Travel to Vietnam and discover Sapa
Capital: Lao Cai Town
Districts: Cam Duong Town, Muong Khuong, Bat Xat, Bac Ha, Bao Thang, Sa Pa, Bao Yen, Than Uyen , Van Ban.
Ethnic groups: Viet, H’mong, Tay, Dao, Thai, Giay, Nung, Lu, Bo Y, Khang, La Chi, Phu La, Ha Nhi, Muong, La Ha.
Sapa Travel_Du lich Sapa
Sapa ‘s Traditional Festivals
Spring Mountain Festival
This is a festival of H’Mong ethnic group which is also called Gau Tao or San Sai which means “walking in the open air” or “ wandering on the mountain top”. The festival is usually held after the lunar new year celebration around the 3rd to the 5th of the first lunar month on a sloping hill near the village. The day of festival are filled with traditionally religious and colourful customs such as : blessing heaven for a child, for fortune, or for a lucky and happy life. It is also the time when mountain villagers, boys and girls, all display their best clothes, and new costumes. In the festival many entertaining contests take place such as gun shooting, shooting, giao duyen singing ( a style of singing where the boy and girl sing traditional love songs to express their love to their loved one), dancing with pan-pine, kungfu, ball throwing, pan-pine playing and feasting.
The Tay people’s Long Tong Festival
The festival is held in the first lunar month, usually on the 5th or 15th day. The festival’s location is the fields near the village, and the center of the festial is the “con” tree ( cloth-ball tree). Long Tong festival is the most special communal activity of the Tay people. The festival expresses the artistic, cultural, and national values of the Tay. The festival reflects the wish to have good crops, health and many children and grand children. The ceremony has many solemn rituals: staging a procession for the Water, worshipping ceremonies to the village’s Deity, worshipping the “con” tree. There are many merry games such as “nem con” (a game in which boys and girls throw cloth balls), tug of war, betting on cock-fighting for banana flowers, betting on buffalo-fightin for asparagus. Boys and girls come to the festival to dance folk dance, sing love songs, and make friends.
Travel Spots in Sapa Lao Cai
Sapa
Travel to Sapa_ Sapa vietnam
Sapa is a summer resort located 1,600m above sea level. The mountainous topography of this area gives a new impression to visitors. The temperature climate, with an annual average temperature varying between 15-18oC is fresh all year round with a little snow in winter. January and February are the coldest month. The best time for tourist is from March to May. In September to mid-December is also pleasant time to be in Sapa, though there is bit of raining. The French were seduced by Sapa’s landscapes and climate and started building at the beginning of the century. By 1943, more than 200 villas bordered the streets of Sapa, unfortunately, they have been almost entirely destroy by the war.Sapa has become an attractive tourist site and welcomes thousands of domestic and foreign visitors. It has remained primitive with hamlets and villages of H’Mong, Dao, Tay, and Xa Pho ethnic minorities. Several interesting sites can be visited such as Silver Fall, Heaven’s gate, Cloud Bridge, Wind grotto, and Dragon’s Jaw Mountain. Sapa is also interesting for those who want to learn more about customs and habits of the mountain people. From Hanoi, visitors take a train to Lao Cai then take a minibus to Sapa or by motobike.
Sapa Ancient Rock Field:
Sapa ancient rock field_Viet nam
This 8 square-km area of vestiges consists of multi-grade large stones engraved with ancient images, and is located in the Muong Hoa valley, between the terraced rice paddies of the ethnic minority groups. The first exploration research in 1925 recorded that there are 200 stones of various dimensions concentrated in the area, of which Hon Bo, 15m long, and 6m high, is the biggest one. The engravings on the stone surfaces are either pictographic or decorative. Remarkably among them are drawings of human, houses on stilts of the ethnic minorities and other symbols which are believed to be the primitive form of writing but whose meanings have not yet been discovered. In addition, the biggest impressions are made by da chong stone (the husband stone), da vo stone (the wife stone), stones that look like tigers, and stone stelae with an incantation written on it by the carver to help his people to defeat the tigers. The da chong and da vo tell the story of faithful love between couple who overcame all difficulties to be happy together, even though they have been changed in to stones, they are still dedicate to each other.
Archeologists have proven that this area has been inhabited since ancient times, and it is therefore one of the ancient Viet’s vestiges. It has drwan the attention of scientists and is being considered by UNESCO to rank as a World Cultural Heritage site.
Sapa Vietnam
Sapa Market:
This market, of the H’Mong and Dzao people, takes place every Saturday night. This is an attractive, unique economic and cultural activity in the mountainous area of Vietnam. The market is a place for trading and exchange of local goods and products as well as a meeting place for young people who seek a partner by singing love songs and playing pan-pines, and mouth harps.When the sun goes down, here and there in the market, H’Mong and Dzao boys and girls cluster together in groups of five to ten. Looking and smiling at each other, they sit side by side in the dim yellow light , singing and talking all the night through. Once meeting the person of their dreams, they exchange gifts and plan to see each other again the next week. This cultural activity has along history and is still maintained in the minority peoples’ more modern life. The Sapa Market is surely an attractive place for visitors who are keen to explore traditional cultures.
Fanxipang Mountain:
Located 9km from Sapa along Hoang Lien Son Mountains, Fanxipang Mountain is southwest of Sapa. It takes six or seven days to reach the peak of Fanxipang, the highest peak of the Indochina Peninsula with 3,143m . The topography of Fanxipang ia varied . Muong Hoa Valley, at the lowest altitude ( 950-1000m), is created by a narrow strip of land at the base on the east side of the mountain.Approximately 1,680 plant species divided into 679 families are found on the mountain. Fanxipang’s summit is accessible all year round but the best time or making the ascent is from mid-October to mid-November, and again in March.
Lao Cai Town
The final stop on the Hanoi-Lao cai railway is located on the Sino-Vietnamese border. Lao Cai is accessible to the Chinese area of Coc Leu through a steel bridge that serves as a border gate. Though small, Lao Cai is considered by many as an exotic township. If you are in Lao Cai on time for the market, you can enjoy the happy smiling faces of young girls of ethnic minorities in their traditional colourful costumes. Going to the market is not always for shopping but for showing their happiness and beauty to others, especially for young men to enjoy.
Bac Ha Fair
Bac Ha Town is about 80km from down town of Sapa. There are many trees around Bac Ha, and in spring the countryside is white with blossom. Bac Ha has the biggest fair near mountainous highlands and near the Chinese border. The fair is , particularly, a trading center and meeting place for couples, friends, relatives, and is generally viewed as a typical weekly activity for the H’Mong and other minority groups in the locality. Carried on the backs of house are local products for sale of barter. Especially, at the fair, visitors can enjoy “thang co” blood porridge a popular dish of the H’Mong and local people.
