Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [314]
The far north | The northwest | Bac Ha and around |
The Town
Bac Ha provides a stark contrast to Sa Pa, with little in the way of tourist facilities beyond a few pho and bia hoi stalls. The Sunday market, the town’s one big attraction, gradually fills up from 8 to 10am, and from then till lunchtime it’s a jostling mass of colour, mostly provided by the stunningly dressed Flower Hmong women looking for additional adornments to their costume. The scene is filled out with a sizeable livestock market, meat and vegetable sellers, wine sellers and vendors of farming implements. The town returns to a dusty shadow of its former self by 5pm when the ethnic tribes return to their outlying villages. As Sa Pa becomes saturated with tourists seeking out a more authentic experience, so Bac Ha has attempted to emulate Sa Pa’s success by developing its own trekking business focused around the nearby rural markets. For the moment, however, it lacks sufficient infrastructure – which, in many ways, is the key to its charm.
At the northern end of town on the left along the main road, lies the remarkable folly of Vua Meo, or Cat King House. Two storeys of pure wedding cake surround a courtyard built in 1924 by the French as a palace for a Hmong leader, Vuong Chiz Sinh, whom they had installed as the local “king” (Meo, or “Cat” in Vietnamese, is a disparaging term formerly applied to the Hmong). The building is now the office of the local People’s Committee, but visitors are free to wander through the courtyard.
The far north | The northwest | Bac Ha and around |
Restaurants
Bac Ha’s restaurants are bursting with tourists on Sundays and practically deserted at all other times, but don’t expect the same quality that you’d find in Sa Pa. The tour buses tend to head for the Ngan Nga, on the north side of the main drag, thanks to its cheap, no-nonsense menu. Most of the hotels serve food – the Sao Mai features Western as well as Vietnamese dishes but is only open at weekends, while the Tran Sin serves basic meals in decent portions. There are two restaurants in town called Cong Fu, one in the Cong Fu hotel and another on the market road: both serve excellent food, though the latter is cheaper.
The far north | The northwest | Bac Ha and around |
The villages around Bac Ha
It’s only a short stroll to the picturesque Flower Hmong hamlet of BAN PHO, 3km from town. To get there head west out of town past the Sao Mai Hotel, turning left at the first major road, which continues up the hill for a couple of kilometres after the village, and affords good views of the valley. Around halfway along this vaguely clockwise loop, you can climb down on some rather dodgy trails to the idyllic Nung village of NA THA, from where there is a clearer path directly back to Bac Ha.
The village of CAN CAU, 18km north of Bac Ha, hosts a market each Saturday, which is every bit as colourful as that in Bac Ha, albeit smaller, and is located in a fairy-tale setting among rolling hills. It consists of a disparate mix of livestock on sale – including horses, ponies, buffalo and cattle – with traders trekking in from as far afield as China in search of bargains, plus many vendors selling bright panels of cloth, which attract the Flower Hmong women, already resplendent in their bright outfits. As with Bac Ha, the busy hours are around 10am to lunchtime, and there are some beautiful items of clothing on sale that make great souvenirs. Relatively few visitors get there so the fair retains much of its authenticity, a situation that is likely to change now that there is