TRIP N°2

AROUND THE RIVER CHAY

Sa Pa - Lào Cai – Muong Khuong – Pha Long - Simacai - Can Cau - Bac Ha – Coc Ly – Lào Cai – Sa Pa

Three days / Two nights :
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 Bac Ha, then back to Sa Pa.

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 mountain peaks, numerous Nung et Hmong villages. Lots of traditional houses with baked earth tiled roofs.

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 arrive before 9 a.m., the market ends at about 12 :30. Sleeping in Bac Hà, on the Saturday offers an opportunity to watch the preparations for the market and the successive waves of villagers going there. Tasting the local corn spirit is a must, but be prudent, it may be up to 55° proof!

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, which marks the limit between the provinces of Lào Cai and Hà Giang. Before reaching the waterfall, one goes through several Tày villages and one zao (dao) village on the mountain side. Between Pho Rang and Nghia Do, great variety of landscapes along the river Chay, then the river Nghia Do. Great variety of Tày houses.

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.

TRIP N°1 :

BETWEEN 3000M-HIGH ROCKY PEAKS AND CARDAMOM FORESTS: THE LAND OF THE HANI, THE GIAY, THE HMONG AND THE DAO

2-day /1-night trip :
Sa Pa - Ban Xéo – Muong Vi - Muong Hum – Y Ty – A Lu – A Muc Sung – Coc My – Lao Cai – Sa Pa

Day 1: Leaving from Sa Pa: Ban Xéo – visit of Muong Vi cave, night in basic guesthouse in Muong Hum (Mường Hum has only had electricity for a year).

Day 2: Muong Hum, visit of the San Ma Sao cardamom forest – Den Sang, visit of the Hani villages on Y Ty plateau, visit of waterfalls at Sino-Vietnamese border, A Muc Sung hot springs. Back to Sa Pa.

Muong Hum:
- Sunday market: every Sunday from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This market, the biggest cardamom market in the area, was already there during the French colonial period and serves as a meeting place for the ethnic groups living in the mountains: Giay, Dao, White Hmong, Hani. Those living in the highlands, like the Hmong and the Zao (Dao) come down to sell their specific products such as cardamom and other spices and mountain plants.
In Mường Hum, you should taste the paddy rice brandy (made with unhusked rice) from the dao village of San Lung. Its fruity flavour and mildness have made it famous well beyond the limits of the Lào Cai province.

Activities in Muong Vi:
- Visit of the Muong Vi cave. This cave is still rarely visited, but the 1-to-2-hour trip along an underground river allows one to discover the natural sculptures created by water and minerals deposited over thousands of years. This is a pleasant place for a cool break between the town of Lào Cai and the Mường Hum ethnic market (bring sandals to walk in the cool water). The Muong Vi cave has been open to the public since the beginning of 2003 and is listed as one of « Vietnam’s natural heritage monuments ». During the rain season, (June-August), access is forbidden if the underground river water level is too high.
How to get there: The village of Muong Vi is located at about 30km from Lao Cai on the road to Mường Hum.

The Y Ty plateau:
Hani villages and Dan Sang and Y Ty cardamom protected forest. Over a century ago, the French military keeping watch on the Chinese border praised the beauty of the Y Ty plateau, 2000m-high and therefore 400m higher than Sa Pa. They enjoyed its cool climate and the charming Hani women who, they said, looked like gypsy women. There are only a few thousand Hani left, less than 10 villages, the majority of whom live in China. Hani houses are made of thick adobe walls with small openings and thatched roofs. A few kilometres before the village of Y Ty, the road goes through a big forest producing cardamom. This spice, is highly prized by the Chinese, and has become over the last ten years the mountain minoritie's most important source of income.

source from www.sapa-tourism.com

WORTH DISCOVERING

AROUND SA PA

If you are only staying 2 or 3 days

you can easily discover the fascinating beauty of the main valleys and villages surrounding Sa Pa at the foot of the Fan Xi Pan: Cat Cat, Lao Chai, Ta Van and Ban Ho. You can also sample the charms of the Taphin valley and visit the ruins of Our Lady of Peace monastery, with its fascinating story, or enjoy the wonderful coolness of the Silver waterfall.

Hikers can walk to all these places, and may want to enjoy the unique experience of staying with local people, in a Tay family house built on stilts, in Lao Chai or Ban Ho.

If you are lucky enough to stay longer

Climbing the Fan Xi Pan is a unique experience, but it represents a real expedition requiring adequate mountain-hiking equipment, perfect physical condition, excellent training in hiking and experienced guides. For your own safety and pleasure, we recommend you prepare it carefully, with the help of the recommended agencies.

You can also experience the exceptional: discover landscapes and populations with an authentic way of life in areas hardly open to strangers. These tours can only be done by four-wheel drive vehicles, with a guide, and with special authorisation from local authorities. Please contact one of the authorized agencies.

sapa tourism

The province of Lao Cai offers an unusual variety of spectacular or charming landscapes, from the Fan Xi Pan massif (3,143m), the highest summit in South-East Asia with its perfectly preserved high-mountain vegetation, to the low plains and wide rice-growing valleys scattered with palm-trees in the south.

The Fan Xi Pan massif represents the biggest natural reserve in Vietnam: Hoang Lien National Park. The park covers nearly 30,000 hectares and is unique in all South-East Asia for its tiered forest ecosystems. It contains over 2,000 plant species and about 500 animal species, among which the black gibbon, of which there are only a few families left.

Two other features of the landscape immediately attract the visitor’s attention: the paddy-fields tumbling down the slopes in vertiginous staircases and the innumerable limestone peaks and crests emerging from the clouds in the morning, a sort of Halong Bay transferred to the mountains.

The terraced paddy-fields are built by the Hmong and Dao on the slopes where the water supply is sufficient to provide irrigation throughout the growing season. It takes a tremendous amount of work to create and maintain the paddy-fields and, in the absence of all instruments, it requires an elaborate ancestral technique, already used by the Chinese peasants before they emigrated during the second half of the 19th century. The surface area of the projected terraces is calculated according to the available water-flow. All the terraces must be perfectly horizontal, so as to maintain a constant water level before they pour into the terrace immediately below.

The fields of steep limestone peaks, usually covered with thick forests, are the result of the dissolving action of rain-water on limestone. The brown or red earth found at the foot of the peaks is the residue of this dissolution, the fertile « terra rosa » used by the peasants despite the numerous rocky residues mixed with it. The local populations clear and exploit the forests and find there many useful food and pharmaceutical products as well as raw material for handicrafts.
souce from www.sapa-tourism.com

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