Leaving Sa Pa early Tuesday morning or picked up in Lao Cai arriving with the train from Hanoi, we drive with land cruiser to Coc Ly Market. The drive from SaPa will take us approx. 2 1/2 hour. We visit the market with all it's colourful ethnic people such as Flower Hmong, Phu La and Dao Tuyen who gathers to buy and sell. Before lunch we go on a short trek to the nearby village of Sa Koun Ho which is inhabited by the Flower Hmong and Black Dao minority. We enjoy lunch in a local restaurant before we leave Coc Ly and drive to Trung Do village - inhabited by Tay minority. From the village we go by boat down the river, where we experience the magnificent sight of the beautiful caves and bustling life on the riverbank. The boat trip takes us about 2-2 1/2 hours before we are picked up by our jeep. The jeep takes us back to Sa Pa or to Lao Cai train station depending of your wishes.
It is a trading centre and meeting place for couples, friends, and relatives, and it is a typical weekly activity for the H’Mong and other minority groups living in the locality
Sapa is also famous for its love market, which takes place on saturday evenings. The love market of Sapa used to be the place to find a partner to get married. With the tourism, the real love market does not take place anymore.
The town is bustling with activity as the local hill tribes gather for their weekly market day, amazing tribal markets in Binh Lu where thousand of Thai Kadai language groups such as Tai Lu, Tai Laos..
I expected to find more foreigners than locals. But to my surprise, this was not the case. Of course there are tourists in the local markets, but most of the people I found were locals wearing their traditional clothes.
We visit this very interesting local market frequented by Tu Di, Dao Tuyen, H'Nhi, Flower Hmong and Giay minorities. We enjoy in a small local restaurant and after lunch we visit H'Nhi village.
The start of a few simple settlements can be seen high above, many of whose residents now make their weekly pilgrimage to the market. We are only 9kms from the Chinese border and some traders make the journey across from China on horseback.
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..
Leaving Sa Pa early Tuesday morning or picked up in Lao Cai arriving with the train from Hanoi, we drive with land cruiser to Coc Ly Market. The drive from SaPa will take us approx. 2 1/2 hour. We visit the market with all it's colourful ethnic people such as Flower Hmong, Phu La and Dao Tuyen who gathers to buy and sell. Before lunch we go on a short trek to the nearby village of Sa Koun Ho which is inhabited by the Flower Hmong and Black Dao minority. We enjoy lunch in a local restaurant before we leave Coc Ly and drive to Trung Do village - inhabited by Tay minority. From the village we go by boat down the river, where we experience the magnificent sight of the beautiful caves and bustling life on the riverbank. The boat trip takes us about 2-2 1/2 hours before we are picked up by our jeep. The jeep takes us back to Sa Pa or to Lao Cai train station depending of your wishes.
