Archive for Bac Ha

Bac Ha market madness

// September 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Bac Ha

Bac HA market, Vietnam

6:00am we woke up for the Bac Ha market… Far too early for any kind of market cultural or otherwise if you ask me but we had made it all the way there and we weren’t about to sleep through it just to get back on the bone shaker bus without at least buying something useless.
A few Vietnamese coffee’s good and strong later and we were ready for anything! By this time the market had started to get rolling and loads of hill tribe people were strolling past the window with their wicker back baskets full of all sorts of stuff so we just followed them up the hill, into the main square where tourist tour buses had already started to turn up and down into the market. It was pretty spectacular how the sleepy little town had suddenly filled with life and colour overnight and even though at this point it had barely began there were ponies running about the shop and livestock being ferried in on the back of mopeds including the odd basket of dogs… (more…)

The death bus to Bac Ha

// September 23rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Bac Ha

hills around Bac Ha

After all the adventure and exploration of the past few days we decided to take a day off, sleep in till whenever we fancy and decide on what to do next and when to move on etc… We figured that we are quickly running out of time to try and fit in everything we want but we hadn’t quite finished with northern Vietnam and all its hilly wonders, amazing rural life and stunning views so we decided to head north east to Bac Ha the next day for the Bac Ha Sunday hill tribe market, the biggest market in the area… Now I think I’ve suffered my fair share of south east Asian markets recently but this one promised not only tat and trinkets but also a good helping of culture, and based on that presumption we packed up and booked a bus for the next morning. (more…)