It was very cold in this region, between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius and cloudy and very foggy, as you'll see in our pictures. Not what the forecast predicted! Sadly this made for not the best pictures since the fog clouds the views, so trust us when we say it's very pretty here.
We visited villages for the Flower Hmong, Black Hmong, and Red Dzao tribes, saw their houses and schools and their way of life. Passing through different villages we could see how some tribes have adapted to a modern society and the ways different tribes cater to Western tourists. Some might host tourists for homestays and are required by the government to have clean, Western-style (not squat) toilets "because Westerners like clean toilets", per our guide. Other tribes send their women and girls into the towns to ply their goods, sadly too aggressively and we were turned off from attempting to make a purchase. Regardless of how poor their living conditions might be nearly every house had satellite dish and television. The government provides electricity for approximately $5/month.
It was nice having a guide to point out the differences between the tribes, show us farming techniques, and give us an inside look at the Vietnamese lifestyle. For example, we learned that our guide studied Russian in high school and his kitchen is even more sparse than ours, with just a burner and no refrigerator; food is purchased at the market each day and beer is kept cold in the winter by storing it outdoors and in the summer it's drunk before it has a chance to warm up!
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