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Take a round of Ta Van village - explore a pristine corner of Sapa
- on Jan 18, 2019 By: LucyH
Coming to Sapa for the first time, many of you will choose Cat Cat village, the Stone Church, Silver waterfall, Cau May bridge or the legendary Fansipan Mount to be your first destinations in Sapa tour. They are great but if you want to give yourself a true authentic experience, it is likely that only simple villages with bold cultural identity of the ethnic people may be the things you have been looking for. And in those villages there is Ta Van - a beautiful and peaceful corner in Sapa - the cloudy town.
How to get to Ta Van Sapa village?
Ta Van village is located in Ta Van commune, Sapa district, Lao Cai province, about 8km to 12km from Sapa town center depending on the route you choose. For this distance, you must go by motorbike or car. However, to be able to feel and see the scenery of this land, motorbikes sounds more reasonable.
On the way to Ta Van village, you will go through Lao Chai - a place with a very beautiful nature of the mountains and forests and there is the famous ancient stone beach in Sapa. After leaving the two busiest streets in Sapa, Cau May Street and Muong Hoa Street, you just need to follow the Muong Hoa stream to reach Ta Van.
Entrance fee in Ta Van village Sapa
Almost all Sapa tourist destinations require entrance tickets including Ta Van. Ticket price for Ta Van Sapa in 2018 is 75.000 VND / adult.
However, the Ta Van people are quite friendly and friendly, in the absence of days they can let you visit for free.
Homestay Ta Van village
Possibly one day is not enough to explore Ta Van village to its fullest, you will need a few days and slowly immerse yourself in the life of the people here, you will feel all the interesting things that Ta Van can offer. There are also many simple and rustic homestays lay among the houses of the local people.
The rate for one night here only ranges from 50,000 VND (about $2) to 100,000 VND (about $4.25) / person depending on the room types. You should choose the homestay in Ta Van Giay village where there are more than 100 rooftops of the Giay people. From here you can see the Muong Hoa spring, and the life of the people here remains intact as it has been for hundred years.
What does it have in Ta Van Sapa?
Ta Van has the kind of rice fields you can not see where the start and the end are, the cottage walls of rustic land, the roads are tiny, covered by bushes of grasses. Yet when peace into one, this place suddenly has a strange attraction to those who is a fan of “mobilism”.
Ta Van village is home to the Mong and Red Dao people and Giay people. Instead of other tourist destinations, locals will get along with tourist business and tourists. However, Ta Van is different. Besides the homestay rental business, the life of the school is still normal, making friends with the cultivation of upland fields, and for them the tourists are like visitors, come over and go again.
If you have the opportunity to stay here for a long time, you will absorb and love the fresh air, the gentle life pace of the people here. The life of the Ta Van ethnic people is very simple, there are cultural traits that are very mysterious that you may not have heard of.
Wedding season:
The wedding season of Giay people is from October to February (Lunar Calendar), they never get married from March to July. The wedding has many sophisticated steps such as matchmaking, exacting wedding-presents (mainly alcohol to feast the guests on the wedding day and financially prepare for the bride). "Doan loi" ceremony is held on both sides. At this time, the couple were recognized as the children of the two families, considered to be husband and wife. After three years since this ceremony, if the groom's house cannot pick up the bride, the two sides are free to go with others,if one side "breaks the fence" before the three year term, he or she will be punished. The wedding ceremony is held in two families. The groom’s house come with two red cloths across each other. When the wedding ends, the bride’s house leave with a red stamp on their cheeks, along with the "punches" of the groom's house to never "forget" them.Funeral
The Giay conceive when there were dead people in the house, the childrenwould proceed to wash the body with grapefruit leaves, lime leaves and pots of warm water, and then changed new clothes for the deceased. The corpse of the dead is placed in the middle of the house, the corpse covered with white cloth, their face is covered with yellow paper, the mouth is closed with stone (taken from the sharpening stone) and the silver pieces cut from white silver coin. How many children and grandchildren they have sucked many stones and silver coins. This means that in order for the dead to meet their grandchildren, they will not open their mouth because if they do, the person they talk to will be sick. When the corpse was put in the middle of the house, the children and grandchildren will wear white funeral clothes, walk on their barefoot, leave their heads bare, and had to be vegetarian, lying and squatting on the ground until the deceased person is taken to burial.
Holidays:
In a year, at Ta Van Giay, there were many Tet celebrations that were held according to the Lunar calendar such as: January Tet; Tet in July; Tet in March 3rd, April 4th; May full moon; August full moon; New Rice in September; October - sticky cake making to end the season; November to welcome the winter solstice. During the Lunar New Year, from January 10 onwards, the authorities discussed with the old people about the first day to start working on the fields. People sent an elderly person to preside over, then buy one pig, 1 pair of chicken, 5 pounds of glutinous rice, 5 liters of wine, 1 pound of fresh fish, 5 eggs and incense to make sacrificial offerings.
The experiences that you cannot ignore when coming to Ta Van village
- Wandering on narrow dirt roads next to the fragran terraced rice fieldst.
- Watching ethnic children drowned in mud and mud, riding buffaloes to the fields.
- Coming to Ta Van Giay village - the oldest village in Ta Van, neatly located in the territory of Hoang Lien National Park. Here you will really be immersed in nature, listening to the sound of the stream of murmuring streams, the sound of wild birds fluttering from far away, the sound of forest leaves rustling in the wind. And more than everything is to explore the traditional culture of Giay ethnic people.
- Experience life in the cottage walls of Ta Van people. The houses nestled on the hillside seemingly to be fragile but have existed for nearly a hundred years. Try drinking a few cups of wine, chatting with them to better understand the daily life of those lovely people.
After days of hard work in your bustling town, reward yourself with trips to areas like Ta Van village. To immerse yourself in the peaceful space of mountains and forests.Related articles:
Top 10 what to do in Sapa
Visit Sapa from A to Z
Conquering the rooftop of Indochina – Fansipan Vietnam
Stop by Ta Phin – Sapa to explore the Red Dao culture
Ethnic groups in Sapa Vietnam
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