Bac Ha Market - What do you want to buy or eat?

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Day 6
Morning comes early on the train to Sapa. At a certain point the comfort of the mattresses loses to the banging of the who-knows-what under the train. Thank goodness for “Things you didn’t learn in History Class” podcasts. I learned about Lord Byron, the Bar Kochba revolt, Queen Elizabeth’s childhood and several equally random subjects. It made the time between 4 am and when the train reached Lo Cai at 5:45 pass as quickly as that time could pass. It was raining when we pulled into the station and Jack was despondent. After breakfast at the hotel that services tour groups, we headed out for the Bac Ha market. It is a weekly market that is attended by members of several Hmong groups. On the way out it was so foggy you could barely see the road, let alone any scenery. We arrived at Bac Ha about 8 and the sun appeared to make Jack really happy. The market covers more than an acre and you can buy everything from water buffalos and pigs to cheap kitchen utensils to the clothing the Hmong women actually wear to souvenirs. By the way, the ratio of the price of a water buffalo to a scooter is 1 water buffalo is the same price as 1 or 2 scooters. Water buffalo cost $500 – $1,000. While this is clearly on the beaten path for tourists, especially Europeans, 95% of the people buying and selling are Vietnamese. One large section was serving food; much of it cooked on wood fires. I’ve always considered myself a pretty adventurous eater, but since the local people use every part of every animal some of what was sitting on platters waiting to be added to the pho was pretty weird and unappealing. I could just imagine what the doctor at the clinic where I got all my shots would have said about eating any of it and I took her advice. There were a lot of fruits and vegetables for sale that Jack has seen at Russo’s, but they had several types of beetles (alive) for sale and you can’t buy them at Russo’s. I bought a blanket that had great vibrant colors and I had hoped to have a jacket made from it. I was quite pleased with myself until I realized that the dye was coming off on my hands. Not a good sign. I’ll need to chalk it up to helping the local economy and leave it at the hotel. As with most of what we’ve experienced since our arrival, “intense” is the adjective that comes to mind. By 9 the sun broke though and Jack was really happy. He shot 150 pictures at the market. As we left heading down the mountain the fog returned, but after reaching Loa Cai as we started up to Sapa (1,600 meters elevation) the sun came out again and the views of terraced rice fields cover the sides of mountains was spectacular. Sapa is a very pretty town with minimal traffic noise which is relaxing. The hotel is pretty high-end and after last night a big bath and comfortable bed were welcome. If you want to take the fancy train between Hanoi and Sapa you have to stay at this hotel and we are taking the train on the way back. We checked into our room and went down to the town for a small, late lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. I think I finally understand that small restaurants that cater to locals in developing countries, don’t necessarily serve the food we like. Several years ago we had dinner at a cerviche restaurant in New York that served a dozen different types of cerviche. Six months later when we were in Costa Rica on the coast we found there was one type of cerviche availa and were looking forward to a nap until we thought there wWble at any of the restaurants we ate at. To complete the thought the NY interpretation of cerviche was far superior to the native dish and Costa Rica is light years ahead of Vietnam.

By now we were ready for a nap but a dog nearby was barking incessently. Silly us to expect that this was a problem the hotel could fix. We decided that given the investment they have in the hotel, the company should simply buy the house with the barking dogs to preserve its brand. In the meantime, there are always ear plugs. While Jack napped I went down to the lobby and got into a conversation with 3 Hmong ladies that sell merchandise in the hotel. When I explained the problem with my blanket they said if I brought it down they’d take a look as see if there was anything to be done. No luck. They were selling small pieces of hand woven fabric and some clothes. All are old. I really wanted to buy something from them and got too enthusiastic before Jack came down and brought be back to reality. Instead I gave each of the a lucky $2 bill and thanked them for their time.

One interesting thing to note is that there are at least 8 different groups of Hmong that live in separate villages, speak different dialects and have different dress for the women. All the men dress in western style. I asked on of the Hmong ladies from a group that is small than the dominant Black Hmong how many people there were in her group. She said she didn't know since there were lots of small villages.
We’re going to relax and enjoy “Happy Hour” at the hotel which serves my favorite drink. Quite civilzed and well made. The mojito I just finished is doing what mojitos tend to do, so good night blog.

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