First day in beautiful Sa Pa

The focus of the trip was actually Sa Pa as we were doing a recce to see if the village schools are suitable for our young charges. So we were in Sa Pa for several days and I was just thankful that we had that time there. We were there over the weekend so a must visit is the hill tribe markets where once a week, everyone from all over would head to the different markets to either sell their goods or to do their weekly marketing.

We visited Bac Ha Market as it's know to be the biggest, most colourful and yes, most visited by tourists so you can pretty much guess what to expect.

Photograph above of the Flower Hmong Tribe women with their baskets and all ready to do their weekly marketing. And below you can see the shops that line the path into the market. At this section is where you will find the local souvenior items that tourists will buy to bring home. But as you go deeper, you'll go to the section where you find mostly locals going about doing their own shopping.

There will be the Flower Hmong women who will trail after you to sell their wares. What usually works is just to shake your head with a SMILE and they will leave you alone. Saw some people getting upset because they felt that they were being 'harassed' but I think the best way to enjoy the experience is just take everything in stride and as part of being in a different country. And SMILE ... it always makes things okay *grins*

Below is a photograph of a local tribe woman with her shopping bag and the white container you see in the basket could be used to store corn wine, which we saw many sipping from one of the stalls.

Colour, there were lots of colour everywhere from the tribal costumes to what were being sold. Below were wooden dolls made by the locals. Very tempting but I didn't buy any home nope.

Other toys include the plastic dolls below all decked in the different tribal festive outfits. Gorgeous yah!

Then there were also the soft toys in different animal forms (see photograph below). See any that you like?

You can get all sorts of souveniors for friends and family back home. For example, there are these colourful hats below that provides shade on a sunny day ...

or pick from the beautiful selection of shawls and scarves below ....

What I enjoyed walking around the market was the zillion colours all around, not just from the goods being sold but also from the people around. 

As mentioned before, as you move deeper, you tend to see the more local side to the market.

Like check out the lady below. She was busy serving her customers but I was so tempted to ask her where I could get a top like hers - such colour and details. Gorgeous!

And if you are wondering what kind of shoes are these below, they are not soccer boots but rather trekking boots that are great when the treks get muddy after rain. Our own kind of shoes will just pick up the mud and make walking tough but these are suppose to be quite good ... or at least what I was told.

And want matching skirts to wear with them boots? No problem, pick your favourite colour!

What were some of the interesting things that the locals were buying?

Well, below you can see them shopping for sugarcane...

and there's also incense for sale ...

And here's another shot of the incense sellers. The scent from the burning incense were pretty subtle, not like the ones I am used to back home ...

And for the guys, there's always tobacco where you can use the common pipe to test out the kind that you like before making your purchase.

I also had an interesting time checking our the ladies selling their goods. And what I noticed, there weren't many men doing the selling ...

You have young ladies, old ladies but not too many men. I like the photograph below of the older lady, the lines on her face maps the journey she has gone through in her life. 

oh, okay, the men, you see them at the outdoor barbers below. But other than a few others scattered here and there, most of the men were either at the eating section or hanging around catching up with the others. Guess after working hard each day at the fields (the women help out in the fields too), it's nice for them to catch up with other men at the market.

There were also a lot of babies with their Moms but the interesting thing was that you don't here babies wailing that we would at the markets here. Guess the kids were pretty comfy when carried by their Moms on their backs like what you see below.

And there is a section of the market where you can grab something to eat if you're feeling hungry. It was interesting walking around and I wished I knew what they were eating because some of the items looked interesting. The food section was next to the are where fresh meat were sold.

The photograph below of people enjoying their meal. They must be used to having tourists snapping shots because they didn't even bother shoo-ing me away. That I was thankful for.

Go ahead, take a look below and see if you can decipher the meats available from one of the store. Yummy huh? *grins* And yes, if you're wondering if a snout is there somewhere, yup, there is one.

I think I could have spent hours at the market. But we had to do a village school visit after lunch so didn't manage to take my time with the photographs. Am using my new DSLR and the first time I brought it was when I was at Ho Chi Minh so this was my second time using the camera. This is the kind of place that I would love to test out my camera some more. I am still trying to figure out how to use it in darker areas or indoors but for now, am quite happy with the quality.

And I realised that for my dslr, I could zoom in, thanks to the great lenses from Slawek, and take close up shots of people without offending anyone. I would like to do more portraits I think cuz I find people's faces and expression very interesting. Goal for next year is attend a basic photography class so that I can make best use of the camera. But until then, will scout for people who are willing to let me snap my camera away ...