For travelers from afar, to fetch up on a Pho Cao market day is a piece of luck, for it is difficult to predict which day of the week it will be held. The market keeps turning the clock back, every week.
Located 30 Km away from Dong Van Town, Pho Cao Market opens right on the curb of Pho Cao Town, set amidst the wild nature of the mountainous region that by itself is intoxicating.
The Pho Cao Market in Ha Giang Province does not gather on ever Sunday, Saturday, the first or 15th day of every lunar month like most markets in the lowland. The market keeps turning the clock back, every week. If it was held on Sunday this week, it would be held on Saturday the next week, and Friday the week after. So locals – who crave for another helping of Thang Co (a horse meet dish) and hope to rest their eyes on a beautiful Hmong girl _ must remember the day accurately, even though most men end up inebriated by the time it closes.
The prosperity and unspoiled nature of the Pho Cao valley has created a bustling market, where the maize alcohol yeast has been the same, and the honey-like yellow sunlight has never changed, the cheerful and shy smiles of the ethnic minority girls in colorful, handmade dresses, the playful grins on the children’s faces, and the welcoming nature of the population as a whole never fail to charm regular market goers and visitors.
Past the market entrance is where numerous forest produce are on dislay along with household goods and agricultural equipment – Mac Khen beans with their pungent odor, five-colored steamed glutinous rice cooked by the Tay minority people, pots of violet glutinous rice of the Hmong people and ready-made clothes sold close to bamboo shoots, beeswax and forest tubers used for medicinal purposes.
At the Pho Cao market, the area reserved for fabric sales proves to be the most crowded, the most popular item is the patterned fabric woven by Hmong women. Every homemade dress is a masterpiece and the price of women in the mountainous region.
Pho Cao market does not specialize in selling buffaloes and cows but there are still herds of black pigs, and plenty of fowl, including ducks. The phrase “Lon Cap Nach” (Pigs carried under one’s arms) must have been created in this context. These are the tint pigs taken in the owners; arms and brought to the market very early. If the owners can sell the pigs for a good price, they will have enough money to invite friends to a drink. If not, they will just take the pigs home and wait until the next market-day.
One quaint custom of the Hmong people exists to date. A married couple leads a horse from the village to the market. On the way to the market, the husband holds the bridle, while the wife sits on the horse’s back. But on the way back, she would hold the tail of the horse that carried the drunken husband. Wise horses always remember the way home.
The Pho Cao opens at the first gleam of daylight and loses at noon. By that time, the market stalls have nearly run out of goods. Only food stalls remain open, trying to sell the last pieces of meat or bowls of noodles to the fun-loving boys.
Maybe as they say each other farewell, tipsy and not so tipsy, they will set the date for next week, a day earlier…so they are not caught napping on the day when everyone sets out for the Pho Cao market again.
Keywords: Cho Lui Ngay, Pho Cao market, Dong Van town, minority people, Thang Co, Hmong people, tipsy, married couple, Pho Cao valley, Vietnam shopping
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