Bac Ha Market

On Sunday, I signed on for a tour to Bac Ha Market. It had rained all Saturday night, and was still raining Sunday, so Marilyn decided to give it a miss. It ended up being a 3 1/2 hour trip to the Market. The roads were quite washed up and in some places the ground was so soft, we thought the bus might tip over. But it didn't. Once we got to Bac Ha the market was in full swing. It was still raining, and as it is an outside market, the ground was very muddy. This market was special because we saw large animals, horses and buffalo, pigs, goats, even puppies for sale. One cook stall was cooking up all the insides of the horse for sale only to the Hill men. It looked awful.
This market was different Hill people. They wear extremely colourful clothing, embroidered in yellows, oranges, etc. We stopped their for a lunch, extremely good. We were to go to another village but the roads were so washed out the buses weren't able to get up the hills.
That night we met another volunteer and her boyfriend for supper at a British pub. On Monday evening we took the night train back to Hanoi. Sept. 2 is a national holiday here. At 6 am there was hardly anyone on the road, my taxi got to my hotel in 10 minutes. The hotel was still locked up, so I sat outside and read my book for about half an hour till they opened up. When I went out for lunch, I couldn't believe how empty the streets were. Shops were even closed!!