Vietnam (Sa Pa): Paseo hasta Ta Van (Lao Chai)
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 5.63 mi
- Elevation gain
- 335 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 1,749 ft
- Max elevation
- 4,849 ft
- TrailRank
-
89
5
- Min elevation
- 3,388 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Moving time
- 2 hours 31 minutes
- Time
- 4 hours 6 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1616
- Uploaded
- October 11, 2023
- Recorded
- October 2023
near Mông Hòa, Lào Cai (Vietnam)
Viewed 905 times, downloaded 41 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
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Tour from the outskirts of Sa Pa, from where we take a track that goes to Cau May, Lao Chai and Ta Van, small towns inhabited by those belonging to the Black Hmong ethnic group. Along the way we visited two of the humble houses of the residents of these places, to end our tour in Ta Van.
DESCRIPTION OF OUR TOUR: We are seven travelers who are going to do this tour accompanied by a Vietnamese guide, who on paper speaks Spanish, but who in reality manages it at a very elementary level and understands almost nothing, although with effort we managed to do that understands what is essential.
We leave our hotel in a minibus towards the outskirts of Sa Pa to get closer to the road/track that we are going to travel. 8 girls are waiting for us at the beginning, most of them very young, between 20 and 30 years old, some carrying a child on their backs. They all carry a bag with some very simple handmade products. We believe that their intention is to sell us their items, but initially they show them to us without insistence. We ask our guide if they are going to accompany us all the way, and after some unclear explanations, we conclude that it will be like that. We are immersed in another world, with situations that are difficult to understand. We soon realize that there is a leader of the group and that each girl takes care of one of us discreetly. If you are late to take a photo, your companion is waiting for you, if you move faster, she is very close, waiting for you. We speak with them in very basic English, which they speak better than our guide.
Most of the route runs along the cemented track on which vehicles can circulate, although we only came across a few motorcycles. We arrive at a bridge that connects the track with a few scattered houses of the inhabitants of this ethnic group who are dedicated to agricultural tasks. After crossing the bridge we reach a narrow and very muddy path to visit two of the houses of the women who accompany us, to return along it to the track to continue our walk.
The houses we visited are made of wooden planks, with a dirt floor, a tin roof, with some separate spaces, without electric light, they cook with a fire on the floor and a grill to hold the cooking containers. All they have are some pallets and mats on the floor, and some hanging clothes. In the upper part of the house, a kind of open attic, there are a few bags. They contain rice, they tell us. Everything is very humble, hardly any light enters the houses and they are very sad. There are so few things that we doubt this could be your home. Next to one of the houses they also have a water buffalo locked up in a small farmhouse, a very valuable animal in these parts. They release him and give him fresh grass so that we can see him better. He is completely domesticated and we can stay very close to him. After this shocking visit and after some of us (one of them the guide) fell into the mud on the trail, we returned to the bridge and followed the track towards Cau May.
We walk near the terraced rice fields, which have just been harvested at this time of year, and so we only see the canes that remain from the harvested rice.
We already see the scattered houses of Lao Chai. Soon we reach a bridge that takes us to the center of town. I think many tourists pass through here because of the number of souvenir shops there are. We continue walking between houses to Ta Van, which is part of Lao Chai, where we eat in a very nice restaurant and where we end our walk.
The girls have accompanied us up to this point with their children on their backs and their bags of crafts. None of us have bought anything from them. But we said goodbye to them, thanking them for their company with a small cash gift from a collection that we have made among ourselves and that we distribute equally among them.
DESCRIPTION OF OUR TOUR: We are seven travelers who are going to do this tour accompanied by a Vietnamese guide, who on paper speaks Spanish, but who in reality manages it at a very elementary level and understands almost nothing, although with effort we managed to do that understands what is essential.
We leave our hotel in a minibus towards the outskirts of Sa Pa to get closer to the road/track that we are going to travel. 8 girls are waiting for us at the beginning, most of them very young, between 20 and 30 years old, some carrying a child on their backs. They all carry a bag with some very simple handmade products. We believe that their intention is to sell us their items, but initially they show them to us without insistence. We ask our guide if they are going to accompany us all the way, and after some unclear explanations, we conclude that it will be like that. We are immersed in another world, with situations that are difficult to understand. We soon realize that there is a leader of the group and that each girl takes care of one of us discreetly. If you are late to take a photo, your companion is waiting for you, if you move faster, she is very close, waiting for you. We speak with them in very basic English, which they speak better than our guide.
Most of the route runs along the cemented track on which vehicles can circulate, although we only came across a few motorcycles. We arrive at a bridge that connects the track with a few scattered houses of the inhabitants of this ethnic group who are dedicated to agricultural tasks. After crossing the bridge we reach a narrow and very muddy path to visit two of the houses of the women who accompany us, to return along it to the track to continue our walk.
The houses we visited are made of wooden planks, with a dirt floor, a tin roof, with some separate spaces, without electric light, they cook with a fire on the floor and a grill to hold the cooking containers. All they have are some pallets and mats on the floor, and some hanging clothes. In the upper part of the house, a kind of open attic, there are a few bags. They contain rice, they tell us. Everything is very humble, hardly any light enters the houses and they are very sad. There are so few things that we doubt this could be your home. Next to one of the houses they also have a water buffalo locked up in a small farmhouse, a very valuable animal in these parts. They release him and give him fresh grass so that we can see him better. He is completely domesticated and we can stay very close to him. After this shocking visit and after some of us (one of them the guide) fell into the mud on the trail, we returned to the bridge and followed the track towards Cau May.
We walk near the terraced rice fields, which have just been harvested at this time of year, and so we only see the canes that remain from the harvested rice.
We already see the scattered houses of Lao Chai. Soon we reach a bridge that takes us to the center of town. I think many tourists pass through here because of the number of souvenir shops there are. We continue walking between houses to Ta Van, which is part of Lao Chai, where we eat in a very nice restaurant and where we end our walk.
The girls have accompanied us up to this point with their children on their backs and their bags of crafts. None of us have bought anything from them. But we said goodbye to them, thanking them for their company with a small cash gift from a collection that we have made among ourselves and that we distribute equally among them.
Waypoints
Information point
4,160 ft
En la pista/camino por el que vamos a hacer el recorrido
We begin to walk with fog that prevents us from enjoying the landscape accompanied by locals.
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Panorama
Bridge
Comments (8)
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I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Easy
Un paseo muy bonito y agradable con la compañía de las lugareñas
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Easy
Perfecta descripción de la ruta y las circunstancias en las que las realizamos.
Muchas gracias Raquel y Ana por vuestros comentarios y valoración.
Bonita e interesante descripción de la ruta y la aventura.
Hola Maisid: he pasado casi todo el mes de octubre por la Indochina, otro mundo, (como decía Paul Éluard “hay otros mundos pero están en este”). Interesante y sorprendente. Muchas gracias por tu valoración y comentario.
Ya se te echaba de menos por aquí.... Con tu relato y tus fotos, me has ahorrado un largo viaje. 🙂
Hola Manu, donde contratasteis los guias locales y cuantos dias recomiendas para ver la zona de sapa? Muchas gracias
Nosotros viajamos con muchas cosas contratadas con GrandVoyage, entre ellas esta excursión hasta Ta Van. Estuvimos tres días en Sa Pa. Pero considero que merece la pena dedicarle más tiempo, al menos 5 días. Y seguro que en los hoteles de Sa Pa pueden informaros de guías locales para hacer rutas por las montañas Vietnamitas.