Special "Hmong Voices"

‘Hmong Voices’ is a project that ‘gives voice’ or a space for Hmong elders and craftspeople in Sa Pa District.

They talk about their understandings of local history and their lives, and explain different traditional crafts.

The project is also a way for younger Hmong men and women working as trekking guides at Sapa to learn more about their heritage, by being a core part of the project.

Listen to Hmong Oral Histories

Watch Videos of Hmong Traditional Crafts

 The people and funding behind the project

The funding for this came from the National Geographic US Legacy Fund (2013-2014), through a grant designed by Prof Sarah Turner, Department of Geography, McGill University, Canada. She had a wonderful research assistant, former graduate student Sarah Delisle working with the Sapa  Hmong trekking guides in Sa Pa. Our thanks to the whole Sapa O’Chau gang, especially the guides, Sapa  founder Ms Shu Tan, and administrative and logistics whiz Ms Dung Ha.

If you’d like to read some academic articles about Hmong and other ethnic minorities and their livelihoods in the region, borderland trade, and food security issues, please check out the ‘Minorities in the Southeast Asian Massif Research Lab’.

Experience Sapa Bac Ha Market at Sun

Description/Itinerary

Sapa or Lao Cai —> Bac Ha —> Ban Pho —> Sapa or Lao Cai

Bac Ha Market is held every Sunday and is the biggest minority peoples market in Northwest Vietnam. Alive with the bright colours and extravagant costumes of the local people, here you will meet Flower Hmong (Red Hmong), Black Dao, Tay, Nung, La Chi, Phu La and other minority groups who come from far and wide to buy and sell a wide variety of goods and livestock, to exchange news and to renew friendships. In the past the market was a centre for trading horses but now that motorbikes have replaced them it is more common to see buffalo, cows, goats, fish and other livestock being traded. The market opens at around 7.30am and closes mid-afternoon, so an early start is advisable. A typical itinerary for a day at Bac Ha would include:

• Drive to Bac Ha (110km / 2.5 hours from Sapa, or 72km / 1.5 hours from Lao Cai).
• Take time to wander around the market, enjoy the atmosphere and have fun trying out your trading skills with the friendly local people.
• Have lunch in a local restaurant where a variety of foods are available for your delectation and delight. You can even try the traditional local lunch of Thang Co (horse stew) and strong corn wine!
• After lunch you will be driven to Ban Pho village where you can take a short walk around the village where Flower Hmong, Tay and Nung minorities live.
• Drive back to Lao Cai or Sapa.

Of course we are more than happy to try and arrange an itinerary which is tailored specifically for your needs.  For example, you may wish to visit Can Cau Market on Saturday, have a homestay with local people on Saturday night and then attend Bac Ha Market early on the Sunday morning?  Do feel free to contact us to 

Our homestays are authentic homes owned by local people of the villages.

sapa travel homestays 

Sapa O'Chau homestays allow you to experience the local culture of Sapa and support the local community. Sapa O'Chau helped some of the ethnic minority families to convert their home into a homestay. Thus you will get an authentic experience of living with the ethnic minority families. To provide some creature comforts for our guests, our homestays are fitted with modern western toilets, hot showers and mattresses.

In winter, you will experience how the locals huddle around the stove fire to keep warm. Your hosts may offer you rice wine, if you are of legal age, to help you keep warm. To keep warm in bed at night, you may ask for more blankets. The locals do not have the luxury of an electric blanket or radiator to warm their house. The village electricity cannot support these high electricity demand items.

When you trek for more than a day with Sapa O'Chau, homestays are included in the package. Learn more about our homestays below.

Ms Thao Thi May

1. Hang Lao Chai hamlet - Lao Chai Village
2. Sapa O'Chau's first Homestay Initiative. Set up in 2009, Ms. Thao Thi May's homestay was the first example of a homestay run by the Black Hmong minority people in Vietnam.
3. Widowed at an early age and with three small children, Ms. Thao Thi May has been able to support herself and her family through the income she earns from this homestay. Ms. May is energetic, very friendly, speaks good English and will make sure your stay with her is memorable and comfortable.
4. Her homestay sleeps up to 10 people.