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Flower Hmong Minority Travel Photography in Bac Ha, Northwest Vietnam

May 6, 2008

While visiting the stunning mountainous region of Northwest Vietnam I had a chance to take a break from searching for Vietnam’s Next Top Model and photograph some naturally beautiful, talented both hesitant and some quite willing locals like the buffalo above.

The pose is bold but not vulgar, notice how the curves of the model are in harmony with the shapes of the mountain top in the background, the picture perfect Paris Hilton signature look back over the shoulder executed flawlessly, the quiet confidence and the innocence in the eyes!

For most tourists Northwest Vietnam is summed up with a four letter word: Sapa. Sapa is a must see and must visit destination just like Halong Bay in the Northeast.

So once again I did the unthinkable I went straight to Bac Ha and skipped Sapa all together. I say once again because I had eliminated Halong Bay from my itinerary a few weeks ago and went directly to the fantastic Ninh Binh which turned out to be one of my favorite destinations in Vietnam.

No doubt both Sapa and Halong Bay are very beautiful but especially Sapa is overrun with tourist (first strike) which attracts a very aggressive effort by locals to sell sell sell.
Continuously following tourist on the street and attempting to make a sale is not a crime of course but the few stories I heard regarding the extent of this phenomenon from others who had visited Sapa sealed the deal for me.

I have tried to go against my intuition and visited the number one tourist trap of Cambodia, Angkor Wat the Seventh Wonder of the World but what was gained by the incredible experience was somewhat ruined by the sheer commercialism of Siem Reap.

The most comfortable and sensible way to get to Sapa or Bac Ha is to take a sleeper train (about $24 for a four bed cabin each way) for eight hours from Hanoi to the transit town of Lao Cai. From Lao Cai I took a local bus to Bac Ha for three hours costing $2.

I already had a good feeling about Bac Ha during the bus ride while looking out the window, I was seemingly headed away from civilization to experience life in a remote mountain town.

Bac Ha is deserted as far as tourists concerned during the week but the tour buses and individuals arrive on time for Sunday’s famous Hmong minority market.
There are other markets, some with less tourists within a few kilometers on other days but the Sunday market is the main attraction.

When I arrived on a Wednesday the weather was cold and rainy very much like how Ninh Binh welcomed me. It was not the only thing Bac Ha had in common with Ninh Binh, it also became one of my favorite stops in Vietnam.

I was hoping the weather would clear up for the Sunday market. I picked a random hotel from Lonely Planet but switched to another one a day later which cost less ($5) and had hot water “on demand”.

Some facts about Bac Ha: there is not a single ATM in town!
The electricity (in the whole town) gets shut down between 5PM and 8PM although on some days it did not get turned off at all or got turned back on earlier then 8pm.
Three times a day there are propaganda sounding broadcasts via very loud speakers (which can be also heard in other Vietnamese cities), the first just before 6AM providing a free wakeup call to all residents and tourists. The others are at noon and 5PM.
Yes, 5PM! It is very funny seemingly the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing because often a few seconds after the 5PM propaganda broadcast starts the electricity is cut so it goes silent. Very, very funny!

I would love to know more about the content of these screaming messages interrupted by distorted musical numbers but no one speaks English well enough to understand me if I asked them.

Travel books mention great scenic hikes to nearby Hmong minority villages so a very few tourist do stay a couple of days in Bac Ha as opposed to the more usual daytrip bus tours on Sundays.
I, true to my relaxed schedule ended up staying 12 days so I could attend the Sunday market twice ad do hikes during the other days.

After Friday when the rain stopped I took several walks and finally got to see classic rural Northwest Vietnam, Hmong minority villages, beautiful landscapes with rice field terraces and kids riding on buffalos.

The Sunday Bac Ha market was a 30 second walk from my hotel and since it started at 8AM I arrived at 7 to definitely beat any package tourist coming from Sapa and to see the shopkeepers arriving and setting up.
Thank Buddha the weather was perfect!

I was about to make the best of this day and stayed until 1PM taking pictures for a total of 6 hours. The market is really a great place for photography and Hmong minority watching. The backdrop is a mountain with triple peaks which are often under a patch of cloud … a great added bonus to the already exotic scenery.

When I arrived the food stalls were getting set up already cooking mystery meat or should I say mystery body parts only a farmer or a veterinarian could identify.
The fires that had been started enhanced the ambiance by their thick smoke sweeping across the market.
Slowly the merchants arrived with their livestock of few chickens, many squealing pigs, buffalos and dogs.
It is truly a sad sight to see how dogs are locked up in cages or tied up to bamboo poles being sold for their meat. I could not really look any of them in the eyes and took less than 5 photos just for documentation.

The Hmong people in their colorful clothes and the displays of beautifully handmade handicrafts quickly filled up the market providing 360 degrees of Natural Geographic experience.

The Hmong villagers are not keen on being photographed which presents a dilemma of how aggressively a travel photographer would peruse this perfect opportunity of being in very close proximity with 100’s of exotic photography subjects.
Very few of the Hmong may agree to have their pictures taken if it is for money but the biggest difference from the rest of Vietnam can be seen with children; most will hide their faces or run away as opposed to eagerly volunteer.

Seeing other package tourists just walk up to the stalls snap a few photos of the Hmong and walk away (without a purchase) made me question how intrusive this selfish quest for exotic photos really is and what impression it leaves with the local Hmong population?
The absolute noble thing would be to either put away the camera or ask a few select subjects for permission and compensate all of them if they agree to be photographed.

During my previous hikes outside Bac Ha I have paid to Hmong villagers to take their photos so my feeling of guilt was balanced out but not all together gone.
At the market I decided to be less intrusive than the point and shoot tourists and either use a telephoto lens for far away subjects or practice the “evil wide angle trick” which means standing close to the subject and while the lens is seemingly pointed away from them they are still inside the frame.

Since I am not a shopper the only way I could support the vendors was that I bought lunch and ice cream from them. But even lunch and ice cream only cost a total of 75 cents so as I was leaving I bought another ice cream (paying double price for it as a tip) and purchased my dinner as well there.

I am not a big fan of organized group tours and I find it unfortunate that these package tourists experience Northwest Vietnam and an authentic Hmong minority market by taking a multi hour bus ride from Sapa followed by an invasion of the market with digital cameras indiscriminately clicking, having lunch in a restaurant (not the market) and finally riding back for hours to their hotel.

Almost any time I interact with tourists on this trip (which I keep to the minimum) I have something to rant … hmmm … I mean to report about.
The large French tour group was the flavor of the day on this Sunday and for the sake of this blog I could not have asked for a bigger bunch of complainers.

As I was eating my tasty ice cream I decided to stand next to the little girl who sold it and using my English knowledge drum up some business for her from the passing tourists. Unfortunately most of the French tourists did not speak English so I was immediately in trouble.

One French man signaled to me that he was not interested in buying because he was annoyed by the sound of the little horns the girls use while selling ice cream.
Yes, there were several horns … so what? It is part of the experience! Perhaps he would be more pleased with an accordion playing?

When an African-French lady understood me she looked at me like only the French can and said: no, it will make me sick! As she walked by I replied: but you eat snails? Trust me this will not make you sick, why don’t you support these local vendors?

I quickly realized that I probably got a bit too excited but the exchanges were very funny nevertheless … and of course I did not get sick from my two tasty ice creams.

And what if once a week or once a month something does not completely agree with a tourist’s stomach and have a laxative effect? That can and does happen at home as well. I am sure many in that French group could use a loosening of the bowels and attitudes anyways!
The past 5 months besides Phnom Penh I hardly ate in restaurants and all I really have restricted is ice, freshly washed lettuce and tap water for drinking or brushing teeth.

I would go even so far that I would consider my entire vacation a total failure if I would not try local deserts or take a chance and have fun with foods, itineraries or destinations.

This post originally had almost 100 photos in it which is not practical so I tried my best to edit them down to the most descriptive pictures.

I bet you cannot see me on the photo below! Yes, I am the master of blending in … even at a Hmong minority market:

At 7AM when I showed up at the market the food stands were already preparing delicious meals:

Photographing through the smoke using a telephoto lens nicely compressed foreground, subject and background into a photo that tells a story:

I usually eat at roadside food stands not restaurants but the cuisine at the market was a bit too “authentic”:

A closer look at the mystery ingredients:

Besides using a telephoto lens, another way to remain anonymous is to photograph from behind the subject.
In this case the composition and the surroundings favor this approach. What is being sold in the white sack? A pig:

A perfect example of the “evil wide angle trick”! The man wearing the helmet had no idea he was included in the photo, the lens was pointed clearly at the pig:

This post also serves as a Vietnamese pig transportation information portal. We have seen the white sack which “blinds” the pigs so the insane squealing does not start until they emerge.
Second was the elegant coffin like pig carrier (Prada could not make it better) strapped on the back of the motorbike.
And finally my personal favorite, the Hannibal Lecter style pig bondage:

Sad but true, this is not a photo of a pet shop. The bound dog is being sold for its meat. I quickly took this picture (because it was part of the market experience) and walked away:

Placing the cold blue mountains in the background and the warm colorful clothes of the Hmong minority shoppers in the foreground create a well balanced picture of the market:

Photos cannot recreate the colorful visual of the 360 degree National Geographic experience I saw in person:

Not typical Hmong fashion; this was the only time I saw this elegant hat during my 12 days in Bac Ha:

Towards the end of the day the kids at the market were growing increasingly bored which meant being less mobile therefore better photography subjects.
When I noticed this boy I had to move quickly treading the mud to get into position before he got up (which he did soon after).
It was a busy scene with many people and livestock around but there was one spot I found and a few perfect moments when I could eliminate all the unnecessary distractions and capture what I wished in the form of simplicity:

With this composition my goal was to cram as much typical Hmong minority market “crap” into one frame as possible.
So the healthy dose of buffalo dung is no accident in the foreground! I love it when there is a lot to see in a photo without it being too busy with details.
Here the obviously bored boy, the Hmong woman in her colorful clothes and the two buffalos going at it make this snapshot interesting:

A very yellow fruit stand experience fortunately balanced out by the blueness of the umbrella which is the complimentary color of yellow:

An unprepared tourist finding out that “slippers” and “market in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam” should not be in the same sentence:

This is as close as I got to Sapa:

It was truly a pleasure to hike around Bac Ha, the picture speaks for itself:

A photo I took of the boy in the orange jacket a few minutes before I consider one of my best of the trip and I will present it at a later time in a different collection.
I try to stay clear of other tourists as much as possible but the sight of this “backpacker” was definitely welcomed:

Considering how reserved the Hmong people are being let inside a house was a special treat courtesy of a nice lady who’s front yard I was photographing before.
In one corner there was her sawing machine:

The rest of the house was occupied by her bed and modest living areas next to a collage of photos on the wall. I wanted to make sure the sun hitting the floor was visible, it is not shining through a window, there is no insulation between the walls and the roof:

I had my camera out at all times; as I continued my hike and my viewpoint changed the elements of the landscape were placed into different arrangements:

A Hmong skirt drying is a very typical sight:

Father and son against the background of terraces:

Very fortunate timing made this photo possible as the two boys were taking a buffalo out for grazing in the morning. Even more amazing was that hours later as I was walking back to Bac Ha I bumped into them again at the same spot as they were returning home:

A slice of prime Hmong real estate with its own rice terraces and stunning valley views:

To find a photography subject of simplicity look no further than a Hmong house made of mud:

If I would make a documentary of the Hmong I would definitely title it: “There Will Be Mud”:

A very very fortunate photo as the typically shy Hmong girl gave me a gift of a few seconds of shooting time before she ran back to her house:

While the parents were carving a brand new terrace into the side of a mountain the kids were playing and making mud cakes:

The face of the little girl never changed from this during our 20 second photo session, it must be a surreal experience for her to bump into a stranger on a mountain back road:

This lady was very funny, by holding onto the tail she gained valuable horsepower ascending on the steep mountain road:

Hmong woman working in picturesque setting:

Another photo made possible by being at the right place at the right time.
As the man let his horse out of the barn the animal started rolling on the grass for about 20 seconds having a great time.
I had a chance to take about 5 photos before the horse stood up, this being the best even though the horse is in a somewhat compromising position: