as I have done in the past. Instead I comment the pictures more thoroughly so you can get an idea of what was going on from browsing through the photos.
In summary though I met a local girl called May from the Red Dzao minority in one of the bars and end up spending some time with her. She took me to her village where I got to see how her parents and most of their tribe live. It is a poor place but it is nice to be surrounded by the authentic way of life unlike in Sa Pa, wher most of the minority people choose to better their standard of living by selling tourists all sorts of trinkets.
It was quite bizarre to see the minority people dressed in their local clothing talking colloqueal English with foreigners and trying to force their goods on them in a rather cunning fashion. Seeing kids as young as seven doing the same is however more a saddening sight and after going on a hike through a few villages in the nearby valley and having kids running after me and asking for money I even got to feel depressed.
I understand the desire to strive for more when it is there to be had but taking it out on children is a treat too bitter for me. It is thus quite easy to refuse to hand out money - it will only bring more corruption to the community then help. This is certainly no way to bring people out of poverty!
I also did some offroading - the first one quite unintentionally when I managed to get my bike to where the road simply stopped and being me I refused to turn back so there. But it turned out quite nice as I got invited for lunch to one of the houses scattered over the mountain and after the feast got to drive the rest of the journey down fairly merry from all the rice wine I was 'forced' to drink. But all ended up well as you can see..
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