1 October 2015: The Quest to find Cardamom plants in Sapa Valley (Vietnam):
Watching Red Dao ladies as they're heading off to where ever it is that they need to go:
Crepes for breakfast! Glorious crepes with chocolate sauce and bananas. Yummy!!!
We agreed with Tuan on a 9am departure. We're going on a long walk in the forest but we have no idea where we're going. Tuan warned us to wear DEET – this area is notorious for something called a buffalo fly. Along with two different kinds of leeches. Nice! ??? How fun! We're going to eat a picnic lunch along the way. Sounds like it'll be an amusing day, right???
Off we go!
Checking out some of the houses in the Red Dao village as we walk past:
Corn cobs drying in the sun:
Awwww….puppy!
First stop: to see a metalsmith:
Inside the humble home of a metalsmith:
The blacksmith with his "cigarette" ….this is what they use to smoke and every place we stop at Tuan takes a puff from it (it is tobacco- in case you're wondering). I can't tell if it's because he's being polite or if the places he has us stop are known to have such pipes.
Tuan suggests that we might be happier to have bamboo walking/whacking sticks…so he cuts some bamboo sticks down to size for us (outside the blacksmith's home):
Check out the color of that corn!
Views from outside the blacksmith's home:
Back inside the blacksmith's home we're checking out the jewelry he makes out of silver. Interesting for sure…but we're on the fence on whether or not we want to purchase any right now (we didn't):
You ask, "how much does xxx cost?"…out comes this mini-scale.
Time to set off!
It appears we're walking up the hill. Here's a view of the valley down below us:
A brief pause to stick our hands in this waterfall and stream:
I'll admit, I did get a BIT annoyed with Tuan … as soon as we'd catch up with him he just kept marching on…BUT we NEEDED A BREAK!!!! Grrr….
Marching!
Here's somebody's garden:
With Tuan walking so far ahead that also meant we weren't able to ask him questions. On the other hand, maybe that was his way of getting away from us so we couldn't ask questions!
The scenery was gorgeous!
We were trying to drink lots of water as it was considerably hot and steamy.
Tuan knew of a shed owned by a local Red Dao family where we could find shelter from the heat and eat our picnic lunch. This Old Woman was keeping watch over the shed and its contents:
The Old Woman was cooking a vegetable…she offered some of it to us and I tried it. I think it was chayote (green summer squash-like vegetable) with ZERO seasonings. I mean, there wasn't even any salt in it. I think that was the blandest food I've ever tried! (So…how do you remain polite and smiling when the food you're given is barely palatable??? I smiled and said thank you.)
Check out her rack of smoked cardamom!
A very nice picnic lunch (as you can tell by Ava's pooched out cheeks…LOL!):
Tuan and the old lady. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Tuan is VERY DIFFICULT for us to understand! His speech patterns and mannerisms are nearly impossible. Instead of saying "ummm" or "uh" as we would (as you might say when you're pausing for thought) he would say "gan-ZA". And he happens to say "gen-ZA" a LOT!
What you're not seeing are the chickens and small, pot-bellied pigs that are roaming in and around the shelter. The Old Woman even threw something at a chicken as it accidentally wandered into her living quarters. Pretty funny to see it squawking and running away!
A better view of the cardamom (that they grew and picked).
So, Tuan finally told us that we were supposed to make it to see a cardamom plantation but as it was still many kilometers away and that he didn't want us walking in the dark we'd have to make alternate plans. So, why is it NOW that we're learning about this cardamom plantation and the time/distance of it? Shouldn't this have been discussed last night? Clearly we can't make this destination. Darn it! I'm bummed as I'm really curious what a cardamom plant looks like. Oh well, it's not the season for harvesting it anyway.
Tuan asked the Old Lady and she said there a few plants up the trail that we can look at….
Photo of Giant Me dwarfing Old Lady:
Part of the vegetable store:
Cool knife! (I think that green vegetable is chayote…)
Check out the netting over the bed:
Here's a look at the shed. I think I understood Tuan say that these sheds are temporary and re-built at different locations. These people appear to be subsistence farmers. Tuan gave the Old Woman the leftovers from our lunch (which she happily took).
We said "gam-EN" (thank you) to the Old Woman and made our way up the trail to get a quick glimpse of the cardamom plant.
There it is! It's the plant in the center of this photo. It's not a big plant and it's related to ginger. Harvest begins at the end of summer which was a few months ago.
Time to turn around and head back to our home-stay location.
Throughout the entire hike, Mark and I could tell that Ava was doing okay as she just kept chattering away. She mentioned to me, at one point, how she wished she could raise money to help kids in need get books. I think that's a great idea! The question is – how do you raise money???
Light at the end of the tunnel???
It was slow-but-steady walking back…again Tuan proceeded us by quite a bit that made me anxious and nervous. What if we'd had an injury and were unable to call for him? He walked out of hearing range of us. Not cool.
It seems to have taken forever but we MADE IT! Now Mark and the girls are about to jump into this river (next to our home stay) to cool off.
Swim, swim, swim:
A look at the beautiful wooden house:
Watching as these ladies (I saw WOMEN carrying all the heavy items…not men! They're carrying rice on their backs):
Traversing across the river (not via the foot bridge):
One poor lady accidentally fell into the water. Whoops! At least I'm sure the water felt cool and nice …for a change!
Dinner!
and….
this is a significantly Unwelcome guest:
That spider??? It may not look big to you as there isn't a good size comparison on the photo but it's about the size of my hand. Those glowing things are its eyes (reflecting the flash from Mark's camera). YIKES! We decided to end dinner as it started to crawl towards us on the wall directly behind our dining table. That's okay! I was full anyway. Yeah, I don't like spiders. I can deal with snakes …but spiders? NO! I think I'll take my beer elsewhere. And then wrap myself in the mosquito netting hanging above our bed.
Before we finished for the night we did end up chatting with a group of people from Israel.