Dong Van - Market Day

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24th Mar - Today we went on a five hour walk where we walked through villages, giant boulders, rice paddies and houses. We saw a massive place seperated by a river and it was China. It was very dry and had loads of massive hills. There were people in black and their tribe was the Tay. The colourful tribe was the H'mong. We went to a view point and we were like 20 metres high. There was a school and you could see inside. One class had been doing English and the other Maths.

The market earlier, was really busy and the men dealt with different things from the ladies. Men = birds, buffalos, and dogs. Ladies = pigs, cloth and wine. The birds were in such small cages and the pigs were getting dragged along. The pigs were just non stop squealing and everybody was shouting. The old ladies didn't have any teeth, they had gold teeth. When they smiled there was a mouthful of gold. At night I tried a frog. I put it in my mouth and wretched so I swallowed the leg with a drink of coke. The man behind us gave us the frogs and we thought it was a wishbone. Jonathan

We got up at 06:30 am to go to see the market. It was so big, there were about 5000 people there. There are certain things, which the women do and the men do. The men had to buy and sell the buffalo also they had to check that they were well and healthy. The men also have to buy the birds in cages. If a lady looked at one, everybody would tease her and point. The job of the women is to buy pigs and sell them. Some people pushed you because they were in a rush. People purposely touched Jonathan and I really didn’t like it. The men are only allowed to drink, and get very drunk. Everybody was wearing very traditional clothes. A pig came past squealing because one man was pulling his tail, and the other man his ear. We went through the meat part and it was disgusting. They eat dogs, so there was dog being cut up. Buffalos, hens, half a cow, I closed my eyes there was blood everywhere. Sophie

Parental clarifications - women sell the wine but cleary it's the man's job to drink it. Come late afternoon women get the job of guiding the other half home too.

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Comments

[Julia]

Market purchases
You bought those two women at the market, Richard? Do you not have enough women in your life??

[The Elegant Elephant and Mischievous Monkey Tour]

Whoops
Was that the title of that photo!? So glad somebody is reading the small print. It should say "Returning from the Market". These two, 80+ and 90+ had already walked 3-miles up hill from the market. Oh, and I'm not carrying the piece of furniture on my back either. See you soon!

[Susannah]

Hello Yesterday i saw my cousans.