A year ago -- or heck, even six weeks ago -- if you had asked me if I would ever post a photo essay set in a market, particularly if I would post such a thing in my more serious "Reflections on the Road" column, I would have gently smiled and said with confidence, "no." After years of traveling, I don't find markets that interesting anymore. Usually, I'd rather invest the time by reading a book in my guesthouse lobby. I'd rather be served really bad instant coffee for breakfast than trudge through yet another market full of fruits and carcasses and flies that I've already seen a thousand times. I'd almost even rather look at a hundred photos of someone's pet cat. Almost.
You get the point.
But then, while spending a rainy few days in the Vietnamese hill town of Sapa and walking past a sign promoting a tour to the "Bac Ha Sunday Market" (I did this every time I walked through the lobby of the Mountain View Hotel), I felt something nudging me to "go." Three hours away by car and for the price of $10 I could see what some have described as the best market in Southeast Asia. I paid the ten dollars on Saturday night. Early the next morning I set out in a van filled with French, Dutch, and Israeli travelers, as well as a Hmong tour guide.
What follows are several pictures from the market. It may indeed be the best market in Southeast Asia, and what makes it best is the people -- the "Flower Hmong", one of Vietnam's 50+ minority groups. Among other things, they make this one of the few markets in Asia where you're more likely to pay attention to embroidery than flies.
