Visiting Bac Ha Market on Sundays

The crowded and colorful Bac Ha Sunday market

After an 8 and a half hour train ride from Hanoi, I arrived in Lao Cai. If you look at a map, Sapa is on the left side, 38km from Lao Cai, and Bac Ha is on the right side, 70km from Lao Cai. Both Sapa and Bac Ha are popular tourist destinations in northwest Vietnam. Tourists often go to Bac Ha on Sundays to see the market of the flowery H'mong ethnic minority people (different with black H'mong people in Sapa based on their dresses).

The Bac Ha market is held every Sunday from morning until 2pm. The locals bring their own products (corn wine, pigs, horses, even dogs) to this market for sale and they also buy necessary things for their families. It's not only a market, but a chance for them to meet, talk and enjoy their lives.

As I've been to Sapa (a good place for trekking tours) twice, my major interest on this trip was to see the Sunday market in Bac Ha, then I would go back to Hanoi on the same day.

When I arrived at Lao Cai railway station, it was 5:30am. As I traveled alone on this Sapa trip, I booked my bus tickets in advance through a travel agent in Hanoi, so I could go from Lao Cai to Bac Hà by tourist mini bus which is more comfortable than the local buses. This mini bus came from Sapa and only stopped over in Lao Cai to pick up some guests. Finally, after 3 and a half hours of waiting, at 9am, the mini bus came and I joined the trip with other tourists.

Terrace fields in Bac Ha- Sapa tours

Terrace fields on the way to Bac Ha

It took us one and a half hours to travel to Bac Ha along asphalt road with many bends, especially on the last section when we were going up the mountains to reach an altitude 1500m. The mountain scenery is great, although there are not many rice terraced paddies like in Sapa.

At 10:30am, we arrived at the market in the center of Bac Ha town and started exploring the area. It was just amazing to be at a place full of colorful dresses of H'mong people and seeing the happiness on their faces. All the activities of the locals were just natural and they enjoyed eating ice creams, checking out and bargaining various things, talking with each other, eating noodles and "thang co" (Th???ng c??? - horse meat soup) food, which is a mixture of all parts of horses and drinking corn wine.

Thang Co Sapa specialty - Sapa tours

Thang Co - a specialty of Sapa that amazes tourists

These foods which are cooked by the Vietnam ethnic minority people and the corn wine are very famous in Bac Ha. Some local women smiled happily, when I showed them their photos in my camera.

In the other area of the market, there were horses, buffaloes, pigs and even dogs on sale. The pigs raised on the farms were of small size. I saw a man holding the tail of a buffalo when asking the owner something in their local language.

Bac Ha market on Sunday tours

The locals buy their pigs of various sizes

After leaving the market, we went to Ban Pho village (4km from the market) and visited a couple of houses of H'mong people. In the kitchen of one house, the guide explained how to make corn wine and in another house the owner invited us to try this wine. I also tasted it and felt it was very strong, even stronger than the Lao and Vietnamese rice wine.

Ban Pho Village was a next stop-off

When we got back to Lao Cai, the mini bus stopped at the border gate, so that tourists could see China from the Vietnamese side. I've been to this place 3 times, so it was no longer new to me. The mini bus continued its way back to Sapa, while I stayed in Lao Cai province and spent 4 hours waiting for my train back to Hanoi, ending an interesting tour to the Northwest of Vietnam.