Post from Tim:
Bac Ha is famous for its Sunday market, a weekly hill tribe event that draws locals in from all over the surrounding area. Unlike Sapa, it is not staged for tourists and far fewer tourists make it up this way. (For the time being.) The market was in full swing by the time we arrived, so we ended our bus trip from Sapa by passing through a narrow street full of hill tribe people. As we made our way through the crowd inch by inch, the bus driver honked and the crowd parted uncomfortably. Judging by the looks of the surrounding people, I imagined our tourist bus looked, from the outside, like a fishbowl full of interlopers.
After making it through the crowd, Michelle and I headed back to the market on foot.
We were struck by the vibrant color of the women's clothes in the market. Royal blue tops radiated from neck to shoulders with thin colorful embroidered lines. Skirts mirrored these lines, adding other fields of solid colors, miscellaneous patchwork, and intricate flower patterns. To top the women off, plaid hats clashed in pinks, greens, and yellows. With the hundreds of women around me and the vendors selling these colorful clothes on racks, my eyes played strange tricks whenever I scanned the crowd.The market was very crowded, but not so large that we couldn't pass by everything once in 30 minutes. We walked with short steps and patience, often waiting in pedestrian bottlenecks and being pushed by little old ladies who barreled through the crowds like wrinkled geriatric tanks.
To the right of the entrance, people selected tall staffs of sugarcane from a huge purple pile, which they would break into pieces, chew on, and spit to the ground. Over these chewed up chunks, we passed by clothes and vegetable vendors, past huge piles of tobacco and bamboo water pipes, to the meat section, where butchers cut from meat sitting out in the open air and heat. The meat was unusual. Besides the usual items like pigs, cows, chickens, and ducks, the Bac Ha market sold dogs.
As dogs were available as cuts of meat, they were also available live, right next to the live pigs, chickens, and other livestock. It took me a while to get used to, but to many of the north Vietnamese people, dog is a delicacy. Meat is meat, I thought, but I still became queasy when I spotted a motorcycle taking off down a bumpy road carting a cage full of puppies. 
We rounding the corner and pungent fumes of alcohol accosted our senses of smell, from corn whiskey, a Bac Ha specialty. The potent moonshine is decanted by vendors from large white plastic jugs to used bottled water containers. If you doubt the ability of a vendor's hooch to peel paint or light your senses on fire, you can try a shot for free. I tried one later in the day in a hill tribe house û wow! Being bathtub brewed, the stuff is inexpensive. A 20 liter container costs about $12. Completing our circle in the market, we passed by more colorful clothes, housewares, food stalls, and horse carts. There was so much to see, so many new experiences. After two hours of walking, my eyes and my head needed a rest.
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