A Visit to Vietnam’s Northern Highlands

We visited Vietnam’s Northern Highlands in March, a region that is very much on the beaten path because it is so beautiful.  [Photo gallery]  An eight-hour overnight train brought us from Hanoi to Lào Cai, just across the border from China, and then we drove for another hour and a half on a road to Sa Pa. 

It seemed as though there was not one single stretch where the road did not turn and I was proud of myself for not being one of the two people in the van who got sick.

The Sa Pa area is known for its mountains and rice paddies.  Our plan was to spend three days relaxing and visiting nearby Hmong villages, home to the Black Hmong and Red Dzao ethnic minorities.  Or, to use the term that is overused in the Bay Area, the indigenous people.

In fact, the indigenous people were on my mind even before our trip to Vietnam.  With a second child due in August we have been taking stock of our baby gear.  Have you heard of the ERGObaby carrier?  We not only have  one, but at a very young age our daughter learned to wear it thanks to the instructional DVD.

It was her favorite DVD for about two years and she still watches it occasionally.  It is really not so much a DVD about baby carriers but “The best way to support your Baby . . . and your Lifestyle.”  That lifestyle being several white men and women, with occasional ethnic ambiguity, demonstrating how they can shop at health food stores, go to yoga or practice gentle martial arts while wearing their baby. 

I rate this DVD only slightly less irritating than letting my daughter watch a Disney princess movie.  Plus, she can only stand so much of me dancing with the Wiggles.  The ERGO DVD was, by default, our compromise.

Here are a few short clips from the DVD.  Watch it twice, then imagine having heard it dozens of times.  For some reason I found the men more irritating than the women and it was not because of the nudity.  Actually, there was no nudity but if there had been it would have been a naked man drum circle.

What we’re in the midst of is a new movement inspired by generations of indigenous people wearing their babies.

And there we were, only one country over from where they make the ERGObaby carrier and I forgot to tell my daughter.  After all, we were in Vietnam and I was in the midst of a new movement inspired by generations of indigenous people wearing their babies.  I wanted to be a part of it.

Most of the time it was very cloudy and foggy but we did manage to have some sunshine and hired a local girl to act as our guide.  Aside from tourism it is a very rustic life.  Earthen floors in wood houses, some chickens and livestock, and a lot of farming.  I asked if farming was communal and was told that it used to be but it did not work too well and there was not enough to eat.  Now each family has its own plot of land and grows their own rice and other crops.

Other than the rice paddies the landscape reminded me of Northern California.  We hiked for about three hours, accompanied by two older Hmong women — and by older, I mean the same age as me — who wanted to sell their handmade wall hangings and pillow cases. 

It was a delicate balancing act.  On the one hand we appreciated their company but things turned more aggressive once we reached the village and had fifteen people trying to sell us things.  We walked away with a lot but at times the hard-sell was too much.  

I was browsing in Sa Pa’s central market and was quickly surrounded by about twenty women holding up blankets for sale.  You can’t really assess the quality — and the quality definitely varies — and so I called it quits and walked quickly back to the hotel, followed by a trail of seven women.  Almost two hours later, two of them were still waiting outside for me.

In the end, I bought two handmade and hand-dyed baby carriers.

Because I’m very indigenous like that.

Tagged as: baby carrier, Black Hmong, ERGO, ERGObaby, Hanoi to Lao Cai, Red Dzao, Sa Pa, Sapa, Vietnam