Day 3: Sapa (Sunday, June 29)

Sunday meant it was time to go to the Bac Ha market. The Bac Ha market was one of the key reasons we planned our Sapa journey over the weekend; this market only occurs on Sunday in the trading town of Bac Ha. Flower Hmong people from all around come together to buy, sell and trade goods at the market - animals, food, clothes and anything else you might want to buy. Bac Ha is just a three hour drive from Sapa, and we could count on our driver to make it a very exciting three hours.

The Flower Hmong women had some truly amazing clothing. It certainly looked hot to us... we were burning up in just shorts, and they had on an elaborate set of very colorful clothes. We started at the animal market where you could buy chicken, pigs, dogs, water buffalo and horses. Except for the water buffalo and horses, these were all meant as food... even the dog, sadly. Apparently, some of the Vietnamese people (not the ethnic minorities) also buy the water buffalo as food, but at $1,000 per buffalo, that's some expensive eats. Incidentally, that's the same price as a low end motorbike so if buffalo isn't your preferred means of transportation you have that option, as well.

After the animal market, we walked through the food stalls which had some rather un-appetizing creations. Dom explained that the ethnic minority people tended to just boil their food (meat, vegetables, whatever)... without any real seasoning or cooking skill. This picture of what they were eating certainly didn't make us hungry. Dom also informed us that the tradition at the market was to drink whenever you ran across a friend. Apparently, this often leads to the folks getting absolutely hammered on rice and corn wine and spending the afternoon passed out before they can walk home. Right after the food stands came the unprepared foods... lots of vegetables (chilies, eggplants, etc) and lots of meat, particularly pork including ham hocks, bacon and pig's head. Strangely, the sight of a table full of raw pork sitting outside in the sun on an 80 degree day just wasn't a tempting sight... hmm - sanitation concerns anyone? We wrapped up our tour of the market and headed to lunch in town.

After lunch, Dom took us to see the nearest village to the town and to visit a house there. Quite the house! They had hooked up their water supply to a hose, so while they didn't really have running water, they at least had the illusion of running water... and the kids were busy playing in it outside. They also had a satellite dish and a horse, so it certainly appeared as if they weren't really hurting as far as villagers go. When we went inside, we noticed that there was a huge circle of corn kernels on the ground. As Dom explained that they used the corn to make corn wine, the elder man of the house got very excited and decided that we must try some of his home brew... so I did. It basically tasted like a super-strong and not very good sake.

Two more stops on our way back to Sapa. First, a quick visit to the palace of the former Hmong King. As with many imperialistic stories, apparently the French wanted to make sure that the Hmong people supported them in Vietnam, so they picked one that seemed particularly well connected and made him the king of the Hmong people and built him a nice palace. The picture here is of us in front of the new and reconstructed version of that palace. Now, it's just used for meeting and entertaining purposes.

Second, we stopped back in Lao Cai to see the Chinese border. The map made it seem close, but when we pulled into Lao Cai we noticed the scores of trucks that were unloading fruit. All of the

lychees get imported from China into Lao Cai and then distributed around the area. Just before heading back to Sapa, we stopped by the bridge from Lao Cai to China... yup, China was just across the river. I tried to convince Viv to go visit since she doesn't need a visa, but she wasn't interested.