27.01.-28.01.2018 Bac Ha
After the trekking in Sapa I would have loved to stay another day or two, do some more trekking or rent a scooter to drive around. However, weather had turned bad over night just like projected and there were no views at all. Thick fog lay on the roads of Sapa. So I took a bus to Lao Cai and changed there for Bac Ha. The total bus journey took me about 3.5 h and most of it was rather boring. About 10-20 km from Bac Ha, there were some nice views and I briefly considered renting a scooter anyways once I’d arrived.
I’d forgotten about the soccer though! Vietnam was playing in the U23 Asia Cup and doing very well for the first time, ever. Even though it was just U23, the whole country was watching every match excitedly. So when we drove into town, there were flags hanging everywhere and a public viewing area was set up next to my hotel. So of course I had to go watch! I quickly met some overexcited local girls who didn’t speak any English but put me into a Vietnam t-shirt and put some flags on my face. So for the next couple of hours I was cheering for Vietnam, learning Vietnamese football songs, getting my hair braided and playing with local kids running around. What surprised me was the relaxed atmosphere. No one was booing when the other team scored or getting angry with the referee. Also, no one was drinking any alcohol. And everyone just took care of the little kids running around, playing with them or taking them on the shoulders in between. And whenever a Vietnamese player made good ball contact, the crowd would cheer loudly. Great atmosphere! Unfortunately the Vietnamese team lost, otherwise I’m sure there would have been a big party. Again, remember this is the U23 team I’m talking about – in Europe we wouldn’t even watch these matches…
But – I hadn’t come to Bac Ha for the football of course, but for the Sunday market! Already Saturday night there was some dancing and singing on the main market square, which luckily I had heard about from some girls from my hostel.
Sunday morning then started early for me: I woke up at 6am and was at the market at 6.30 before any other tourists. To be fair, the market was in full swing only a couple of hours later, but it was still nice to walk around before most other tourists and tour groups arrived. Each Sunday, locals from different ethnic villages come to this market to sell their goods, wearing colourful traditional outfits. I always enjoy markets, but the traditional clothes, especially from the Flower Hmong, gave it a nice colourful feel in addition to the usual market hustle and bustle.
I really enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. I guess I could have taken even better ones, but I don’t really feel like flashing into people’s faces (something that many other tourists don’t have an issue with). There were 3 main sections of the market: the vegetables were spread out on the main market square, behind it was a covered section mainly aimed at tourists (souvenirs) and again behind that was the animal market which can seem a bit sad to watch. We always have to remind ourselves that in Europe we’re generally treating animals even worse.
After a couple of hours of walking around, I went for late breakfast, packed up my things in the hostel and then hopped onto a direct bus to Hanoi at 12.30pm. The rest of the day was spent on the last sleeper bus (yay!) of my Vietnam trip, urgently awaiting a toilet stop…
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