Jonathan Sumner Evans
Sumner Evans
Software Engineer at Automattic working on Beeper

Twelfth Day - Sapa 11/13/10 8:03

Written by Human, Not by AI

Sumner

Today started with breakfast (good thing to start with). And then after breakfast we met some people who were also staying at Sapa Rooms and they asked if there would be any opportunity to buy. We laughed because as soon as you walk out the door you are bombarded by H’mong and Dau (pronounced: z-ow) women saying “you buy from me why you no by from me, you bye this, you no want? Ok you buy this..” and after they give up on one person if there are others in the group they bug them.  We told them to go to the market in the square and pick up one of the things that they like and then they will have a multitude trying to sell you the exact same thing.

Then we waited for Sume to go shopping with us. Hannah had saw Red Dao outfit and immediately wanted one. So we asked Sume to go with us because we would be clueless on what a good price is (you must bargain for everything here). We went to an inside market that only sold clothes and looked at many different stalls. The same “you buy form me” thing happened in the market also. We went to one stall and thought that one of the dresses was a possibility and then found one that Hannah really liked and them bought that dress. Then we went back to the hotel to let Sume show Hannah how to put it on. After that we went with Sume to the market where we saw her cousin and a few of her sisters. We played that game where you kick the feathered thing with them for a little while. Then we went back to our hotel and hung out. Then had dinner. After dinner we played UNO with a German couple and Mr. Khan. Hannah almost always won though. Maybe it was birthday luck. Once that was over the Germans left. Then we went to our room and then all of a sudden the power went out! We got out our flashlights and then Khan came to our room and gave us a big lamp. The we realized that he had gone up to the fourth floor to a little room with books and DVD’s and some bean-bag chairs. When we got up there he was playing his guitar. He also sang some of the songs he played. We were up there maybe thirty minutes until Hannah said “oh look, the lights on the street are on.” So I tried out a lamp and it worked. Then he had to go back to work and we had to go to bed.

I have a felling that I am mixing up my thoughts but that doesn’t really mater exactly which day as long as I write it down somewhere.