When you are sick with a cold or virus you know it. In Vietnam we have a saying for when you are not sick nor well but just feel off and we call it "feeling sideways".
Was it the frozen air conditioned diesel infused fumes that blew over us in the sleeping berth on the night train to Sapa? Was it something we ate or drank?
We got the business of skirt buying over with after breakfast on day 2. Mark is the number one negotiator. We are thronged by diminutive Hmong and Red Dao women but try our hardest to just work with the women we have asked to bring certain items to us. Hill tribe women are a study in persistence. They know the action of water on stone over time as an effective corrosive and take that as their business model to negotiations. They are some of the best English speakers you can find and also speak French and a spattering of other Europeanese. and Chinese. Many cannot read or write including in Vietnamese, but we find them the most eloquent of people, fully focused on day to day matters, they laugh easily and generously but can be easily provoked into vexatious mockery, living in every moment and living outside the box.
Was it the frozen air conditioned diesel infused fumes that blew over us in the sleeping berth on the night train to Sapa? Was it something we ate or drank?
We got the business of skirt buying over with after breakfast on day 2. Mark is the number one negotiator. We are thronged by diminutive Hmong and Red Dao women but try our hardest to just work with the women we have asked to bring certain items to us. Hill tribe women are a study in persistence. They know the action of water on stone over time as an effective corrosive and take that as their business model to negotiations. They are some of the best English speakers you can find and also speak French and a spattering of other Europeanese. and Chinese. Many cannot read or write including in Vietnamese, but we find them the most eloquent of people, fully focused on day to day matters, they laugh easily and generously but can be easily provoked into vexatious mockery, living in every moment and living outside the box.
The black Hmong bring us skirts and the Red Dao bring us pants and rolls of stamped hand woven hemp naturally dyed with indigo.
Take some time out to wander in the markets and come across a doggy dinner!! Who could refuse. We apologise to animal lovers like ourselves and know this is offensive but this blog veritie and we are trying to understand how culture directs our values and appetites.
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