Red Dao Homestay Trek | Sapa Vietnam | Ta Phin Village
About this video:
After having a really awesome time with guide Zaazaa on our previous 2 days Hmong trek, we decided to enrol ourselves for another Red Dao Homestay - 2 day trek to Ta Phin village.
Watch our Hmong trek here:
2 Days Hmong Homestay Trek -
Day 1 - [ Ссылка ]
Day 2 - [ Ссылка ]
Some facts about this trek:
• Challenging level: Easy to Moderate
• Distance: 6–7 miles (9.6-11 kilometers) per day
• Time to complete: 6 hours per day
• Helpful tip: Wearing hiking boots is a must when hiking through the area.
• Cost: We paid $60 USD per person for this 2-day private trek and it included 2 lunches, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast, 1 night at a local homestay and a taxi ride to Sapa hotel.
• Hiking accessories to have on hand based on our experience: rain jacket or poncho, any lightweight jacket, a backpack, sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, hiking pole, snacks and some extra cash.
We booked our trek with Zaazaa Trekking. Zaazaa is a local female guide who lives in Sapa for her entire life. Her services are highly recommended in the Ho Chi Minh City’s Female Expat Facebook group. We can vouch for her excellent customer service. It was super easy to communicate with her over WhatsApp. Zaazaa is in high demand so you must contact her in advance at +841627852928.
Day 1:
Our son was having a bit of cough and cold due to rain so we decided to take it a bit easy and started the trek in afternoon after lunch. Normal schedule for Day 1 consists of 3km trek to the Hmong village of Suoi Ho, continuing on to Matra village and then to Ta phin village. Instead of doing all that, we opted for a thrilling motorbike ride till the outskirts of Ta Phin and walked from there.
Ta Phin Village is situated in the valley surrounded by spectacular mountains and rice terraces. Along the road, there are many mountain sloping side and the green terraced fields. Zaazaa explained that based on the season, the two sides of the road are normally filled with blooming flowers, particularly Buckwheat Blossom (bloom in March) and Sapa Broccoli Flower (bloom in the early winter).
We also passed by a local Hmong wedding ceremony where the girl was leaving family home to husband home. Around 2 hours into the trek, we reached our homestay which was a cozy place run by an ethnic Red Dao family.
Ta Phin village is also popular for its one-of-a-kind ethnic culture values and the one you should not miss is Red Dao traditional herb baths. First, people would collect variety of leaves from the forests, then boil those in a hot bath tub. It is believed that taking a bath with medicated leaves or soaking feet in herbs would bring tangible health benefits like treatment for rheumatism, muscle fatigue, bone aches, flu etc. We decided to give it a try.
Later we were welcomed into the home of this Red Dao family, where dinner was cooked on an open fire and served with unlimited refilling of Happy water (Vietnamese rice wine). After a relaxing herbal bath followed by a sumptuous Red Dao meal, we literally slept like a log that night.
Day 2:
We woke up to a beautiful morning with the sounds of resident rooster and pigs asking for their food. After breakfast, we decided to visit a nearby cave which was only a short distance away on foot from our guesthouse. Ta Phin Cave is about 3 meters wide, 5 meters high, and it has a pathway into the ground. Inside the cave, there are a lot of stalactites sparkling with various shapes such as fairies, pregnant women holding babies, crocodile, chicken wings, turtle head, fish, birthday cake etc. It was a nice quick adventure in the morning.
After this we began our long 8 km trek towards Ban Khoang Village where we had picnic lunch and got picked up by Zaazaa's husband for a drop back to Sapa Town. We eventually said our final goodbye to Zaazaa with a promise to return back soon in the nearby future.
About us
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We are Mayur, Gayatri and Om residing in sunny Singapore. Amongst us we have an Indian who grew up in India, a Singaporean ceylonese who spent decade of her life in Australia and lastly our son, a true born citizen of the mixes, half Indian, half ceylonese and very Singaporean.
Our videos mainly consist of mountain climbing trips, some solo journeys but mostly of our family of 3. We thrive with each others company on our road less travelled in our own unique style. We really love off the beaten kind of adventures, eating local food, meeting ethnic tribes, going back in time with some historical sites and simply getting lost. Being in corporate job for the daily survival, our dream here is to inspire people to explore this beautiful world and realise that there is more in life than just 9 to 5.
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