Tet market at Furama Resort Danang

A calligrapher or ong do sells parallel sentences at the five-star Furama Resort Danang - Photo: Thanh Hai

The Furama Resort Danang in Danang City will host a Tet market from January 27 to 30 for tourists to enjoy a traditional Vietnamese Tet.

Guests of the five star resort can experience the color of a Tet country market and Vietnamese craft villages.

Witness people making banh chung (square glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork fat), fortune tellers in traditional costumes, ong do (calligraphers) painting parallel sentences, drawing portraits and creating Dong Ho and Hang Trong pictures. Watch the traditional art of making to he (sculptured figurines from colored rice dough), conical hats, stone statues and colorful lanterns.

The young ladies in traditional costumes at Tra Co Ly restaurant will serve delicious Tet dishes such as specialties of the central region, Quang noodles and Hoi An cao lau.

The resort is offering special rates from January 21 to February 2 with two nights for US$356++ per single room and US$416++ for twin room, inclusive of buffet breakfast, airport pick-up, wifi, and a buffet dinner at Café Indochine Restaurant.

Guests can book at www.furamavietnam.com or reservation@furamavietnam.com.

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Coming round mountains to Tay Bac

Me Pi Leng pass through the limestone mountains in Ha Giang Province

Tay Bac, the mountainous region in the northwest of Vietnam, is famous for beautiful terraced fields, colorful love markets, magnificent mountains and valleys. The terrain is fascinating for tourists who can discover many riddles of nature and indigenous cultures. The spectacular hillside-hugging road to the northern province of Ha Giang has a few hair-raising turns but the marvelous landscape is irresistible for nature lovers and adventurers.

Ethnic kids carry water large distances in the dry season

I came to Meo Vac, a mountainous district in Ha Giang Province where tourists can visit Khau Vai love market, in the late afternoon. The topography is limestone mountains that impose over the poetic Nho Que river running through.

The love market often opens on the nights of 26th and 27th days of the lunar month. Shops trade till after midnight and local residents also stay up late. Their life rhythm is slow; the market is busy but I still sense a tranquility of there that is different to the markets in lowland regions.

Women carry firewood to Dong Van District in late afternoon - Photos: Lam Van Son

In contrast, Meo Vac market in the morning is rather quiet with dozens of ethnic women standing around with wooden packs, filled with vegetables and other agricultural products on their back. Buyers take a look and handle the produce before they start to bargain. The market doesn’t stay open long.

Leaving Meo Vac, I continued the journey to conquer Ma Pi Leng Mountain. I have traveled through many Highland passes, but I felt a bit giddy at Ma Pi Leng, the king of all mountain passes in Vietnam.

Ma Pi Leng is located on the border of Ha Giang Township and Dong Van and Meo Vac districts. The road runs round the sides of black limestone mountains, which are typical features of Dong Van Plateau. Wall-like rocks of all shapes also beautify the pass between Dong Van Town and Lung Phin Commune. The Nho Que River adds the finishing touch to nature’s masterpiece.

In the dry season, ethnic people have to carry water large distances. I felt touched to see their hardship.

The next stop is conquering Lung Cu Mountain in Dong Van Plateau. It is in Lung Cu Commune, which is about 1,600 meters above sea level. On the peak of the mountain is a flagpole about 30 meters tall.

From the top, tourists can see the terraced fields and lakes below. It was breath-taking. I felt a sense of awe that I cannot forget.

Then I arrived at Dong Van District near sunset. Dong Van, about 155 kilometers from Ha Giang Commune, is the most developed district among the ethnic districts in Ha Giang.

Dong Van is famous with old quarters, old markets, especially with its name meaning a plateau of limestone. Dong Van’s old quarter is different from Hoi An ancient town as most of houses here are built the Chinese way with 60-80-centimeter-thick clay walls and tiled roofs.

The market days in Dong Van left the biggest impression on me. Groups of H’Mong, Dao, Tay and other ethnic peoples in their colorful costumes walk from every corner of the mountains to the market to buy and sell. They arrive on foot with oxen, pigs, horses, chicken and every type of livestock and fowl. It’s exciting to watch the noisy bargaining at the trading area for animals and the tinkling sounds of spoons, pots and bowls when food sellers prepare for the market.

The market is a place where the Kinh people can meet and exchange culture with minority peoples.

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Shopping fun at Dalat Market

This girl looks at warm hats for sale at Dalat Market - Photo: Tuong Vi

“Ham lam, ba lam, bon lam…” (meaning VND25,000; VND35;000; VND 45,000). It is the voice of the sellers that you hear when you visit Dalat market in the evening. We spent some late evenings in the market listening to all the spruikers competing for the customers’ attention. In the evening, after 6p.m. the market that locals call Hades market was bustling with activities from selling woolen products such as coats, hats and scarves, to the street food vendors. In the cold weather and light drizzling rain that had people dressed in coats, the tourists could not resist the smell of the grills or the cups of hot milk. Hades market is thronging every day in the streets around the main market in Dalat.

Smack in the center of town, Da Lat market was built from 1958 to 1960. It was designed by architect Nguyen Duy Duc. The market has a prime position in Hoa Binh district beside Xuan Huong Lake. It’s a good place for tourists to bargain, and there are some great products that are cheaper than HCMC. After going around the market and filling your bags with bargains you should try one of the special milk drinks made with soya beans, green beans, or peanuts before returning to your hotel. Other great smelling local grill specialties are sweet potato, corn, chicken’ legs or chicken’s wings. Woolen and brocade products also make great gifts or souvenirs.

In the morning, you can buy beautiful flowers, vegetables, fruit, artichokes, fruit jam, processed apricots, wines, syrups and a huge array of sweets made from local fruit.

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Eat a horse

A man cooks thắng cốat Bac Ha Market. The dish is enjoyed as much for its taste as the friendly ambience in which it is served.

If you are so hungry you could eat a horse, Bac Ha Market in the north-western province of Lao Cai is the place for you. And you have it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Giang Seo Sau, a 65-year-old resident of Lao Cai’s Bac Ha District, is known for his expertise in cooking thắng cố (horse meat soup).

He says the dish appeared in the area nearly 200 years ago when the H’mong people settled down in the district, and to this day, the specialty of the ethnic mountainous people is said to be the most delicious at Bac Ha.

Although the recipe itself is quite simple, experience is necessary to produce tasty thắng cố, Sau says.

He explains: After a horse is slaughtered, the meat, bones and innards are washed and cut into pieces. These are marinated in a mixture of salt, black cardamom and grilled địa điền (a spice used in north-west Vietnam) before being placed in a big pan and fried. Water is then added to the pan and simmered for several hours.

HOW TO GET THERE

- The Bac Ha Market is open every Sunday in Bac Ha District, Lao Cai Province, 354 kilometers from Hanoi. - Tourists can book a tour to the market via travel companies like Sinh Café (http://www.sinhcafe.com.vn) and Viet Sail Travel (www.vietsailtravel.com). - If tourists prefer to travel independently, they can take a train or bus from Hanoi to Lao Cai Town. From here, they can catch a bus for a two and a half hour trip to Bac Ha District.

Visitors are likely to get an enticing whiff of the thắng cố cooking as they enter the Bac Ha Market. The horse is slaughtered earlier at the homes of the soup vendors and brought for cooking to the market.

A special feature of the dish is that it is typically served in a cauldron, so customers do not have thắng cố alone. Several people sit around the cauldron and fill up their own bowl for a sumptuous meal, exchanging stories about trading, the crop, hunting and their children.

For young men and women, a turn at the thắng cố cauldron is an opportunity to socialize and even find their soul mates. Many people who have met over a bowl of thắng cố soup have gone on to solemnize their vows.

For the men, maize wine is an indispensable accompaniment to thắng cố. In fact, there is a saying among the H’mong people in Bac Ha to the effect that those who have thắng cố without drinking maize wine from Ban Pho Commune (also in Bac Ha District) have not enjoyed the dish yet.

When the dish is had as a family, the usual accompaniment is cơm nắm (rice balls) and mèn mén (steamed maize powder).

Thắng cố is famous not only for its taste, but also for the animated and friendly atmosphere in which it is enjoyed.

The traditional dish of the H’mong people has become a cultural glue that brings people closer together.

In the old days, thắng cố was only made with horse meat, but these days it is substituted with meat of the buffalo, goat or pork. All these thắng cố varieties are available at Bac Ha Market.

A giant thắng cố pan with a diameter of three meters weighing 1.6 tons was displayed at the Bac Ha Market on the occasion of the Bac Ha tourism and cultural week in May 2008. It was recognized as Vietnam’s largest thắng cố pan. Three horses were slaughtered and cooked in the pan to serve around 1,000 visitors at the fair.

The market is open every Sunday. Various ethnic groups living in Bac Ha District and surrounding areas bring to the market many kinds of mountainous produce: tea, fruit, honey, wine, brocade, and orchids, not to mention horses, buffaloes and pigs.

The colorful brocade dresses and scarves of H’mong girls as they move about in the market are itself an attraction; and visitors can also buy brocade and handmade pictures here.

In fact, the general ambience here is not of trading, but of a hospitable, amiable place for people to meet and make friends, swap stories and have a good time. It is not surprising that this mountainous market was ranked first in the list of ten most attractive markets in Southeast Asia by Serendib Magazine’s first issue in 2009.

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