by Today we were up early and we set off for Bắc Hà another village up in the hills. It took three hours to drive there. Sean, Majello, Peter, Glenys, Simon and I talked a lot of the way so that killed some time. When we were about 15 km from Bắc Hà we came across another bus from Queens café that had its brakes fail. Apparently, after two new disasters, the bus driver decided to stop. After a quick toilet stop a bit further up the hill we were in Bắc Hà. After finding a place to stay [the first hotel was full] we set off to the markets.
The flower Hmong people are the main people in these parts and they’re everywhere in the market making it very colorful. The market was full of veggies none of which look too appetizing. The most amazing thing is the animals. They have chickens tied up by their legs on the ground and pigs tied at the legs with string and then bound up in reeds. We saw one guy tie a puppy around the neck and then stuff it into a bag-squealing.
After lunch, we went for a 2 1/2 hour walk to the flower Hmong people’s house where we saw corn wine being made. We walked through the villages and so many children along the way who will say hello very well. We saw a building built by the French for the king in 1921. It was today being used as a badminton court. We had dinner at a restaurant at 7 PM called Cong Fu.
