Bac Ha Market

   Every Sunday, the various tribes come to Bac Ha, a small town near In the mountains near China. It was a 3 hour drive to get here by car from Sapa. The market is divided into 3 areas, one for traditional clothing and textiles, one for cooked food and produce, and the third for livestock , farm implements and miscellaneous farm items. 

   The market is big, covering several acres. Although we visited on a rainy day, the weather couldn't dull the vibrant colors these people use in their everyday lives. Our personal guide , Tamay, ( a member of the Black Hmong tribe )   walked us thru the market explaining what we were looking at, how much things cost, and translated our purchases.  She was a huge help and really made big difference in grasping this exotic market.  The food vendors looked tempting but she steered us away from them, warning, the " water wasn't clean".

  Karen loved the colorful textiles. That's her negotiating a price on an embroidered blanket. Everything was very inexspensive, our dollar really went far here. 

   I liked the farm section where farmers dickered prices on everything from water buffalo to dogs. These people are not cruel, their menu is just a bit broader than ours. Those are wood plows for the rice paddies and odd wooden horse saddles. The water buffalo is the single most valuable item these people own, a full grown one is worth $ 1,500. 

   Tamay took us to a "clean " restaurant across from the market that caters to tourists. We had a great lunch ( despite our invitation, Tamay sat separate, with other guides ). We shared a table and chatted with a young couple from Singapore . 

  It was a memorable day. 

Village school

  We had a opportunity to visit a village primary school , and like all government buildings throughout Vietnam, it was painted pale yellow with a red roof. Yellow for the color of their skin and red for the blood of the people liberating their country. 

  I peeked in one classroom with a mixed age group of kids, second/ third grade. They used individual chalkboards, no paper or pencils. They were practicing spelling. A nearby group of preschoolers were being taught the Vietnamese language (  they all spoke their tribal tongue). 

  The school day begins and ends with a beating of the drum. 

Tribal dress

  The men all dress the same, black long pants, non discript shirt and a western jacket. The women still follow the traditional style, each tribe using their own colors. The garments are all embroidered with the tribal geometric patterns.  They are all distinct enough to tell tribe affiliation at a distance. 

  The women wear black knee length pants  under their skirts. With a long 8" width roll of cloth, their leggings are wrapped from the ankles to the knees and tied on with a ribbon like cloth. A hand spun linen jacket is put on with embroidered sleeves. Next a detached collar is worn covering the shoulders,  adding another layer of warmth. The collar embroidery matches the sleeve color and pattern. A linen scarf is then tied onto their heads, each tribe wearing them in a different way.

   Young women are taught from an early age to spin, weave, dye, and  embroider. By marriage age ( 15-16 ) these skills must be mastered or they won't be considered marriage material. Many of the natural dyes are gathered in the forests with some, including indigo, grown on the farm. They all carry similar embroidered  purses. A woman's outfit takes a year to complete. 

Sapa

    Sapa is a tourist town nestled high in the mountains near the Chinese border. The French developed a center here more than a century ago and it's been a tourist destination since. At 6 thousand foot elevation, summers are cool with beautiful mountain vistas. The dozen or so streets are lined with hotels and restaurants with Hmong tribal women wandering around peddling their handicrafts ( embroidered items and clothing ), and farm products. They often carry beautiful basket backpacks. 

  Within a mile or two of town are remarkably primitive villages. At this elevation, they are at the limits of rice growing so the locals struggle with subsistence farming. The beautifully dressed women in their traditional tribal colors are amazing to see, each tribe with its own colors and embroidered patterns. They are very tolerant of being photographed and usually smile.

   The surrounding peaks reach 10 thousand feet. The lower slopes and foot hills are forested with an odd mixture of conifers ( spruce ?) and bamboo. The locals have terraced the land wherever possible to eek out as much cultivation space as possible. 

    Their scattered villages often have some electricity but little else. Our guide knows everyone,  enabling us to wander freely including into private homes, quite an experience. 

The fog rolled in when our guide drove us up to a waterfall high in the hills. We stumbled upon a Hmong mother watching her children pick greens for dinner along a steep slope, the girl in the photo was about 6. They worked at a steady pace in silence. We were about a mile from the nearest road. 

Train to Sapa

  At 9 PM, we were taken by taxi to the train station with a hotel employee who  assisted us in getting our prepaid tickets. I had gone to the extra expense of purchasing a four person sleeper compartment for just Karen and I, I'm glad I did. The station was dark and poorly lighted, and well worn . A porter carried our bags out onto the platform and directly to our " room ", it was great. 

  The train was 1960 vintage but clean and well maintained. They had folded up the upper beds and made the 2 lower ones up for us, 2 clean pillows each plus a clean duvet for a blanket. We slide our door closed to the hallway for privacy and settled in, it was cozy and nice. 

   The train station is in downtown Hanoi with tracks running at street level, not elevated or in tunnels. As we crept out of Hanoi, we crossed busy city streets  where flagmen had stopped traffic, it was odd. 

  I kept waiting for the train to pick up speed, it never did. I doubt we hit 50 MPH the whole 10 hour trip. As we crossed roads in the country, a local signalman was holding a tin lantern to halt cars. We stopped every 45 minutes and let a few people off, they had packages and bundles under their arms from their shopping trip to the city. The train would jerk and creek to a start and rumble on to the next stop. 

   A women knocked on our door offering soda,chips, beer etc, I bought 2 cold beers for $3, She didn't speak a word of English but we managed to complete the transaction. We were going to use the clear plastic cups in our compartment but upon closer inspection , they were well used, we drank out of the cans.

Although the beds were comfy, the constant clanging and swaying prevented me from getting more than a few cat naps. Karen slept soundly all night. We arrived at the northern tip of Vietnam the next morning. We looked across the river at China. 

Hanoi streets

  The streets are full of peddlers, on bikes, sitting on the sidewalks, carrying baskets. They're selling everything from food to household goods. Opium smokers, with their long bamboo pipes are often seen puffing on the streets. 

 The electrical system looks like a snarled mess, I'm baffled how they keep it working, the poles are draped with huge amounts of wire.

  The streets are usually filed with similar shops, silver street, grass mat street, hardware street, we even saw mannequin  street. We bought fake Northface jackets on jacket street. Purchasing requires brutal bargaining, walking out usually helps. 

Hanoi

  We arrived in Hanoi after a 2 day ordeal of missed flights and a night in Bangkok. We arrived in Hanoi to a brand new international terminal, they've also built a new super highway into the city. Wow, Vietnam is booming. We are staying in the old French Quarter, a maze of winding streets and little shops. The buzz of the city is quite a shock after quiet Leyte. Our room is very nice in a modern hotel, a bargain at $60 per night. Lots to do and see. 

     

We had a nice meal in the above restaurant for $7.00. We like visiting this park around a lake in the center of Hanoi. It's strange John McCain landed in this lake when shot down, then bayoneted, it's so peaceful now. The locals love hanging out here. They smiled and said hello to us, the past is forgotten

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Philippino people

I   We found the people here universally open and friendly. Everybody had a ready smile on their faces,  I suspect the low stress lifestyle here helps. The various provinces speak mutually unintelligible languages, English is the official language  binding these spread out island provinces together . 

    The staff at the hotel works 7 days a week. The work hours for Lisa, our wonderful waitress, are 6 AM till 10 PM. These hardworking people make Americans look lazy. 

  This country is very Catholic,  ( 95% ), every  tiny village has a church. Our hotel owner, David,  ( from Scotland ) said Philippinos, by nature,  are non confrontational. We enjoyed our visit to this beautiful island.