Hmong Tribe Quizz Answer

So the question was : what is the mysterious mark some Hmong people have on their forehead ?

It is the result of the application of some traditional medicine. It is the traditionnal way they have to treat headaches. And from what we learned it is used in many different countries.

They heat the bottom of a cup with fire, put some rice wine in it (and a piece of a buffalo's horn) and stick it into their forehead. When it cools down it will suck the blood in the head and increase the blood circulation....the mark will stay 4 or 5 days.

And no more headaches ! Apparently it works and doesn't hurt....I still don't really want to give it a try !

Thank you to all the doctors that can correct what I haven't understood or not well explained above !

So the winner is..................

Hmong Tribe customs & Quizz !

I have so far talked about 3 different tribes that live in the Northwest of Vietnam. Basically Hmong's and D'zao speak different language even if they share villages sometimes : they all (thoso who go to school...) learn vietnamese in school now and use vietnamese to understand each other.

No matter howw good they look in the pictures and how welcoming these people are, the minor tribes who live in the mountains in the north are often despised by "vietnamese" (understand northern-vietnamese) who look down on them. It is extremely hard for them to start an actual business in Sapa, all the travel agencies run by vietnamese coming from the big cities are taking advantage of the local people and underpaying them to guide tourists around. Some Hmongs (and probably D'zao's too) have tried to start businesses but vietnamese authorities ask for ridiculous amounts of money to buy the licences and all the hopes are vanished.

The despise for these local people goes as far as treating them as "cat-people", a vietnamese mum told his son to finish his food or "cat-people" would eat it. In many cases, vietnamese won't even try their food, considering it as "dirty".

And honestly, we've met many Hmong's and D'zao people and they are the most lovable people we've met in Vietnam, welcoming and friendly....and those who could speak better english too ! Smart people....

Here goes a short reminder :

- D'zao : Women wear a red foulard on their head and have the forward part of their head shaved. We saw them in Ta Phin village.

- Flower Hmong (Hmong La in Hmong language, la standing for colorful) : You may remember them, from Can Cau market and the Bac Ha region. They wear extremely colorful dresses and live around the Bac Ha region.

- Hmong : (Hmong Ru) I refer to them as Hmongs, but it is the Hmongs that we find around the Sapa region (Khu and Bao belong to this tribe). It is with them that we have had the chance to exchange more given their higher level in english and the time spent with them. There are some interesting facts about them.

They wear blue indigo jacket and skirts, and have the head covered (optional) by either a hat or a scarf. Indigo is made rubbing a plant and mixing it into water. Bao was showing this to me on this picture, and I had the hand blue for a couple of days !

As for the other tribes, women are in charge of the knitting and some field work and men take care of the buffaloes and responsible for killing the animals when the occasion to eat meat arises.

They eat meat in rare occasions such as when they have family over for lunch; rice, corn and cucumber being the basis of their daily diet.

Religion : some are catholic (Bao) or christians, converted probably by the french during their stay in the region. Most of them remain "chaman" (phonetical transcription), believing in a life after this life and worshipping a spirit.

We have also met some women that told us about their own experience. In particular this woman who had 4 kids, only boys. Her husband wasn't happy with that and married another woman, bringing her into the same house.

We have been wondering since the begining of our stay what did some women have on their forehead : Bets are on !

Whoever gets closer to the real meaning will get a vietnamese souvenir !

You can answer by email or comment. Answer on July 10th !

Roland Garros

Beware, quizz question inside !

Aprofitant que estava de tornada per Paris i que era la primera setmana de Roland Garros, i sobretot gràcies al Karim hi vaig poder anar ! Que no sigui dit que Roland Garros no és el torneig dels espanyols, a quasi cada pista hi havia al menys un partit amb participacio espanyola, i entraves a zona jugadors i allo semblava el tennis Barcelona desplaçat a la capital francesa. Brutal !

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Now, we have to remind that we are in Paris, and although it is always a pleasure to see clay

some have to work hard during from time to time !

And, trust me, it can actually end up being annoying to watch a game which is interrupted every 3 games because of the rain...

Etape #1 : Leçon d'un couple d'espagnols qui écrase un couple de français...enfin couple...il y en avait un qui jouait et courrait partout et son partenaire qui n'était qu'un spectateur de plus....

Petit concours : A qui sont ses pieds ? (indice : ils appartiennent au couple d'espagnols du match qu'on est allés voir)

Small Quizz : Who do these feet belong to ? (hint : they belong to the spanish couple of the double we attended in the morning. It was a couple of spanish destroying a couple of french....)

Etape #2: Avec Alex (Bobolze pour les adeptes du blog), fan inconditionnel de Rafa, on a pu aller au Philippe Chatrier, court central, avec un accès à la tribune internationale, là où vont les familles et coach des joueurs (oui, ne soyez pas jaloux !)

En effet, la vue était plutôt excellente depuis la loge...

Enfin, la vue globale je veux dire, si on regardait à peine plus attentivement, on avait droit au spectacle (porno?) de l'ainée des soeurs Williams !

Peut-être que Bobolze a changé d'idole du coup?

For those who are interested, Venus designs herself her own clothes and I figure she's in charge of its marketing.... (oups...)

Okay okay, another hint ! The feet above belong to this two young men.. who are they ?

Peut-être que Bobolze a changé d'idole du coup?

For those who are interested, Venus designs herself her own clothes and I figure she's in charge of its marketing.... (oups...)

Okay okay, another hint ! The feet above belong to this two young men.. who are they ?

"La Cruz del Sur" Quizz or how to win a bolivian hat !

Differences between the north and southern hemisphere are countless.... One of them is the constellations we see !

Okay, we don't see many in the big cities in Europe (neither do we in South America, don't worry...), but instead of having the Ursa Major constellation pointing to the North, there is the Southern Cross pointing to the South.

Let's see who remembers primary school and can recognise the Southern Cross in this picture !

A ver quien se acuerda de primaria y encuentra la Cruz del Sur !

Voyons qui garde des souvenirs du primaire et trouve la Croix du Sud sur cette photo !

A veure s'enrecorda d'alguna cosa de primaria i troba la Creu del Sud !

To answer, we will divide the picture into 49 areas, A B C D E F G horizontally and 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 vertically and you will have to say in which area it is (or areas if it is between two or more of them).

The winner will get a Bolivian hat !

El ganador obtendra un gorrito boliviano !

Un bonnet bolivien à la clef !

El guanyador obtindrà un gorret bolivià !