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Vietnam Destinations
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 | Destinations >> Highlands :> Highlands - Bac Ha Town Three hundred kilometers north of Hanoi and eighty kilometers from downtown Sapa is Bac Ha Town. It is a small town in a green vally of tall Samu trees, home to the Mong ethnic minority. Bac Ha has long been known for its aromatic corn spirits, and now this reputation is added to with its market activities, which have strong cultural characteristics of the Mong. The Bac Ha market opens every Sunday. All roads lead to the the market on this day. From dawn, people in colourful costumes and baskets on their backs accompany horses loaded with goods to the market. In other parts of the country, the market is where people purchase and exchange goods, but not so in Bac Ha, where market days are really festive days, representing the distinctive cultural activity of the mountainous community. This is also a good opportunity for girls to display their best outfits. Only God knows how many couples have been matched on market days!
The market is divided into different sections: ones for clothes and fabrics, ones for home utensils. Some away are for food – rice, corn, tomatoes, meat --- and a bit farther, one is for animals: pigs, chickens, and horses. The most attractive place is the corner for men. Gathering around the flickering fireplace to heat Thang Co, a favorite local soup cooked in a large pan with pork and pig bones and organs, are all sorts of people: the old, the young and couples. People sit together talking, drinking and enjoying their traditional cuisine, and laughter and the sound of the melodic khen (a local traditional panpipe) resounds there. When dusk falls, hordes of people and goods-loaded horses return home on the snaky paths to the mountaintop hamlets. Among them, one may see some wives walking beside the horses hauling weighty goods and their drunk husbands. :> Can Cau Market Only eighty kilometers north of Bac Ha is Can Cau market. The marekt is held each Saturday morning. Sprawling near the banks of a rivers, Can Cau market is a clearly defined shantytown, packed with crude stalls covered with thatched roofs. The locals are mostly of the Flower Hmong minority group with their traditional costume of green checked headdress and multi-coloured, meticiculosly stitched and layered garments. Can Cau is predominately a livestock market and not the sort of place to buy some choice gifts for the folks back home. Beyond the fenced-in perimeter, pot-bellied pigs, chickens and water buffalo wait patiently by the river to be sold. They rub shoulders with magnificent wild horses, some of whom will be transporting their masters back over to China. But the market also sells the basics: traditional clothing, sacks of rice, bundles of coarse, raw wool and ironware. Some stalls sell fresh tobacco and a rather sad array of root vegetables. Many women sell their wares from large, wicker baskets and sit weaving whilst waiting for a sale. Although it is quite difficult to get to, they are well worth the effort!
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