Sunday, 31st December 2006 - Bac Ha and Sapa

 Bac Ha Markets this morning, after breakfast in the tourist cafe on the main street.  The head lady of the cafe was kept busy shooing the Flower Hmong away from the front of the restaurant, where they were trying to sell bags and hats to the tourists.  Richard and Jill both bought intricately embroidered hats.  The market had lots of Flower Hmong people with their colourfully embroidered outfits (at least the women and girls).  We bought some bags, wall hangings and more pashminas.  It was great having Anh to help us bargain, and great to go there early as they are more willing to haggle to get the first sale of the day - apparently it's lucky.

The Flower Hmong (or H'mong Hoa) are a vibrant subgroup of the Hmong ethnic minority primarily living in the mountainous regions in this part of northern Vietnam. They are renowned for their incredibly bright, intricate, and multicoloured traditional clothing.  Their name is derived from their stunning, highly colourful garments rather than what they call themselves. While other Hmong subgroups (like the Black Hmong, which we saw later in the day) wear primarily monochromatic tones, Flower Hmong women dress in brilliant indigo-dyed clothing featuring multi-colored geometric and floral embroidery.  Just amazing colours.

Apparently, the Hmong ethnic group have their roots in southern China and migrated south in the 18th Century.  They are now one of the largest ethnic minorities in Vietnam, with over a million people. 

After the market and lunch (at 10:30!) back at the tourist cafe, we checked out and boarded our little bus to drive to Sapa and then on to the guest house where we were to stay for the night.

Along the way, we stopped near a border crossing into China.  We had to take a photo didn't we?

The Chinese Border - China in the background across the bridge

And at one stage, we were held up by workmen clearing a landslide off the road.

Once we were out of the bus, we had a bit of a trek to our accommodation, initially through Lau Chai village (a Black Hmong village) where women tried to sell us indigo dyed bags and cushion covers.  Then, two little girls, "You buy from me", convinced Jennie and Jill to buy tiny little pincushion things with bells on for 10,000 VND (about 50c).  After that, a whole bunch of girls turned up and followed us for what seemed like an hour, trying to sell us little musical instruments.  They all spoke a little English (which they had learnt from accosting tourists).  They were very persistent, but most of us didn't have small change, nor did we want to favour one over the other.  There were 7 of them, "but you buy from me now when they are not looking".

The music teacher among us, Richard, eventually gave in and bought a musical instrument from one of them, and she went off home, taking three others with her.  "Now you can buy, not so many girls". Eventually, we bought a few more bits and pieces when the girls promised to share the money.  They were extremely keen - "We will only sing for you if you buy from us".  Then they sang "Kookaburra" and "Heads and Shoulders".  Apparently, a student from Australia had taught them.

Eventually, we arrived at our homestay in the Ta Van Village (a Giay community - pronounced Zay). The Giay are also from Southern China (200-300 years ago) and are known for their large, tightly knit villages, their stilt houses, and terraced rice fields.

We were staying the night in a purpose-built guest house with rooms for 8-10 tourists on mattresses on a mezzanine level, each with a mosquito net.  The mozzie net was not needed at this time of year (too cold for mosquitoes), but it made it cosy and quite private.  The mattresses were pretty thin, but as there were spares we put two together.

Dinner was just amazing - such an array of food.  But first, it was apple/rice wine. "1,2,3, YO" and down goes the first glass (a shot glass).  After that, you are allowed to sip.

Also staying the night were two young women from Singapore and a man from Osaka, Japan.  There was also Mr Dow (who was cooking for us), a guide of one of the other guests (a trainee teacher from Hanoi) and the family who ran the guesthouse, Mr and Mrs Sun (Mr Sun went off to a wedding and arrived home about 10pm) and their children, a girl about 13 and a boy about 10.  This establishment had been built in 2005 and had a western-style toilet and a bathroom in a newly built concrete-rendered building.

It was all an amazing experience - the walk in through the terraced hillsides where every bit of land is used, the water running down the hillsides, via a water-powered rice pounding machine.

Water-powered, rice pounding machine

Water directed through bamboo pipes, ducks dabbling in rice paddies, horses, oxen, chooks, indigo dying (the women doing it having blue hands), 12 people sitting in a circle around a tin dish with coke burning to warm us while we sipped green tea/apple wine.

Listening to Vietnamese people chatting away to each other without having a clue about what's going on is an experience.  We had a bit of an event later in the night.  A guy turned up (a guide of a family staying elsewhere, we think) and, as far as we could gather, was accusing Anh of hitting on his girlfriend.  We heard later that he had asked Ahn and Mr Dow to go outside to fight and to stay out there and sleep in the garden.  No idea if that actually happened.  Life is never dull.

Our guest house even had a TV, and coming on midnight (New Year's Eve), there was an attempt to get it working so that we could watch the Sydney fireworks.  Getting a reliable reception was quite a challenge, but we did get to see a little of the fireworks.  As I said, life is never dull.