At 7am we exited the train station to a town that seemed to have been awake for a number of hours. After hassling a number of tourist guides from Vega Travel (who we booked the train with), we finally learnt where the bus station was – at the end of the street!! We quickly found the local Bus (small bus/mini-bus) heading Bac Ha in 20 mins – sweet, the bus is nearly empty as well! When we left the bus station the bus was half full, and we were entertained by two small girls across the aisle standing on their mothers laps – they couldn’t quite comprehend us but Scott managed to get a few smiles from them! We thought we were leaving the town straight away but silly us – they won’t truely leave until the bus is full…and possibly dangerously full! We circled the town and drove up and down the Main Street for nearly 30 mins, picking up not only people, but dozens of bags of rice which went on the seats (people sat on top) and in the aisle, construction material on top of the roof, large buckets of paint, and a lot more people! By the time we left town, the 16 seater bus had 24 people on board and you couldn’t see out the front window due to the luggage – we thought ‘that’s enough!’
After about 20 mins driving, the horn beeped a warning as we came into a small village and somehow two adults and two small children managed to pile in, sitting on top of whatever they could! After our initial hesitations on safety it ended up being very entertaining! Half-way to Bac Ha we got a flat tire (hmmm wonder why?), but was changed within ten minutes and we were back on our way. The rod was initially flat, then steep and windy such that we were driving in the cloud. We arrived inBac Ha nearly three hours later, hungry (hadn’t had breakfast) but excited to be in a new place with not a tourist in sight! We settled into our basic hotel (after nearly entering a copy -hotel, saved by a local walking the street holding a sign with my name on), and went to find breakfast – just my luck, pancakes on offer everywhere, yum! That afternoon we had a walk through the village, and chilled out while taking in the atmosphere of the town, dodging the huge downpours and listening to the roaring thunder which felt like the building was shaking.
We ate yet another yummy and cheap Vietnamese dinner before an early night – so tired from the overnight train and the early wake up!

Market day! The reason for coming to Bac Ha was to watch, admire and participate in, the colourful local market. The main draw card being the local ladies who all dress in their colourful tribal costumes, each being a little different from the other – they look amazing! The market is where everyone comes from their rural homes to buy food for the week, as well as meat (live chickens with their feet tied together and pigs in sacks), transport (ox), and pets (birds, puppies and kittens tied up to string – a bit sad), and to sell their handicraft. We arrived at 7.30am to dodge any tourist buses which make their way up from Sapa later in the morning, and enjoyed wandering the market (except the animal part, poor puppies) and watching the locals go about their weekly shopping! I bought a few things and have become much better at bargaining! Late morning we walked down a ‘notable building’ which was built by the provincial governer as a summer house about 80 years ago. It which would be an awesome place except for the poor up-keep of the place – a massive French villa.

We had arranged a bus back to Sapa by a hotel who convinced us it was worth the extra money (we were planning on taking the public bus again). However when the bus came, we found we were actually just ‘joining’ a tourist bus and had to sit on the small aisle seats with my knees jammed up to the seat in front, and minimal back support – we were not happy! In hindsight we should’ve taken the public bus as it took just as long, would’ve been entertaining and we would’ve probably got proper seats (plus or minus a bag of rice!). Overall though, the market was awesome, well worth the effort to get there!