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When plans go awry 9th June 2008
Redevelopments in Bac Ha town in Northern Vietnam have currently left
the town in an unattractive state.
The road to Bac Ha is unrelentingly steep. The precipitous slopes to the
side would make plenty of drivers, or rather passengers, nervous. One
moment I’m nervously fretting as the driver veers around the winding
mountain corners, the next, I’m spellbound by the stunning view of the
valleys below and beyond.
This is a realm of total purity and unadulterated beauty – with perhaps
the exception of the trucks and buses, the bane of whoever travels on
Vietnam’s roads. The road zigzags up to an altitude of 1000 metres where
Bac Ha town sits snugly in a valley filled with tall Samu trees, or so I
seem to remember. My basic plan is to arrive, dump my bags at the hotel
and head straight towards the market.
I have always loved Bac Ha market where a myriad of local communities
brushes shoulders. A colourful range of traditional costumes are always
on display, though it is always the Flower Mong people who catch my eye.
But oddly I notice the closer to the town’s centre I get, the more mud I
appear have to deal with – it’s supposed to be the other way round. It
seems that the whole area is being rebuilt and most of the roads are
filled with mud and building materials, which have been left in complete
disarray.
Panic starts to set in as I realise I’ve left the dust and din of Hanoi
for a ‘getaway weekend’ in a construction site. On the ground of the old
market, several houses are being built while the ground is being paved.
Meanwhile a new market is under construction. I head past this
work-in-progress in search of a spot, rather desperately, where I
remember charming Mong girls used to gather. But sadly they’ve moved on.
Where they once stood I find a new cement bridge.
Despite the mud and dust, Mong people are still selling their
embroideries and vegetables along the road. However I cannot find the
corner selling horse meat, beef and pork as usual. Nor can I find the
normally ubiquitous gathering of Mong men, laughing, drinking and
enjoying a bowl of Thang Co, a local broth with horse meat. A horse-cart
trundles past without a client. After all, who would want to travel
around this dust bowl? The sight of Bac Ha market is so dull that I
don’t even think to pull out my camera.
Rather crestfallen I head off to find a quiet restaurant and order some
lunch. Though I haven’t eaten all morning, I don’t feel so hungry.
Spotting my glum expression Lan, the owner of Ngan Nga Hotel and
restaurant, offers me tea and sympathy. “I don’t know why the
authorities did these stupid things,” she says. “They cut down the trees
in the small park in the centre, razed it all to the ground to make a
car park.
Then they filled the springs running through the town, replaced the
chain-bridge with a cement one, and cut down some pine-trees on the
hills. We are heart-broken to witness these changes.” The houses of the
Mong King Hoang A Tuong, built with French assistance in 1920, has also
been refurbished, but not for the better in Lan’s opinion. “Now it just
looks like a recently built house,” adds Lan. A mystifying decision when
it is supposed to be a heritage site. Lan says tourists don’t bother
going inside anymore.
“If you love markets and want to see a typical market with ethnic
minorities like Bac Ha was in the past, go to Can Cau market, just 15km
from here,” advises Hung, Lan’s husband. “That’s where you will really
see the way Mong, Dao and Tay ethnic people live.” It’s a sad day when
hoteliers advise tourists to visit other towns. But as tourism is
directed elsewhere, let’s hope that these other traditional markets will
not suffer a similar fate to Bac Ha.
(Source: VNN)
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