Sunday, December 7th, 2003 – Day 292
I was up at 7.00am to go to the market but it was just starting. Most of the participants have no transport and must walk several miles to be here. No cares, trucks, trailers etc. I saw many women bring in there produce in baskets on there backs and some horses and carts.
Bac Ha has one of the most interesting ethnic markets in Vietnam and possibly everywhere in South East Asia: ” Sunday is market day in Bac Ha, which is the occasion for the various local ethnies to gather in huge crowds to exchange the last news, gossip, shop, and eat a copious lunch. It was visibly a festive event. I was surrounded in a sea of color, and had the feeling to be on a movie set. Everyone seemed excited. A few men rode small horses. Those fortunate enough to be able to pay 10000 dongs (75 cents) arrived at the back of a motorcycle, sharing the ride with two other passengers. Most came on foot, from villages as far as 20 kilometers away. Even the old hunched lady was not going to miss the weekly party. Although there were several ethnies at the market, the Flower Hmong women stood apart with their vibrant dress. They wear a number of skirts and underskirts all made with very colorful fabric and some batiks. Their tops are embroided, often with flower motifs, and their heads are covered with elaborately shaped and balanced scarfs. In the rapid global uniformization of today’s world, it was refreshing to see this untouched beauty in humanity…”
There were many different tribes her here from Red Dao, Thai , Zao to Hmong. I wanted to go to Sapa today so I went to the bus station to wait for a tourist bus to arrive from Sapa (125km away)a and ask the driver to take me back to Sapa. Normal tourist return prices are 10 USD so I was going to offer 4 USD and I did not want a tour lunch or trek. The first bus that came in was a private family tour. A NGO boy/girl friend from Belgium and her parents. They offered to take me back in their mini can for free. They had come off the Lao Cai Train this morning. I agreed to meet them at 11.30am for the 3.5 hour journey back. Otherwise, to get to Sapa, I would have needed to transfer by bus for the 3 hour bus to Lao Cai and another 2-hour ride from Lao Cai station to Sapa. This can mean anything from a 80,000 VND fare in two rattle-trap Russian cast-off, or a price of US$40 for a ride in a Japanese Pajero Mini (SUV). The road is cut into the hillside and is bumpy and windy, but the views of the terraced rice farms of the valley are beautiful as you ascend.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Hac Ba Market (07-12-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Hac Ba Market (07-12-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Hac Ba Market (07-12-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Hac Ba Market (07-12-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Hac Ba Market (07-12-2003)
I enjoyed the market and there were various tribes and various parts to the market. There were pig, dog and cattle sales and a meat market. Many people were again selling corn whiskey. I bought a litre bottle for 15,000 Dong.
I met the Belgiums at 11.30am and off we went. We stopped at Lao Cai for 15 minutes and I bought them coffee. As soon as we left there we started climbing hills. About 20 minutes in to the journey, the fog and mist had descended. It was a tick soup and we could see nothing in front t of us. Incoming vehicles would only appears seconds before we met them. It was pretty scary.
This small market town has been a gathering spot for many local hill tribes for nearly 200 years, and Hmong and Yao, among others, still come here to conduct trade, socialize, and attend an ephemeral “love market” where young men and women choose one another for marriage (it’s not likely you’ll see anything but a staged re-creation of it here). Seeing this, French missionaries as early as 1860 said “Mon Dieu!” and set up camp to save souls; their stone church still stands sentinel and is well attended at the center of town. With the mercifully cooler climate and colorful gatherings of hill-dwellers (not to mention the advantages gained by trade and control of this region), Sapa became an instant tourist site for French colonists, complete with rail connection, upscale hotels, and a tourist bureau as early as 1917. The French alternately deserted and rebuilt the town over the years, depending on the state of the colony, and the outpost was retaken by the Vietnamese in 1950 and attacked and destroyed later by the French. Chinese troops found billet here but aren’t responsible for any destruction. The town began rebuilding for tourism in the early 1990s. It’s a bit like an old trading post in the American West perhaps, and just as kitschy and picturesque.
You can trek out to nearby villages with or without a guide, or simply wait for members of the various hill tribes to come to sell their wares. Their costumes alone are an eyeful: colorful embroidered tunics embellished with heavy silver ornaments that, to those in the know, signify marital status or place in their group’s hierarchy.
And Sapa is a feast for the eyes; hills striated by terraced rice-farms in vast, green valleys are like a stairway up to Mt. Fansipan, Southeast Asia’s tallest mountain, which, at 3,143m (10,312 ft.), seems to be smiling down on all the proceedings. Note: Bring a few layers here because, especially in the winter months, it’s can get chilly.
Anyway it was very wet and misty. I never seen a palce so foggy. I booked into a local hotel called the MIMOSA for 5 USD per night. Its off season as prices can reach 20 USD in summer. There was only one hotel in Sapa in 1990. There are now 70. The main beneficiaries are Vietnamese Han people while the Black HMong don’t have any stockholder. They just sell their fine home produced clothes.
I had been drinking that damn corn whiskey on and off all day and I was pretty wrecked. I met a similarly wrecked Aussie and we decided to play football with three Black Hmong teenagers on the street. It was pretty surreal as two drunken tourists played ball with the Hmong with all their fine clothes. We played for about 40 minutes. I had a nice meal later. It was dark, wet and foggy.
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Sapa (07-12-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in its original size
Sapa (07-12-2003)