AROUND THE RIVER CHAY
Sa Pa - Lào Cai – Muong Khuong – Pha Long - Simacai - Can Cau - Bac Ha – Coc Ly – Lào Cai – Sa Pa
Nights in Muong Khuong and Bac Ha.
1. Option 1 : Ethnic minorities and markets
a. Leaving on Friday morning: walk to the Ham Rong waterfalls, discovery of Nung villages, night in Muong Khuong. Saturday morning, Can Cau or Pha Long market, night in Bac Ha. Sunday morning, Bac Ha market, visit of ethnic villages around Bac Ha then back to Sa Pa.
b. Saturday trip: walk to the Ham Rong waterfalls, discovery of Nung villages, night in Muong Khuong. Sunday morning, Muong Khuong or Simacai market, night in Bac Ha. Monday, visit of ethnic villages around 
2. Option 2: Landscapes and ethnic villages
Day 1: Sa Pa – Muong Khuong - Easy hike along the successive Ham Rong waterfalls, visit of the Nung villages, night in Muong Khuong.
Day 2: Easy half-day walk above the small town of Muong Khuong, breathtaking view over hundreds of mountain peaks and visit of Pa Zi (Pa Di) villages where women wear pointed indigo headdresses with side flaps, night in Bac Hà.
Day 3: boat trip on the river Chay then back to Sa Pa, with possible visit of Coc Ly market on the Tuesday morning.
Activities:
Muong Khuong Sunday market. Big market with a wide range of ethnic groups: Hmong, Dao, Nung, and merchants from other ethnic groups who come all the way from China to sell their products. Several Pa Zi women sell traditional incense made from the bark and resin of scented trees.
Dragon’s mouth series of waterfalls (Ham Rong) and ethnic Nung villages of Ta Van and Veng Leng. The local houses have roofs covered in traditional baked clay roof-tiles. Three kilometres by road from Mường Khương, then a 1-2 hour easy walk on tracks. The Ham Rong cave, where a river runs through the mountain, is listed in « Vietnam’s natural heritage monuments». It will be open to the public shortly (two-hour visit approximately). In Muong Khuong, taste the local variety of rice called “San Kou”, whose subtle hazelnut flavour will doubtless charm your palate.
Pha Long market, Saturday morning from 6 a.m. to twelve. Very rural seldom visited market, where you can meet ethnic groups that are only found in this particular district of Vietnam, mostly Hmong, Nung, Tou Zi, Pa Zi and Tou Lao. Along the road, in a landscape of 
Can Cau market. Every Saturday from 6 a.m. to 12, in the middle of the paddy fields and corn fields, the various hmong groups from the highland villages sell their farming products and buy fabrics, farming tools and kitchenware. The local Hmong wear traditional costumes that are so gaudy and heavily embroidered that the Chinese, the French and the Vietnamese have nicknamed them the « Flowery Hmong ». Numerous Hmong farmers travel back to their villages on horseback, the only way to carry heavy loads in these steep areas.
Bac Hà market. The biggest ethnic market in the Lao Cai province, where you will find buffaloes, horses, blacksmiths, saddlers, but also traditional medicine doctors, with their thousands of mountain herbs and plants, and lots of traditional clothes and local artefacts. Several groups of deep-coloured Hmong are found there, as well as Dao, Tay, Nung, and Phu La. Make sure to 
Tuesday Coc Ly market: still off the main roads. Several Hmong, Dao, Tay, Nung and Phu La groups are there. You may opt for a boat trip on the river Chay, in the middle of stunning landscapes and villages that have remained totally traditional.
In addition to the trips, here are some suggestions for discovery visits off the beaten track.
District of Bao Thang:
Village of Phu Nhuan.
How to get there: the village of Phu Nhuan is located about 50km from Lao Cai on the road to Van Ban. You can sleep in a modest but very clean hotel in Thanh Long. Food is excellent at the hotel’s restaurant.For the moment the lake is accessible only by motorbike but the road will soon be widened, thus granting access to cars. Accommodation with local people around the lake will be made available shortly.
Places to visit: a few kilometres away from the village of Phu Nhuan, a wide lake surrounds several dozens of round hills planted with tea-shrubs. All around stand Tày villages with their tall stilt houses built in the middle of fruit gardens. The first waterfall on the river Dau Nhuan is a thirty-minute walk from the lake. Three more cascades succeed one another, before one reaches the last waterfall. Allow 1 ½ hour from the lake. Bathing is possible in three different places in cool, limpid mountain water.
Bảo Yên District:
The village of Nghia Do
How to get there: the village of Nghia Do is located about 80km from Lao Cai on the road to Hà Giang. You can stay with local people in Nghia Do, where a handsome Tày house with a cinnamon-wood kitchen welcomes small parties of tourists. The owner is an excellent local guide. There is a recently-built hotel in the small town of Pho Rang, about 25km from Nghia Do.
Places to visit: along the road, one can see several Tày villages of tall wooden houses built on stilts, with the traditional palm roof to keep the summer heat away. After a forty-minute motorbike ride / an hour’s walk, in a lonely valley, one discovers a tall waterfall, maybe 150 feet high, whi
Village of Long Khánh:
How to get there: The village of Long Khánh is 15km away from Pho Ràng and about 60km from Lao Cai on the road to Yen Bai. There is a recently built hotel in Pho Rang.
Places to visit: In the south of Bao Yen district, in two seldom visited valleys, you will find Tày and Dao villages with their wooden houses built on stilts among fruit gardens, and the traditional palm roof. On the road between Pho Rang and Long Khanh, the landscapes overhang turbulent river Chay.
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