Homestay Tour at Ta Van Village - Sapa Vietnam

[Martin Nguyen]

I had a wonderful trekking trip with two of my friends in Sapa. Ta Van commune in Muong Hoa valley is located in the south and 8 km away from Sapa town ship. Ta Van means "a big turning road" like a basket brim, or tripod-leg line. Vast terrace fields with unique position of a big turning road become a landscape and a destination of Ta Van. Seo Mi Ti scenery-old pine forest, a half day of sloping road away from township centre, is also a particularly interesting eco-tourist site of Ta Van. We booked our 3 days 3 night’s tour with Go Asia Travel. Our journey began when we board a night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai; we were allocated the Orient Express cabin, one of the higher-end cabins which was available. We had a good night rest before embarking on our two days trekking adventure. Arriving Lao Cai train station at 5.30 am, we took a rest and had breakfast. After that we were having a trekking at 9.00 am. Our tour-guide was Tuan, who had years of trekking experience in Sapa. We began our trek from Sapa Town to Cat Cat village and we had our lunch in the village.

The view in Sapa was really breathtaking and we continued our adventure towards Ta Van village, where we stayed over for a night. It was my first homestay experience in a rural village and I liked the great hospitality of the house owner who provided us with good meals and accommodations.

We began our second day of trekking after breakfast. We trekked pass the bamboo forest before arriving at the Silver Waterfall. I would advice future sapa wannabes to wear proper trekking shoes before embarking on this wonderful journey; I wore running shoes which was not appropriate for trekking. I was glad that our guide Tuan placed our safety as a top priority - he advised us to take a break at a hut before trekking up a steep hill as there were signs of a thunderstorm.

Our trekking adventure ended at Supan Village. We had a short lunch before taking a bus back to Royal Hotel in Sapa Town. On the third day, we explored Sapa Town on our own. We encountered difficulties with our return ticket at Lao Cai station; I was glad that Tuan managed to resolve the problem for us (by calling the station employees) even though he was not present with us at that point of time.

I would recommend anyone who loves adventure sports to trek in Sapa and I feel that it is better to follow an experienced guide as he would be able to communicate with the locals more effectively.

Tags: sapa trekking tours, sapa package tours, sapa village tours