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Travellers
visit north Vietnam usually visit
Halong Bay and
Sapa, two
main sites in the north. Different from Halong Bay, a
seaside destination for people to relax and sightseeing,
Sapa is for active visitors who are interested in culture,
physical actitities and adventures
To get to Sapa from Hanoi, most travellers take
Sapa trains,
as there are more travellers going to Sapa, both domestic
and international, it is not easy to buy train tickets,
normally passengers have to buy tickets for months in
advance, it costs about 25-30 usd for a one-way ticket in a
cabin of 4 soft berths, call first class or Deluxe, the
cabins are simply equiped, with pillows and blankets, water
and snacks are provided, Sapa trains are designed with 4
berths to a cabin, second class has 6 berths, budget
travellers can travel in sitting carriages which cost only
10-15 usd one way.
Sapa tours can be arranged
along with train tickets by tour
companies, main attraction for visitors to Sapa is to visit
hill tribe villages with colourful ethnic minorities people,
Sapa tours will take travellers to surrounding villages such
as Cat Cat, Ta Van, Lao Chai, Ta Phin...Sapa trekking
adventures take travellers further down to remote villages
of Ban Ho, Thanh Kim, the trekking trips to these villages
usually last 4-5 days, with the nights spent in the local
hosts.
Sapa trekking is really a popular activity for
tourists with long holidays and strenous naturally. Homestay is attached with trekking tours, as
homestay at villages is a based for tourist not only to
spend the night, but also learn about life, customs and
traditions of hill tribe people.
Another attraction for visitors to Sapa is the
famous
Bac Ha market, held on Sunday. Bac Ha is 110 km from
Sapa, about 2 hour drive, there are several markets in Bac
Ha such as Can Cau, held every Saturdays,
Coc Ly market on
Tuesday,
Cao Son market on Wednesdays, Lung Khau Nhin market
on Thursday...The markets open only once a week, it is not
only a tipycal market, it's mor like a social actitity for
hill trible people, especially youngsters go gather, they
drink rice wine, sing and dance and court each other.
The biggest minority group in Bac Ha is Flower Hmong people,
there are several groups of
Hmong people living in Vietnam,
such as Black Hmong, Flower Hmong, Blue Hmong, Red Hmong,
they came from China thousands of years ago, Hmong people
live in the mountain, cultivation is corn and rice, grown on
the sides of mountain, in the past when most people
travelled on foot or by horseback Flower Hmong people in Bac
Ha spent the whole night trekking through the mountains, now
most people use motorbikes to reach the market, and most
markets open only in the morning. |
