Sapa, Vietnam: an example of how sometimes tourism is bad



When you envision what Vietnam looks like, you probably wouldn't

picture Sapa. At least it's not what we would picture. When we think

Vietnam, we think rice patties, jungles and beaches. Sapa is very

different. Nestled into the mountains just south of the Chinese

border, Sapa reminded us of parts of Peru and also part of Nepal.



The towering green mountains shrouded in mist and fog makes for a

breathtaking setting. Just like Peru and Nepal, the locals wear

brightly colored clothing that look beautiful against the green

mountainous backdrop. The town itself is also very pretty. The

buildings seem to cling to the sides of the steep hills with narrow

winding roads. There is no surprise why tourists have flocked here for

years, Sapa is a lovely place.



Unfortunately,

it seems tourism has really made a negative impact on the community.

As tourists, we hate to see communities become so completely dependent

on tourists (us) that the soul of place seems to be lost. Vietnam is

the 40th country we've visited and we don't think we've seen a town

with a more desperate relationship with tourism, although we're sure

they're more out there.

As soon as we arrived town on the

bus, children and women, many with babies followed us wherever we went

trying to sell us anything they had. If we could, we would buy from

everyone, they certainly need the income, but this solution just isn't

possible. Even if all the visiting tourists bought a few things from

at least 2 or 3 woman, it wouldn't even come close to supporting all

the locals in need. We've seen this in other towns, but not at this

level. There were little girls sleeping outside the doors of the

hotels waiting for tourists to come out. At a restaurant for lunch

there were a dozen beautiful young faces pressed against the window

trying to sell handicrafts. Walking to dinner three drunk local woman

were hanging off Meggan's arms trying to sell her handmade handbags.

The next day we booked a village trek which was to

responsibly support the locals and the villages. In retrospect, we're

not sure any of our money went to the villages we walked through. It

seems all the tours do a similar route through these villages. Locals

were waiting for us at the start point and followed and begged us to

buy something for the entire 10 kilometers through the countryside.

All of this breaks our hearts, we wish we could directly help

everyone. By visiting Sapa, we are part of the problem. I think many

communities have this dilemma. Although tourism has the ability to

bring in a needed economy, it also has the ability to create a

dependence and strip places of what originally made them worth

visiting. If there were an easy solution, it would probably already

fixed.



We really feel strongly about fair-trade and micro-finance and believe

this can be part of the solution. To learn about fair-trade and

micro-finance, go to WFTO, FTF and KIVA.

Sapa does export fair-trade products, but there is still not enough

demand. If demand around the world increases for products that

directly support local communities and artisans around the world, many

of the adults would be employed by fair-trade co-ops rather than having

to beg and their children would be in school. This would allow these

individuals to make enough to support themselves, while still retaining

their community's culture and lifestyle. Fair-trade is more than just

coffee, we have seen this model in action in many places; sugar-cane

farmers in Africa making sugar for fair-trade cola, an entire

restaurant staff of ex-street kids and orphans in Ho Chi Minh City,

the wives of inca-trail guides in Peru knitting alpaca hats for export,

and more.









Micro-finance allows entrepreneurs, like the ones we just mentioned in

developing countries to obtain small loans for their businesses. KIVA

is an amazing organization, we are currently loaning money to a

popsicle vender in Ecuador, a clothing retailer in Mongolia, a metal

fabricator in Kenya, and a group of woman distributing cooking charcoal

in Uganda. All our loans are nearly paid back in full, we will put

this money back into more loans for more entrepreneurs from countries

we've visited. KIVA as an organization has a 98.37% payback rate on

$72 million dollars of loans! Go to Kiva's website and invest in a

few businesses around the world for as little as the cost of a lunch.

So, we just went from a post on Sapa that somehow ended up on a

dissertation on fair-trade and micro-finance. Sapa is a beautiful

place with beautiful people and by no means are we suggesting not to

visit. If anyone out there has programs, tours or organizations that

directly support the community of Sapa, please let us and future

visitors know!