Sapa Town walk Vietnam (Sept 2009) Part 1

Sapa is located in Lao Cai province, 350 km from Hanoi, close to the border with China. The Hoang Lien Son range of mountains dominates the district, which is at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. This range includes Vietnams highest peak, Fansipan, at a high of 3142m above sea level and a vast area covered by thick forest, rich in wildlife. The town of Sapa lies at the attitude of about 1,600m. The climate is moderate, cool in summer, foggy and cold in winter with occasional snowfall.
Sapa is home to a great diversity of ethnic minority people. It is likely that, Sapa was first inhabited by highland minorities of Hmong and Yao group and later came the Tay, Zay, and a small number of Xa Pho to form the 5 main ethnic groups which takes about 85% of the districts population today and a very small number of them live in Sapa town, most of themlive in small villages and hamlets scattering in valleys and
hamlets scattering in valleys and mountains throughout the district.

Sapa is such a colourful town thanks to the H'mong and Dzao people from the local hill tribes who head into the town's market every day to trade their produce. There's a main market every Saturday when the place is packed but there's a lower key one every other day during the week. These people will have undergone no formal education but the arrival of foreigners has made them well aware of the value of money and many of the youngsters have picked up a basic level of English. They sell clothing and handicrafts which are popular with tourists.

The dry season is from January to June with March to May the best time to visit. Temperatures in January and February are regularly around 0ºC. The rainy season falls in June and August. September marks the end of the rainy season which is a good time to visit then by mid-December temperatures start to fall significantly making this September to mid-December period the best time to be there.

Sapa is 380km from Hanoi and various options exist to get there. At Hanoi we stayed at this hotel which is very nice and the manager Mr Ha is a helpfull person indeed. Their address No. 1, Ngo Huyen Street, Hoan Kiem Dist. Hanoi +84913032481 and the room only cost between USD 10 to 20. We got our train ticket from there. Train depart at 9pm arrived at Laocai at 6am and one hour bus ride to Sapa.

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[asiane]

i like your background music. nice