We drove to Bac Ha from
Sapa, in an old Russian 4-wheel drive jeep. Our driver, who had been hired by Handspan, seemed to have never driven a standard. He would often start the jeep in 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th gear, and when the jeep would kill, he would go in front and look under the hood as if something were wrong with it. When driving up a steep incline, which was at least half of the drive, he would put the jeep in 4th gear, rather than 1st or 2nd, and again look under the hood when it died. We asked our guide to tell him that he should start in 1st gear, and so on, but it didn’t make a bit of difference.
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We eventually arrived in Bac Ha, which is a very dismal town, put our bags in the hotel, and left for the Saturday market in Can Cau. After spending several hours at the Can Cau market, we returned to Bac Ha in the evening. There were speakers all over the town, and like other small towns in Vietnam, news and other communist propaganda was played at high volume for several hours in the early morning, mid day, and late evening. Our hotel room was moderately clean. We could see outside through cracks in the walls, and had a difficult time sleeping due to people snoring, babies crying, dogs barking, and roosters calling out early in the morning, along with the “Voice of Vietnam” on the speakers outside.
Before dinner we went out to buy a bag of chopsticks. We were glad we had bought them when we sat down for dinner at our hotel and were given a container of dirty chopsticks. We walked around the small town and saw more dogs than in any other city in our lives!
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Early the next morning we saw more and more Flower H’mong people making their way into town for the Sunday market. The market in Bac Ha was very interesting. All kinds of meat, vegetables, and dry goods were being sold, mostly to and from H’mong people from surrounding areas. There were very few tourists at this market, 4-6 at the most. At one point we came upon a disturbing scene. There was a crowd of people surrounding a H’mong woman, and a man was punching her in the face. Her face was bleeding, and we wanted to try and stop this man, but aside from the fact that we could not speak the language, didn’t know exactly what was going, and didn’t want to end up in a jail cell in Vietnam, there were also several stands with sharp farming tools nearby. We asked our guide, Thuy, what was happening, and he said she had stolen something.
The town of Bac Ha itself really isn’t worth a visit in our opinion, but the market is. If you can make it to the Sunday market, you’ll be sure to see many interesting people and products.
For information on Hotels, Tours, Flights, and Books on Vietnam, check out the pages below:
Hotels in Vietnam - Recommended hotels in Vietnam.
Tours in Vietnam - Recommended tour companies in Vietnam.
Flights to Vietnam - Includes information about our experiences on different airlines we've taken to and from Vietnam.
Books on Vietnam - Excellent books on Vietnam's history, people, and travel.
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