Sapa Markets

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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..

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..

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.

This small market is between Can Can market and Bac Ha town, about 12km from the town. It's less busy than other markets, and is open on Sunday.