Bac Ha Market

De vuelta a Bac Ha y en pie sobre las 6am preparadas para atacar el mercado de los domingos la ciudad. De nuevo, los Hmong Flor bajan de los pueblos e invaden los stands poniendo color al mercado con sus magnificos atiendos. Para refrescaros la memoria, una pequeña imagen.

Bac Ha esta accesible desde Sapa en un mismo dia asi que sobre las 9am empiezan a llegar los minibuses con turistas..y obviamente, no faltan los stands dedicados a las artesanias para turistas.

Pero centremonos en la parte mas interesante. Detras de las artesanias se encuentra el mercado de la carne. Pero a primera hora se puede ver llegar la mercancia por diferentes modos. Algunos lo transportan en la moto, que aqui estan preparadas para transportar lo que sea ! En este caso, un cerdo despellejado ya...

Pero en algunos casos el cerdito llega aun vivo, y otras lo llevan como mochila !

Llegamos pues a los puestos de carne, donde algunos se aventuran con los trozos mas grandes que yo haya visto en mi vida, y que si tuviera que cortar algo de ahi no sabria ni por donde empezar !

Luego llega la hora de pesar, pero la balanza electronica aun no es de rigor en Bac Ha, asi que a la antigua, que al menos seguro que funciona.

Como os conté de Can Cau, existe una parte donde se venden animales vivos todavia....en Bac Ha aun era mas grande e impresionante. Creo que lo mejor sera esta pequeña visita virtual : desde pollitos escapandose, cerditos gritando desesperados, encerrados en bolsas con un micro agujero para respirar, patos, gallinas siendo examinadas previo a la compra. Como digo, mas vale un video que una parrafada.

Y sobre las 11- 12h del mediodia, despues de muchos quilos de carne vendidos y sobretodo litros de alcool puro en la sangre, los vendedores se divertian a cortar violentamente los trozos restantes bajo la atenta mirada de los curiosos.... o apostantes ! De hecho no entendimos muy bien como iba pero supusimos que apostaban a ver si conseguiria cortarlo por el lugar indicado de una sola tacada.

Ni que decir que no nos pusimos justo delante, tomaban mucha carrerilla...

y trozos de carne volaban tras el golpe.

Después del mercado, y de vuelta hacia Sapa, volvimos a experimentar un trayecto en autobus local....bastante.....humano ! Los vietnamitas no tienen nada que envidiar a los buses africanos, y siempre queda sitio para un saco de patatas o otro viajero !

Can Cau Market

It's hard to keep up with the blog, it takes up a whole lot of time, selecting pictures and explaining everything, but I take it more like an "auto-disciplinary" activity....being on holidays but not really, at least I have an obligation that brings me down to earth and helps me keep a critical look on what I see and experience day after day. And seeing other travellers around that just travel for looong periods of time doing nothing but drink all the time doesn't help me want to do the same ;-)

Having said that, here goes Can Cau market !

Every saturday morning is held in Can Cau, a small town north of Bac Ha, an incredibly colourful market. So after our first night in Bac Ha, we had an early start on saturday, grabbed a motorbike and rode all the way up to Can Cau, it's about 1h ride...but the landscapes, once again, are incredible ! And the fog helps to make them better!

Can Cau is specially attractive for visitors due to the "Flower Hmong" that run it. The Flower Hmong are called like this because of their fascinating colourful dresses. They also have their own language and most of them don't speak vietnamese. The market is the best excuse to socialize with other villagers, but not only this !

You can get barely anything you want, from souvenirs (for tourists...yeah...), to a delicious (?) meal overlooking the rice fields

buy to vegetables to make your own,

....and animals ! Pigs, horses, buffalos, dogs, ducks, chicken...anything !

Who guesses what is going to happen to this poor little pig ? Whoever guesses right will get the picture of what goes next...

And around 9am, when the sun starts to hit a bit harder, the umbrellas come out to add even more color to the market.

Three hours later we decided to head back to Bac Ha. Even though the reliability of the helmets we were given was pretty limited, mine was hanging too much so I stopped on the side of the road, in front of a house to fix it.

In the house, a huge family was getting ready for lunch when one of the men invited us to join in ! We were moved by their hospitality, starting with a super alcoholic shot which ressembled more to ethanol than any kind of alcoholic drink I ever tasted before. And then we had the best meal we had had so far in Vietnam : Rice, omlet, cow, tofu....

They spoke as much English as we spoke Vietnamese, but with our guidebook's small dictionnary and body language we had a great time.

Around the "table", women and men ate the same food, but served in different plates; the children sharing the same plates with the women. Whenever a man wanted some extra food from the women's side they would serve it into the men's plate before he would have any. We were told that these are traditional customs in Vietnam, not practiced anymore in the ever-developing big cities, but I guess it's still happening in the countryside !

We joined the women's side, also closer to the door...but were invited to tea with the men after lunch.

Maybe Minh can help us on that one ?

After lunch we intended to pay for what we had but they refused over and over again...

We had a great time and found the "welcoming" vietnam that we had heard about that contrasts with the "bussiness-minded / rip-off" Vietnam we had seen so far.

PS : If you want to rent motorbikes in Bac Ha, be aware that it is more expensive than in Sapa as there is only one family that rents bikes there ! But you should get away for 5-6USD/day.