Bac Ha Market

Bac Ha Market
Well the rain did not stop for the market but that did not seem to phase the populous, everyone just donned an umbrella and sloshed thru the mud. It was a warm rain and not a total downpour so that helped. The mountain people come from all around the area for this market, not just to sell to tourists, but to buy and sell the supplies they need or have. From what I could gather there were 3 main ethnicities represented. The Flower Hmong, the Black Hmong, and the Dzoa. Because of the rain I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I feel kind of funny being the gawky tourist with the camera anyway. these pictures will give you an idea what the Flower Hmong women's elaborate costumes look like from the back and then the front. i have also included a pic of the tobacco booth, where you could test the product before you purchased it. Chilies anyone? What a beautiful color red they were!!

There was far more vendors and shoppers than a typical Santa Barbara Saturday Market, at least twice as many I would say. The women of this area have such colorful and elaborate costumes they are beautiful to see. What is really amazing is the fact that many of them had walked quite a distance in the mud to get to the market and yet their skirts did not seem to be muddy at all.They all carry a large bamboo basket with shoulder straps fashioned on their backs. These are some of the smallest people I have ever seen but they are certainly strong, many of them carry 50 pounds in their basket which could easily be half their weight.

The meat market was in full swing down at the bottom of the market with sales of pigs, chickens, dogs, goose and ducks. All of these animals are sold on the hoof. I did not go down and see the bargining of these animals. While we are talking about animals for eating I would also like to mention that it is amazing to see what the Vietnamese carry on their motorbikes, you could do a whole coffee table book on the subject. The most people I have seen is 5, this is a family so some of the bodies are children. You will also see a bamboo basket with easily a dozen chickens, small dogs or ducks all crammed into this small basket attached to the back.. An animal rights person would have a hay day down here. I have seen a small calf on one bike and a large full-grown pig on another. Try balancing a load of 8 five-gallon water bottles on your bike as you swerve thru traffic, that is 200 pounds!!

The other wonder of Vietnamese and their motorbikes, the way they drive them. Lines down the middle are a suggestion only, the same for a stop light in Hanoi. Vehicles get so close to one another it is amazing there are not more collisions. Even in a crush of commuter traffic in Hanoi you see them talking on their cell phones, flirting with the person on the bike next door, or smoking a cig with a full face helmet on. Every family owns 2 or 3 motorbikes and with 4 million people in Hanoi you do the math as to how many there are in that city alone. There is almost no chance of crossing a street in Hanoi at a break in traffic so quoting from our travel guide “step out like Moses and the red moped sea will part before thee, tarry not at the curb, lest thee become old and incontinent before thy allotted time.” It is a little unnerving at first (a lot unnerving) but it really works and the worst thing you can do is stop in the middle of your crossing, a sure way to get hit!

Anyway I got a bit side tracked here, back to the market in Bac Ha. Tourist coming to the market in Bac Ha have brought a lot of money into the area. The locals used to just bargain with one another for what they wanted and needed, but now they have money to spend. Five years ago there was only one hotel in town and now I bet there are dozen small hotels in town. The one we stayed in recently doubled their room number to 40 when they added on a new wing. There are new buildings going in all over town and the town seems to be really prospering and this is due mainly to tourism. The town for the most part looks new. Apparently there are some area that are closed to tourist because they didn’t want anything “bad” coming in and I assume Quyet was talking about diseases and such, although maybe he was talking about women in tank tops. The Vietnamese are very modest people as are the Thais. Most of the ethnic groups do not show any skin on arms or legs (wow I don’t know how they wrap up so in the heat.)