TRAVEL

When visiting Vietnam, don’t neglect Sapa

By Douglas Parker

A few years ago, my wife and I spent three weeks in Vietnam, a ribbon of land in southeast Asia, home to 92 million people, with an impressive coastline that runs for 3,200 kilometres. Our final destination was a three-night stay in Sapa, where we met our fascinating guide Cham and her family.

It was a long road to get there. After a brief visit to the Mekong Delta, the rice basket of Vietnam, we headed north from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, towards the capital Hanoi. Stops along the way included the Imperial City of Hue, the ancient port town of Hoi An and Halong Bay – all three are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Then finally to Sapa, a mountain town in northwestern Vietnam close to the Chinese border, 315 kilometres from Hanoi.

It is easy to neglect Sapa, especially when you consider the five-hour bus trip from Hanoi that includes a final hour along a narrow cliffside road with hairpin turns, but neglecting it would be a colossal missed opportunity.

Sapa is nestled in what are dubbed the Tonkinese Alps. One source calls it “a quiet hill town,” but that description hardly applies. Tourists have discovered its charms. Youthful and not so youthful backpackers and trekkers flock to it because of the challenging hills that swaddle the town. Souvenir shops abound, selling gewgaws of various sorts. Women from hill-tribe villages, dressed in their distinctive colourful attire, hawk hand-made textiles.

The real charm of Sapa are the five hill tribes (among 54 tribes in Vietnam) that live high above the town. Our guide Cham knew three tribal dialects because she was a member of the Red Dao (pronounced Zao) tribe and still lived in the village with her parents and three sisters.

Cham came to our hotel on a motor scooter to collect us. Once our driver arrived, we set off for her village. Because the road is narrow, precipitous and not well maintained, the ascent was a harrowing, white-knuckle ride.

We walked through the entrance gate into the village while Cham filled us in on Red Dao life and culture. Although she lives among her people, Cham no longer accepts large segments of the Red Dao culture. She opposes arranged marriages and no longer believes marriage outside the tribe should be forbidden.

In her tribe, a woman’s duty is to marry and to spend her day working in the fields and sewing. Cham told us that if a woman couldn’t make her own clothes, no man would marry her even if she were very attractive. Married women are marked by red kerchiefs that they sport on their heads and chunky silver bracelets from their husbands.

Married women must shave their hair from the top of their foreheads to about halfway back along their scalp. Legend has it that a woman once served her husband a meal into which one of her hairs had fallen. The husband choked on the hair and died. After that, head shaving became an essential part of the marriage ceremony.

Because she objects to what women must do to satisfy tribal rituals, Cham claims she will never marry. When I asked Cham about tribal religious beliefs, she told me that the religion was “ancestral,” without explaining

A family photo of our guide Cham (second from left) and her mother and sisters

what she meant, except to say she no longer accepts that either. Though she speaks and understands English remarkably well, one of her goals is to learn to read and write it. She told us village boys are taught to read and write but not girls because custom assumes the only talent they need is sewing. Perhaps in a spirit of rebellion, Cham has let her hair grow long and colours it, and she wears a small stud on the side of her left nostril.

Yet she still follows some tribal traditions. She makes her own tribal uniform – hemp pants and tunic, dyed black in a solution of indigo, with beautiful yellow silk symbols sewn on. She has never been vaccinated, never been to a dentist and visited a doctor only once when she was very ill. She found the experience unnerving and has no intention of repeating it.

As we walked through the village, I noticed several black pigs and a cow wandering on the road, blissfully unaware that their next stop might be the village butcher whom we passed as he happily dismembered a recently slaughtered pig. Cham told us her people are largely self-sufficient – they eat what they grow and kill and suffer

A group of Sapa women sewing PHOTOS: D. PARKER

few illnesses because, she claimed, their food is fresh and uncontaminated by hormones. The tribe makes it own wine from both corn and rice but buys beer. We passed a couple of caged roosters, staring menacingly at each other, kept apart until the illegal but apparently entertaining cockfight took place.

By the side of the road, we noticed graves – humble affairs, merely piles of grass and dirt with no markers. Cham told us people are traditionally buried very close to where they lived, with the head facing east so the corpse can see the sun rising.

Our final stop was Cham’s house, a modest affair with a dirt floor. We met her mother and two married sisters, all wearing the red kerchief. The mother’s headwear was bigger – several red kerchiefs sewn together – to signify her grandmother status. We were surprised to learn that Cham’s mother was only 53 years old. Her face was wrinkled, leathery and weather-beaten from years of field work under the hot sun. Women and children are also tasked with collecting firewood higher up the mountain in forests inhabited by wolves and monkeys, and in the past, tigers.

Back at our hotel, I wondered what might become of the semi-rebellious Cham. Whip smart and self-aware, she had taken the courageous step to depart from many tribal traditions to find her own path – it takes a special person to turn their back on cultural practices that are bred in the bone. Perhaps the questioning Cham was in quest of a new normal or an amalgam of what she is and what she aspires to be. Ostensibly, she seemed comfortable in her own skin, but I wondered if there were any dark nights of the soul in her life, the result of one culture tugging against another.

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COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

ABBOTSFORD SENIOR COMMUNITY CENTRE

(950 Bank St.) is now open LIVE (in-person) to visitors wearing masks and able to provide proof of double COVID-19 vaccination. Next time you are in, you might find a book or a puzzle, a nice piece of women’s clothing, the perfect homemade bear for a friend or for you, a lovely piece of jewellery, a hand knit baby outfit, a handmade craft, the perfect card, a treasure or three. And you might find a friend too!

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The ABBOTSFORD SENIOR COMMUNITY CEN-

TRE NOVEMBER / DECEMBER PROGRAM GUIDE

2021 is posted on our website at www.glebecentre.ca under Abbotsford Community Program and Current Program Guide or What’s up at Abbotsford.

ABBOTSFORD SENIOR COMMUNITY CENTRE SPECIAL PROGRAMMING - LIVE IN–PERSON

LECTURES! We are pleased to welcome back Amy Friesen, Founder and CEO of Tea & Toast, for a series of lectures that hit home as we live through the realities of the pandemic and its revelations about the challenges of aging. Many people are now re-thinking how and where they live. Amy will share her vast knowledge and experience of working in this field, and we’ll have time to ask questions and broaden the discussion. Thurs., Nov. 18, 1 p.m.: Navigating Your Senior Living Journey – Understanding the LHINs role and how to navigate the system. Thurs., Nov. 25, 1 p.m.: Navigating Your Senior Living Journey – Understanding Care Levels and Retirement Homes. The lectures, free to current members, will be in the Abbotsford Dining Room (limited to 14 participants per session). To register, call 613-230-5730. Bring your own vessel of water/coffee/tea and an open mind.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE OTTAWA PUB NIGHT (af. ca/ottawa/en/notre_culture/pub-night/#/) Nov. 19, 18:00, The Gilmour Bar, 313 Bank St. Join us to have a good time and learn French. This is a good opportunity to practise French while making new friends. This is a free activity, but you have to pay for food and drinks. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE CAFÉ DISCUSSION, Nov. 17, 9 a.m. Free online activity animated by a French teacher and open to all French levels. Share an online breakfast in French with us and talk about the news. Registration until Nov. 15. (afottawa.extranet-aec.com/events/detail/362#/) and you will receive the Zoom link a day before the activity.

CENTRE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION AND

SCHOLARSHIP (CHES) (chesatottawa.ca/) VIRTUAL EVENTS: Nov. 14, 7 p.m. – Second Generation Program – The Shadow of the Holocaust on the lives of descendants of survivors – Is it possible to move beyond its grip? With keynote address by Helen Epstein. For more information and to register, go to: bit.ly/CHESnov14 – Nov. 24, 4:30–6:30 p.m. Teachers’ Workshop: Testimonies of the Holocaust, Inspiring Change Through Legacy: In-depth Exploration of the voices of Holocaust survivors. The workshop will be based on the testimonies of Ottawa-area Holocaust survivors recorded by CHES in 2016. For more information and to register, go to: bit.ly/CHESnov24

FRIENDS OF THE FARM CELEBRATION BENCHES

The Friends are now accepting sponsorships for benches to be installed in the Arboretum in late spring/early summer 2022. In order to allow time for the benches to be ordered and delivered, our deadline for sponsors is Dec. 15. The Friends will be accepting a maximum of six bench sponsorships in this cycle. Please see the Celebration Bench webpage friendsofthefarm.ca/bench-program/ for more details.

HERITAGE OTTAWA LECTURE VIA ZOOM Opportunities and Challenges in Protecting Our Cultural Heritage: ICOMOS International Collaboration Trajectory. Conflict, climate disasters, development pressures and now the pandemic are threatening the overall integrity of cultural heritage in ways never seen before. Join Mario Santana-Quintero, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, and Secretary General of ICOMOS, for a look at how ICOMOS is using its technical expertise in keeping with a philosophical framework for protecting heritage developed over the course of 50 years to find ways of mitigating these threats around the world. The lecture will be presented via Zoom, and pre-registration is required by going to: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/ register/WN_rO2VgxMVQZeZ2CbT95URww After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the webinar.

OLD OTTAWA SOUTH GARDEN CLUB Sun., Nov. 28, 1:30–3:30 p.m. (In-person workshop): Seasonal Decorating Workshop - Join Amber Tiede of Riverwood Gardens for a hands-on workshop. It’s for gardeners wanting to transform their hanging baskets, planters and window boxes into festive seasonal decorations; for people seeking handson experience creating wreaths or urn inserts; for anyone seeking fresh greenery, cones, berries and other decorative materials; and for those desiring community socializing. Refreshments will be available. Fee: $40 per person with extra materials at the “Flower Bar.” Registration by Nov. 25 through the Old Ottawa South Community Centre (The Firehall), 260 Sunnyside Ave. Info: Old Ottawa South Community Centre (260 Sunnyside Ave.) at www.oldottawasouth.ca and 613-2474946.

OTTAWA CANADIAN FILM FESTIVAL (OCANFILMFEST) Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival (OCAN21) will take place online on Vimeo’s On-Demand platform from November 12 to 21. Info: ocanfilmfest. ca/#ocan21

OTTAWA NEWCOMERS CLUB Our club is a nonprofit social organization for women who have

PIANO LESSONS IN THE GLEBE!

• 40+ years’ teaching experience • traditional method • affi liated with the Royal Conservatory of Music Please call 613-231-3966 for more information.

recently moved to this area or who have experienced a significant life change and would like to meet new people of similar interests by joining our many group activities. More information about us and what we do can be found on our website at: ottawanewcomersclub.ca or by contacting newcomersclubottawa@gmail.com.

AVAILABLE

HOUSESITTER Snowbirds!!! Are you leaving town for an extended period of time and need a housesitter? Someone to immaculately care for your home while evading the cold weather? I am a young lady with current experience housesitting in the Glebe. I have excellent references and love to take care of animals, especially puppies! Sarah – 613-263-0590.

RETIRED RN to help you care for your elderly loved ones. I have 35 years of nursing experience. Please give me a call at 613-286-7586.

FOR SALE

The FRIENDS OF THE FARM’S NEW BOOK, Building Canada’s Farm: An Illustrated Guide to Buildings at the Central Experimental Farm, by Richard Hinchcliff and Patricia Jasen. The book which explores the many and varied buildings of the Central Experimental Farm and the history they so magnificently represent will be available for purchase from our online Boutique (friendsofthefarm.ca/boutique) starting Nov. 18 at 8:00 p.m. at a cost of $25 plus HST. Copies will be available for shipping or curbside pickup at Building 72. Friends of the Farm new FALL GREETING CARDS are here! These lovely cards, featuring the stunning photography of our own Richard Hinchcliff, celebrate the Arboretum wrapped in all its autumnal glory with 6 unique images. Now for sale in our online boutique. Info: (friendsofthefarm.ca/ boutique)

WANTED

BRIDGE (CARDS) INSTRUCTOR for 4 adults. We are beginners. Please contact Lisa at 613-8086678.

HELP FOR LIGHT DOMESTIC WORK Retired couple living in a beautiful home in the Glebe need help. Regular housecleaning and gardening/yard work in the house are done by professional services, but help is needed for other light domestic tasks. About 4 to 6 hours per week, hours being flexible to suit the person applying. Rate: $16/hour. Telephone 613-236-8555 and leave message.

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