With every day we adapted more and became cleverer with bargaining about hotel and meal prices. Even though the prices are low if converted into western currencies, one doesn’t like to feel cheated. And you always get to know after paying to much. As bargaining is a serious matter, as soon the Vietnamese seller is holding the money in his hands he laughs suddenly and and tells the surrounding happily about the success. After a fair deal both sides give each other a friendly smile.
Further north our road was winding around small steep hills with fewer and smaller towns. The valley floor was still covered in rich green from rice fields and maizefields. Some ethnic minorities are living in these more rural regions of northern Vietnam.
More and more we found 5mm thin, 1 m long and 40cm wide wooden sheets neatly placed to dry over the housyards and along the road. Later we found a workshop, where we could see, how they are made: 1m long and debarked trunk pieces are like peeled and a 2-3m long sheet is produced, which then gets cut to 40cm. The whole valley seemed to particapate in this business. Therefore entire hills were deforested to supply the wood. We asked ourselves, how much damage could arise from these bold hills when the heavy rain sets in.
In the local buildings we could not find us for the wooden sheets. We asked with the help of google translater and got to know, that truck after truck carries the piles of sheets into China for the building industry there.
In the meantime we had reached Bac Bang via Pho Rang. Here we planed a sidetour to the northeast to visit some of the mountain villages. These are famous for their markets, where the inhabitants from the surrounding villages come in the traditional dresses to trade their products and animals. The 27km up to Bac Ha was quite a task. The climb in this humid heat made us sweat, that we felt like leaking. Up there we were rewarded with a nice breeze, wonderful cool evening temperatures and haze.
The markets in the mountain villages are a growing touristattraction. Therefore after one week we again found western travelers, shopowner speaking English and menus with translations. We enjoyed the contacts with other travelers. Most of them also traveled individually. Many were touring Vietnam on a motorbike and some are spending a longer time in Southeastasia. Even though Bac Ha has hotels everywhere, it is a relaxed calm town where the daily live seem not the much affected by the individual tourism. However on Saturday, the day before the market the tourbusses are expected and with them a steep increase in the number of tourists. And then on Sunday we are told many busses from other towns will bring loads of dayvisitors to the market.
