We managed to find a local group who does community work among the minorities and we went to the mountainous hike with a Hmong lady to the actual Hmomg village.

Their life is really hard. Hardly have enough to eat and by going there, it brings a decent meal to the family.

The group is called Ethos. When we were at the officie/home, they were caring for a young girl with bone infection and has no access to proper medical care.

Nirmala- you’re contradicting yourself. You’re not defending anti-colonialism in your statement; you’re supporting it.

Firstly, there’s more than just “Asian tourists” and if you traveled you’d know the world was round rather than racist. Your choice of wording says a lot about you and your basic lack of respect for cultures.

Secondly, I have “tourists in my backyard”. I live in Hawaii, one of the TOP U.S. destinations for tourists from U.S., Asia, Australia and Canada. I work and interact with tourist clients regularly.

But we are a state bent on PRESERVING OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE (Yes, “authenticity”) and our tourism boards are currently fighting for good sustainable tourism which strengthens our cultural pride, cultural recognition and preservation of who we are amidst the daily influx of tourists, who want to experience comfort, ease, a vacation. We’ve seen other cultures like this one, destroy their natural heritage for the sake of commerce and Hawaii knows we are not far off.

You’re pointing at “colonialism” while condoning cultural suicide, gentrification, white-washing, cultural prostitution.. ? Small or large communities lookin to make a quick buck from tourists by resorting to all forms of anything from cultural whitewashing, animal tourism, natural resource depletion and destruction of ecosystems … has a great impact on the community and those around it.

This type of solution does more harm in the long run than it does benefit the local culture.

@Jimmy: Glad the blog and photos could be of help! Not sure if they’ll let you take your rifle or butcher knife along, but enjoy Vietnam! Ha ha… Sapa was my personal favorite. Actually our family used to have a farm and my grandfather used to own a pig farm. I’ve seen my share of closeup killings. Could attribute to my being mostly vegetarian these days. 😉

@Gray: Sorry- perhaps I should post a head’s up warning… Ironically, I think Korea prepared me. Though the food in Korea isn’t nearly as visually jarring, the difference was that in Vietnam, I knew what animal it was vs. “what the hell is that?!” (as in Korea). For me, the latter has been so much more scarier. But culturally, when you place these photos in the context of a mountain/minority tribe survival/lifestyle it actually feels natural. Placed in the context of a privileged western culture, where we have more options (and “middle men”) this kind of life feels primitive. But yes, there’s a few reasons why I don’t eat meat.