Cancau Market – Flower Hmong
We walk up around 6:00 am when the train got to Lao Cai, a city on the Chinese border. A guy from the agency was waiting for us in the train station with large billboards carrying my name, and they brought us right away to a restaurant for breakfast, that like any other meal in this trip is included. The surprise was that they did not gang us up together but there were two jeeps with two drivers and two guides, one for me and one for the Aussies, so after the breakfast we said goodbye, starting to drive over hills and mountains to the first market in Cancau. We stopped several times to take pictures of fields full of rice and of peasants plowing their fields with water buffaloes, the main mean of subsistence for these families. Nothing is mechanized and it looks, watching them work and barter, like we live hundreds of years ago. The clouds were very low and it was a little chilly but not colder than Hanoi. The area where we are now is lower than Sapa, the main town from the area and the main touristic center, that being at 1600m may be very cold, but supportable in March, this being one of the reason that I did this trip starting in Saigon and going towards the North.
The Cancau market was in full swing when I arrived with almost no tourists, that started to come latter, and lots of Flower Hmong people that were selling their wares and produces.Their customs are spectacular, completely embroidered in joyful colors that makes them the major attractions of these markets. There were some other people, like Black Hmong from Sapa and Dzao. They were selling also dogs, horses and water buffaloes, and the women were carrying their children on bundles stuck to their back. I spent at the market about 3.5 hours and left to Bac Ha, the major village in the area where tomorrow will be a major market. In Bac Ha we stopped to the house of the old ruler of the village during the colonial times, a large and elegant French Mansion. The Hmong ruler named Hua, was called by its people The King and he left with the French in 1954, probably in France and latter in California where his descendants are living nowadays. Again I spoke with Bang, my guide, about the American war and I got more or less the same answer. “The past is the past and we are looking into the future”. They love Clinton who did the opening with Vietnam. We came to the hotel where I booked a room, included also in the tour, and I left my luggage inside, after that coming downstairs for lunch. It came to be around 2:30pm when I finished lunch so it was no time left to go around so I went to the internet and I checked the email and do the blog from yesterday trip, hoping that later in the day I’ll do the second part. I went for a walk in the village, that is very basic, with some hotels and restaurants for tourists, but not too many tourists come here; they prefer to stay in Sapa and come here just for the market. I went to the market, bought some mango and when I was going to the internet I met some Dutch people and we had a very long and interesting chat about travel in Southeast Asia. They were also on a tour that went in China also, and they did not have too many good things to say about China, but they enjoyed Vietnam and Laos, who they told me that became the newest backpacker paradise, with places la Vang Vieng full of shops, disco music and large TVs in outside lounges. Finally, I got to the internet and I published part of the story but I had to go to the hotel to meet Bang at 6:30pm for dinner. In the hotel I bumped into the Aussies, with whom I had dinner, and latter on the Dutch guys and their wives showed up. I tried to go back to the Internet but I was up for a big surprise: both internet places in town that have in total 30-40 computers were completely taken over by the village’s kids who were playing games and chatting. I tried to go from one to another but the girls who were managing the places told me that is “Full” and is nothing to do….Latter! So I watched a typical touristy traditional dance show in one of the hotels and I got the idea to check in the hotel where I found out that they have an internet computer (only one!) and is working but very slow. Hope tonight to go to bed earlier, maybe 10pm.
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