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| Sapa Market...Sue Mae (oldest sister) and me (no bath, no hot water, no makeup) |
The New York Times featured at article in the Art and Design section about a region near Oaxaca, Mexico. A village close by has remained untouched by the modern world. The article was aptly titled The Past Has a Presence Here.
The past is visible in the landscape. The past casts a sharp shadow here, wherever you look. You see it on mountaintop plateaus, where the ruins of ancient pyramidal staircases and capital-I-shaped ball fields hint at mysterious rituals that disappeared over a millennium ago.
When you stand on a flattened hilltop above the village of Atzompa, some seven miles outside of Oaxaca, and look over at a nearby peak, you can glimpse the immense ruins of Monte Albán, a pre-Columbian plaza of breathtaking expanse used for ceremonies and games. Below those ruins, where perhaps 25,000 people lived in the early part of the first millennium, you can make out faint remnants of terraced farming on the hillside. New York Times, June 15, 2012The Times article pointed out that even in this place the stalls in the market feature Sponge Bob Square Pants t-shirts. And yes, McDonalds came to Oaxaca in 2002. In this case, you must travel the 7 miles from Oazaca to Atzompa to escape the omni-present fast food business. The truth is, in order for a person to get a glimpse of what was, most humans must be left behind...a distant hill or village has to be the destination.
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H'mong woman |
When my husband and I visited Sapa, Vietnam this last winter, we could not believe our good fortune. The food was authentic and the only tourists we saw were trekkers. There was not a McDonalds in sight. We shopped in markets run by H'mong people that did not call Vietnam nor China home. They belonged to a culture of their own. The H'mong women that were sent to town each week for a few days followed us relentlessly asking us to buy their trinkets. I was adopted by a woman named Jan. She trailed behind us like a puppy for a whole day. She could not read nor write. Western culture had not ruined her true nature. The face she showed us was one of a childlike innocence. She let us know that all the women talked about our family. My husband and I were a rarity because of our age.
When we were in Hanoi, the real Vietnam was still very much in evidence. Vendors began crowding the street to set up stalls at 5:30 a.m. so people that lived in that neighborhood could do their daily shopping. They brought the produce on their shoulders to the street balanced like a scale while riding bicycles. A loud speaker outside our bedroom window woke the neighborhood at 7:00 am with daily announcements. (Shades of Good Morning Vietnam with Robin Williams)
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| French Villa style setting. |
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| Night Train...open windows? WOW! |
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| Cat Cat Village, Vietnam |
I suppose the lesson here is that the real cultures of the world are disappearing at the speed of light and, if we want to see something authentic, we need to dress in suitable clothes, bring a helmet in case you fall and wear good walking shoes. It is not physically easy.
b
I recommend you read Seth Kugel, of the NYT. I especially recommend this article he wrote about Mexico.
My husband worked with the Montagnard people when he served in Vietnam. When he returned thirty years later to the same spot, there was little evidence of them. Still, the village was there with different, remote residents.
ReplyDeleteWe often talk of the ancient people we have been blessed to visit. Many have already disappeared.
Thank you for sharing your travels with us!
Janette...doesn't that just blow you away that a whole people would somehow be gone? It really is so sad.
ReplyDeleteb
After 25 years of living and exploring overseas, we learned that the best adventures were the ones you had to work hard to get to. We spent a night in a head hunter's long house in Borneo, years ago , when our kids were in Middle School. There were "Real" heads hanging from the posts. We woke up and found our boys floating down the river with the village kids. None of us have forgotten. We had to take two planes, a van ride and an hour and a half long tale ride up the river for this experience.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any head hunters in our future...wow! But you are right...the more difficult the journey the better the experience at the end of the road.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting Shelley.
b
I think there must be some areas of land that have not been touched--like at the poles. But are there cultures that have not been touched? I think those are much harder to find.
ReplyDeleteYes, finding them is the trick and once they are found it doesn't take long before it is changed.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by Galen
b
Thank you for the link to the article about Atzompa. When my husband and I spent five weeks of "slow travel" in Oaxaca last spring, we found a few places close by that were relatively untouched. I look forward to reading the article, but I hope no one else does. Unfortunately, often times articles like this start the stampede of tourists and the places no longer are the same.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this article back in 2012. I hope the article is still available online. They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity but in this case I think you are right. Fortunately, those lost places are not easy to get to and most tourist are not that ambitious. It would be a tour company than creates the problem. Sigh!
DeleteI agree with retirementallychallenged about starting a stampede of tourists. I recently watched a documentary on Inuit seal hunting and the impact demonstrations decades ago have had on that peoples' livelihood. I'm also reminded of Leonardo decaprio's rendition of witnessing "global warming" in the Rocky Mountain foothills when, in fact, he was witnessing a common chinook weather system. I think of some of the animal rights activists who are far-removed from nature yet seem to be the self-appointed spokespersons. The organic food fad comes to mind as well. Most people I know don't have the wherewithal to put up a year's supply of food for a family but have lots to say about production practices. Here's to the untouched places of the earth.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about Leonardo Decaprio and the chinook runs but I do know our weather is NOT normal. What that is caused by cannot be traced to one source but if we think that humans are not part of the problem, I disagree.
DeleteThe wonderful thing about the activist movement is that we can turn off the TV or choose to ignore them. It is their right to voice their opinions even if we disagree. You too have the same rights.
The point here is that the world is becoming very small in the sense that even those old cultures want to live like we do. zIf they only could see the bad in that they would be so much better off. But the truth is we like to gaup and intrude in so many cases. If we could go into places like Sapa and avoid leaving our mark, that would be a very good thing.
Thank you for your input. Have a wonderful day.
b+
I haven't traveled abroad at all (even though I would love too) but, I've managed to find a few places like that here in the US. Where my mother grew up in the hollows of Eastern Kentucky and a few other places scattered around the country. They are the most peaceful places I've ever been.
ReplyDeleteI would love to visit those places!
DeleteOh I admire you for getting on that plane, I much prefer the train. I don't think even in Australia's remote aboriginal communities they could be described as untouched - maybe the more remote islands of Indonesia? I wish I was adventurous enough to give that a try!
ReplyDeleteGo for it. There are people that will go with you.
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