Xin Cheng Market

On every Wednesdays, Xin Cheng Market offers the opportunity to discover a colorful gathering point of many local minorities such as the Flower Hmong, Tay or Giay. On the way to the market along the Chinese border, you will enjoy amazing mountain scenery, charming rivers and terraced rice fields. People from the area meet at the market to exchange tobacco, clothes, fruits, horses, buffaloes and many other local products. Xin Cheng is also a social gathering point for the villagers to meet and exchange the latest news. On the way back to Sapa, you will pass by the Hmong King Palace which was built in the early 20th century during the French colonial era. This tour departs early in the morning from Sapa or Lao Cai and finish around 4pm

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Lung Khau Nhin Market - Thursday

Taking place every Thursday, Lung Khau Nhin Market is a small market hiding itself amongst the mountains and forests of the far north Vietnam about 10 km from the border with China. Although not being so big or famous among visitors as Coc Ly and Can Cau, Lung Khau Nhin market, be side a normal shopping place, play an important role to spiritual life of local ethnic peoples Flower H’mong, Black Zao, Zay, and especially to those who come from very small ethnic groups such as Pa Zi, Tou Zi, Tou Lao who live in small and isolated villages around this corner of the country, come for meeting, socializing... From Lao Cai: 65Km and takes nearly 2 hours by road; From Sapa: 102km and takes about 3 hours by road

Source:www.traveltosapa.com

Xa pho Ethnic Minority

History: The Giay immigrated from China 200 years ago. They are strongly influenced by Chinese culture. Language: The Giay people speak a language of Tay - Thai group. They do not have their own writing. Costume: Like the Tay minority, the Giay women dress in simple clothes. They wear a five panel blouse split at the sides and buttoned on the right with dark indigo trousers. The blouses are different colors depending on the age - old women usually wear the darker shades. Women wrap their hair around their head and fix it in place with red threads. Giay, like other minorities, have adopted elements of Viet and Western clothing. Social organisation: Before the Revolution of August, 1945, the Giay society was divided into different classes. The upper class was composed of administration officials who owned the land. They paid soldiers and housekeepers to take care of weddings and funerals. Farmers working on their land had to pay taxes as well as doing the hard labour. Birth: Pregnant women have to avoid many things - wood is not burned from the top to the bottom to avoid difficulties when giving birth, and they are not allowed to attend funerals or visit a place for worshiping for fear of losing their spirit. When it is time to give birth the pregnant woman makes offerings to the Mother spirit. When the baby is one month old, they make offerings to the ancestors. At the same time they give the child a name and establish his or her horoscope, which will be used later when it is time to choose a partner for the marriage, and the right time to be put in a coffin when he or she dies. Marriage: The procedure for marriage is based strongly on Chinese traditions. A go-between is very important as they help propose the marriage to a potential bride.  Once this has happened, the groom s family gives the bride a necklace and a bracelet to show their intentions - a kind of engagement.  For the wedding, the groom s family must offer the bride s family food and money, and give close relatives a chicken, a duck and a silver coin.  Once married, the bride is carried to her new house on the groom s back, as if she walks her spirit will find its way back to her parents. Funeral: Giay people believe that if a funeral is well organized, the dead will go happily to heaven with their ancestors. If not, the dead will be forced to live in hell or become animals.  In a rich family, the funeral can last from five to seven days with extra rituals such as running along the river to lead the spirit on a procession. The children must mourn their parent s death for one year. Beliefs: The Giay altar is located in the middle of the house. There are three incense bowls set from the left to the right to worship the Kitchen God, Heaven and Earth, and the family ancestor. If the master of the house is a son-in-law who wants to worship his real parents, he must set up a fourth incense bowl to the far left. If a family has no altar for the Mother spirit, they set a fifth incense bowl to the right. Some families set up a small alter beside the big one to worship their parents-in-law.
Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Sapa History

The Sa Pa plateau was identified in 1901 during the first topographic plotting of the area. A military post was built in 1903. In 1906 the first westerner to settle in Cha Pa, named Mr. Miéville, worked with the department of agriculture. The number of French permanent civilian residents was never very high, only twenty odd people in 1942, plus a small colony of English-speaking protestants of unknown origin. Originally, Cha Pa was created for medical purposes: the bracing climate of Cha Pa was beneficial to westerners exhausted by a long stay in Vietnam, especially «people with chlorosis, post-infectious anaemia, previous history of malaria, and a whole array of neurotics: people with neurasthenia, phobia, overworked people or hypochondriac women». Certain diseases, such as «chronic bronchitis with associated emphysema or asthma and certain skin diseases» could also be cured. The military sanatorium, completed in 1913, was built on the hill on which the municipal cistern and its pumping station now stand. As of 1914, the main purpose of the civil authorities was to create in Tonkin a veritable summer capital in the mountains. In the summer of 1914, the offices of all the local services were moved from Hanoi to Cha Pa. The works had started in 1912, the tourist office was created in 1917 and in 1925, there were already 80 kilometres of footpaths offering a great variety of hiking trips. The forestry service planted evergreens, some of which are still standing today. In 1922 the building of the most sumptuous hotel in the station, the Résidence du Tonkin started on «governor’s hill». In 1909, thanks to Miéville, the « Sapa Hotel » was inaugurated to the east of the station on the road to Lao Cai, while the «Fan Si Pan» hotel was only built in 1924. The « Métropole », a luxury hotel with 50 rooms and ten suites sited at the foot of the Ham Rong on the bank of the lake, was inaugurated in 1932. The «Hôtel du Centre», a more modest establishment, was built in1937. The first villas were built in 1918 by the Hong Hai Coal Board and by the Haïphong cement factory (at the place where the Victoria Hotel now stands). A hundred or so other villas were built between 1920 and 1940 on neighbouring land given for free, some specimens of which can still be seen. In the lower area are located the private villas, administrative buildings and hotels. In the higher area, one finds the big military sanatorium and the governor ‘s summer palace. The church was built in 1934, followed by a protestant temple sitting on the hill overlooking the road to Cat Cat. By the end of the 1930s, Cha Pa had reached its peak and over a thousand colonials went there to rest and have fun. Until the mid-40s, Cha Pa was to remain the fashionable mountain resort of the Hanoi colonial society. In order to meet the increasing demand for food, the local authorities created agricultural stations. The aim of these stations was to feed the summer visitors and « put an end to the typical problem of hotels where bread is wanting because a party of six had the unfortunate idea of turning up without sending a telegram two days earlier ». Vietnamese people launched into agricultural production, providing the town with « all sorts of foods »... The Taphin estate produced pork, chicken, vegetables, fresh fruit, jam, milk, potatoes, cheese and… wine. Trade was flourishing in the hands of Chinese people and Vietnamese from the delta area. The growth of Cha Pa was an incentive to modernisation and between 1924 and 1927 the public authorities had it equipped with running water, a sewage system and an electricity network supplied by a power station built on the Cat Cat waterfall, whose renovated buildings are still in operation, as well as a telegraph and telephone network. In 1942, untypically for such a small place, a complete town plan of Sa Pa was drawn, which included over 400 plots of building land. In February 1947, the Viet Minh attacked Cha Pa and destroyed the military installations and part of the hotels (among which the Métropole) as well as villas. In March, the Foreign Legion occupied Cha Pa again until October 1949 when the French troops left the region for good. In March 1952, the French headquarters ordered the air force to bomb the town. The Governor’s Palace, the sanatorium complex, public buildings and most of the villas were destroyed. The Vietnamese population fled the ruined town and did not return until the early sixties. Not until the early 1990s did Sa Pa start developing again.

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

History of the Taphin Monastery

History of the TA PHIN monastery At the end of 1941, twelve nuns belonging to a congregation of devout Reformed Cistercians, « whose only purpose was prayer and penitence», were thrown out of the monastery of Our Lady of the Angels in Hakodaté (Japan). Eight of them as well as the prior wished to stay in Asia. On January 8th, 1942, the French ambassador in Japan wrote to the bishop of Hung-Hoa, Mgr. Vandaele, and solicited that they be welcomed on «missionary ground». On February 13th, 1942, for the token rent of one piastre per year, the Superior Resident granted a long-term lease over « the estate of the old fruit-growing station of Ta Phing (44 hectares of buildings and lands), uncultivated or fallow land ». On June 11th, 1942, the sisters arrived at Lao Kay railway station and were installed in a wooden building «in poor condition», «each had only the clothes she was wearing, and 200 yens». On June 19th, the French Resident in Lao Kay gave them « 8 milk cows, 9 calves, 2 oxen, 2 heifers, 1 bull, and farming implements » The aim was to start « large-scale raising of pigs and chickens» and to « usefully complement the dairy products, milk, butter and cheese produced by the Chapa station in insufficient quantity for the number of summer visitors both civil and military ». The sisters also « set about to grow black wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat… » and develop « fruit trees, potatoes, vegetables and vineyards ». As of September 1942, the sisters were producing peach, apple and other fruit jams and had difficulties satisfying « the numerous orders for butter and cheese of the Port Salut type coming from Hanoi ». As of August 1942, legionnaires were supervising the Annamite workers digging a platform on which the new monastery was to be built. The foundation stone was lain on October 8th, 1942 in the presence of the Superior Resident, and a parchment was deposited in a cavity made in the south-east corner-stone of «Our Lady of Peace Monastery». In fact, only the first phase of the work was to be completed, and the rest of the convent, which was supposed to welcome « a hundred sisters, lay sisters and novices » was never built. Nor were the planned guest quarters and chaplaincy. Only the farmhouse buildings were ever built. During the 1947 unrest, the sisters hurriedly fled to Hanoi and the monastery was burned down.

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

What is Tet?

The passage from one period to the next may cause climatic disturbances (heat, rain, mist) that must be exorcised by ritual sacrifices and festivities

Tet What is Tet?"Tet" is a word of the China origin and a phonetic transcription of "Tiet", a Sino-Vietnamese term which means "the joint of a bamboo stem" and, in a wider sense, the "beginning" of a meteorological period of the year." The passage from one period to the next may cause climatic disturbances (heat, rain, mist) that must be exorcised by ritual sacrifices and festivities. Thus, there are many Tet"s throughout the year (Mid-Autumn Tet, Cold Food Tet, etc.). The most important of all is "Tet Ca" ("Big Tet" or simply "Tet"), which marks the Lunar New Year. Tet occurs somewhere in the last ten days of January or the first twenty day of February, nearly halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox. Although the Lunar New Year is observed throughout East Asia, each country celebrates Tet in its own way in conformity with it own national psyche and cultural conditions. For the Vietnamese people, Tet is like a combination of Christmas, Western New Year"s Day, Easter, American Thanksgiving, and everyone"s birthday. It is festival of communion. Purity, renewal, and universal peace. How is the Vietnamese zodiac calculated? The calendar in Vietnam"s ancient agricultural society was based on the regularly changing phases of the moon. Most Vietnamese, even city dwellers and overseas Vietnamese, have a lunar calendar in their homes to consult for the dates of festival and auspicious days. The date of the New Year varies from year to year, because it is based on the on the lunar calendar. The equinoxes and solstices that mark the beginning of the European seasons are taken as the midpoint by the Asian calendar, with the result that each Vietnamese season begins six weeks earlier than its European counterpart. Each year is "sponsored" sequentially by one of twelve animals of the Vietnamese zodiac: the Rat comes first, and then the Ox or Buffalo, followed in order by the Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Goat or Ram, Money, Cock, Dog, and last of all, the Pig. Of these animals, one is mythical (the dragon), and four ( rat, tiger, snake, and monkey) are wild, shunning contact with humans. Seven are domesticated. Every twelve year, the sponsorship reverts to the same animal. For example, the years 1976, 1988, 2000, and 2012 are Dragon Year. In addition, the Vietnamese use another set of ten heavenly or celestial signs, usually called "stems". Combining the ten heavenly stems with the twelve earthly animals results in a sixty-year cycle, similar to the Western century of one hundred year. The celestial "stem" attached to the zodiac animal provides a modifying influence on the characteristics of the animal. For example, the year of the dog sign can be "modified" by five of the ten different associated "stems". Each year has import for humans who have converging or diverging signs. The following examples are given in the order that they occur in the cycle. Each of the twelve animals also "sponsors" a two-hour period of time of the day. What is your character if you are a Rat? A Rat year prophesies a year of chaos. Rat people are charming and attractive to the opposite sex and have a fear of light and noise. They are active and dynamic but can be fussy a bout little things. Rat can have a positive side since rats are sign there is grain in the storage bins; thus, rats represent a bountiful harvest. Because the rat is a nocturnal animal and can be heard scurrying about at midnight, the period of time between 11 PM, and 1 A.M are the Hours of the Rat. What is your character if you are a Buffalo? The Buffalo symbolizes industriousness and patience. Its year is one of slow, steady progress, patient strength, traits suitable for a scientist. The buffalo is a traditional symbol of spring and agriculture because of its association with the plow and its pleasure wallowing in the mud. People of this year are thought to possess the characteristics of that animal: steadiness, placidity, but stubbornness when crossed. The Buffalo Hours are from 1 to 3 A.M. When buffalo ear in preparation for the day"s farm work. What is your character if you are a Tiger? Tigers are quick to anger and indecisive, but they can be flexible and accommodate their personalities to suit circumstances. The tiger is king of the jungle and, nocturnal, evokes images of darkness and stormy weather. The period from 3 to 5 A.M is the of the Tiger, when the tiger returns to his lair after prowling at night. A woman born in a Tiger Year will be unhappy in marriage, but a man will often be talented and suited for high position. What is your character if you are a Cat? Cats are smooth talkers, talented, and ambitious and will succeed in studies. They are in conflict with rats. A Cat person has a supple mind and patient personality and is one who knows how to wait for favorable conditions before taking action. Cat Hours are between 5 and 7 A.M. when cats begin their prowling? What is your character if you are a Dragon? Unlike the dragon of the West, the Dragon in Asia mythology can be protective and is a symbol of the male (yang) principal of the universe and of royal authority. The Dragon liver in all the elements: under the water, on the ground, and in the air. The Dragon is a water sign and a propitious sign for agriculture. Dragon is sincere, energetic but short-tempered and stubborn. They are symbols of power, wealth, prosperity, and royal power. There is a saying, "In the Year of the Dragon and of the Snake, everyone keeps food for him or herself". Famine is apt to appear in these years. The Dragon Hours are between 7 and 9 A.M. What is your character if you are a Snake? Snake speak little but have tremendous wisdom. They are associated with the dap earth. Snakes symbolism the eternal revolution of the ages and the succession, dissolution, and regeneration of humanity. Snake people are considered calm, gentle, profound, and compassionate and persistent. The snake Hours are from 9 to 11 A.M. What is your character if you are a Horse? Horse people are smooth tellers and given to compliments and generosity; therefore, they are popular, but they rarely listen to advice. The horse"s propensity to kick evokes images of a quick-tempered personality. The horse"s speed leads it to be compared with the sun, which traverses the earth daily; in legends, the sun is associated with fiery steeds. The horse is invested with purity, nobility, strength, and its friendship with humans. Noontime, when the sun is highest, is the Horse Hours. What is your character if you are a Goat? Goat people are calm and shy, unassertive and self-effacing. They are clunsy in speech so they make poor salespersons, but thay are compassionate regarding the less fortunate and tend to help others. They are often taken advantage of because of their natural kindness and timidity. The Goat Hours are between 1 and 3 P.M. What is your character if you are a Monkey? The Monkey is an erratic genius. Monkeys are clever and skillful when making financial deals. They are cheerful, skillful, curious, and inventive, but they many drive people away by talking too much and begin contemptuous of others. Their weakness lies in their tendency to be erratic and inconsistent. The time between 3 and 5P.M. are the Monkey Hours. What is your character if you are a Rooster? The Rooster Year represents a period of hard work and activity since the hen and rooster are busy from morning to night. The Rooster"s comb is a mark of high intelligence and of a literary spirit, but an excess of these traits can lead to mental illness. People born in this year are considered profound thinkers. At the same time, the rooster is a symbol of protection against fire. For that season, people often hang pictures of a red rooster in their houses. People born in this year earn their living from small business, which they practice with diligence like a "chicken scratching the soil for worms". Crowing rooster drive ghosts away at sunrise. A white rooster is sometimes placed on the coffin of funeral processions to clear the way of demons. The rooster controls the hours between 5and 7 P.M. What is your character if you are a Dog? The Year of the Dog indicates future prosperity. The Dog guards against intruders the world over. Pairs of stone or ceramic dogs guard each side of the entrance to village and temples. The Dog Year will be secure and protected. The Hour of the Dog is 7 to 9 P.M, when people of rural Viet Nam have gone to bed and leave the dog to keep watch. What is your character if you are a Pig? The Pig symbolizes the wealth of the forest since the boar maintains its lair in the woods. Boar people are chivalrous and gallant, honest, courageous, studious, and well-informed but also headstrong, short-tempered, and impulsive. The Hour of the Pig is between 9 and 11 P.M. What is the origin of the Banh Chung and Banh Day? After he had successfully completed the war against the Yin(1600-1100 B.C) aggressors and after peace had been restored in the four corners of his kingdom King Hung the Sixth decided to relinquish his throne and entrust one of his twenty-two sons with the care of the kingdom"s affairs. One day, he assembles the twenty-two princes and said to them: "Go through the world far and wide and bring back to me recipes and materials for dishes that me palate does do not know and would relish. The one who comes back with the best recipe shall become heir to my throne. There ensued a flurry among the princes clad in their splendid garments. Followed by numerous escorts, twenty-one of them set out upon their journey. Some made for the far and immense southern seas of deep blue waters, the waves of which splashed yellow and blue sparks on moonlit nights. There, lived fish of all kinds and tortoises with yellow-flowered, red-brown shells. Some sons went north into the thick forests where centuries-old trees grew with trunks so big it took three men with outstretched arms to embrace them. There, the forests teemed with diverse game and fowl. Other sons scoured the wide and densely populated deltas, with their great variety of fowl and animals. Their minds contrived a host of delicious dishes. Full of excitement and anticipation and assisted by their numerous servants, the princes undertook a careful investigation: every one of them hoped the gem-studded gold crown would soon adorn his head. Only one prince did not leave the Royal Palace. This was Lang Lieu, the sixteenth in rank. His mother had died in the prime of her beauty and youth, and he had grown up in loneliness. Except for the care givens him by his few servants, he was not like his half-brothers, who"s grow up in the warmth of maternal love and has a large retinue. There no one to choose brocade for his clothes and to oversee the attendants in his service. Alone and without could find what the king asked. And so this son stayed at the palace, pondering his plight in loneliness day and night. One night, a spirit appeared to him a dream and said: "Be aware that without rice, humanity cannot cubist. Take some glutinous rice, some beans and some pork, both fatty and lean. Pick some dong leaves and white bamboo splints to make thin, flexible tape. Soak the rice with clear water and boil a part of it, and smoke the leaves. Cook the beans and the pork. When the rice is done, pound it into a dome-shaped plain cake, banh day, and thus give it the appearance of the sky. Wrap the rest of the rice with a stuffing of bean paste and some bits of lard and lean pork in the dong leaves. Bind it tightly and cave it a square shape, the shape of the earth. Stew it for a day to make Banh Chung. The suffing rejects what is inside the earth"s crust. Give these to your father the king, and you will ascend the throne". After the apricot trees had blossomed one, the half-brothers of the lonely prince returned with their weary escorts. The son"s garments were worn-out and dust-covered, but each of them was filled with anticipation and hope. With his own hands, each son at once prepared a dish of the most unusual kind, using the materials he had brought back and according to the recipe he has learned. Twenty - one times, ride delicious dishes were served to the king. But twenty-one times, the king shook his head. Then he asked for Lang Lieu, who brought him a white dome-shaped cake a steaming square cake wrapped in smoked dong leaves and bound with flexible bamboo tape. The prince unwrapped the leaves and uncovered a green, sticky, soft cake, which he cut into wedges with the bamboo tape that bound the leaves. The inside of the cake appeared white and yellowish-green studded with opaque pieces of lard brown bits of bean. The king picked up a lump and put it is his mouth. A feeling of unusual velvety softness pervaded his palate and stimulated a craving for more. He ate lump after finished the whole cake. Then he ate the dome-shaped cake. The plain and simple taste of which also filled him with unusual delight. He asked his son: "Your mother is dead, and you have few servants. How did you come to know the recipe and materials of these cakes?" The son told the king that a spirit had appeared to him in a dream, and ho told the king what the heavenly spirit had said. King hung the Sixth deemed the story most remarkable and in a voice ringing with deep affection said: "I declare you heir to my throne. Tomorrow, you shall be crowned". King Hung decided they the dome -shaped cake should be name "banh day" (plain cake) and the square one should be called "banh Chung" (atewed cake). Sine then, Banh day is make for festivals or ceremonies, and Banh Chung has been the cake made in the twelfth moon as a token of thankfulness to the good earth, which has fed people throughout the year. Why is a branch of beach blossoms in the home? At the approach of Tet, every Vietnamese home is adorned with a branch of peach blossoms. If the time is properly reckoned, a peach branch, slightly burned at the end put in a vase of fresh water, will blossom exactly on the morning of the first day of the New Year. A horticultural marvel, you may think. True enough, but remember that in olden days, the peach branch was used as charm: it could ward off evil spirits that prowled by night. Legend has it that in the distant past, a peach tree of fantastic size grew on the slopes a mountain in China. It"s a abundant folia spread for hundreds of leagues around. Two powerful genii lived in it and few on the flesh of devils and other evils spirits. Naturally, the late fled, and the mountain dwellers sleep in peace without fear of having their dreams disturbed. But the end of every year, the genii had to go to Heaven to report to the Celestial Lord. Fearing that the evil spirits would do them harm in the genii"s absence, the inhabitants of this mountain cut a branch of the magic peach tree to decorate their ancestral altars. Some caution people went even further: They wrote the genii"s name or sketched their likenesses on a strip of red paper, which they attached on the peach branch. Very few devils dared come near. That is how the use of peach braches spread and reached Vietnam, where, for centuries, local inhabitants have rejoiced in Tet under the protection of these spring flowers. Why is peach blossoms so popular at Tet? Many villages in the suburbs of Ha Noi specialize in growing peach trees. When Tet draws near, each household in the capital city makes a point of procuring at least a small branch of peach flowers. Petals are single or double according to the variety, and their colors range from a delicate pink to carmine red. Connoisseurs like double petals and tender rosy tones, but popular preference goes to more vided tints. Peach blossoms owe their popularity to reasons that vary according to individual age and taste. Most people like them because of the beauty of their slender petals, but some see a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in the vividness of their colors. The order generation believes in the power of peach blossoms to repel evil. Scholars of classical Chinna culture call them " flowers of happiness", in remembrance of the legendary adventures of two young students of ancient times, Liu Huang and Ruan Zhao, who wandered along a river bordered with blossoming peach trees and, at the end, found themselves in a fairyland. Others see a symbol of faithfulness, recalling the brothers-in-arms Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, who swore fidelity to one Three Kingdoms in ancient China. The three remained true to their ouch until the end of their lives. Why do people pick a branch of greenery just after midnight on New Year"s Eve? There was once a blessed land where fairies came when they felt homesick for stay on earth. They could be seen dancing or chatting. Wonderful trees grew wherever they left a footprint or hand sprint. These trees lost all their laves on the eve of Tet and adorned themselves with new foliage on the morning of New Year"s Day. It was as though the trees were young women wearing new dresses in honor of Tet. To ensure a happy new year, the local people picked fresh branches to decorate their thresholds. The time of picking varied from between the eve of Tet and the dawn on the first day of the New Year. But the most auspicious times was assuredly the stroke of midnight, for it marked the division between the two lunar years and the beginning of the leave"s return. Picking a budding branch on the stroke of midnight on the night of Tet will ensure a happy New Year. Why do people avoid sweeping their house with a broom for the first three days of the New Year? A legend which no longer fits in win present-day requirements is the story of casting aside the broom during the first three days of the New Year. The story goes that in days gone by, a trader met a poorly dressed little girl while he was crossing Dongting Lake. Struck with pity, he adopted her. And from that day on had a amazing success in the most darling business deals. But one Tet, the little girl broke a valuable vase. To escape a beating, she hid in the refuse heap at the back of the house. The trader, who had grown cruel as he became rich, searched through the rubbish heap with a big broom. The heap as then pushed to the edge of a pond, but the girl was not found. The trader soon became poor: he has swept the Goddess of Fortune out of his house. Nowadays, hygiene prevail over folklore, but three are still old women in the trading streets of Ha Noi, who fear a warning from the Department of Health but who are even more afraid of brooms rest on the first day and sometimes even on the first three days of the year, just as they did in ancient time, when poets and writes had the gift of seeing divinities in human form walking on earth. Lunar New Year 2010"s activities in Sapa Time: From February the 15th 2010 to February the 16th 2010 (January 2nd to January 3rd Lunar calendar). Place: At the square of Sapa Center. Contents: Folk games (Lunar New Year pole, playing seesaw, playing at swing, and playing chess). Sport competitions: Time: From February the 17th to February the 19th 2010 (January 4th to January 6th Lunar calendar). Place: Tennis court, Tax stadium. Contents: Sports; Tennis, badminton, table tennis. Activities: projecting film in the villages, playing folk games. Planting trees activities in T?t Festival - 2010 Time: 9h00, February the 19th 2010 (January the 6th 2010 lunar calendar). Place: Sapa center. "Congratulating Vietnamese Party - Happy Lunar New Year - 2010" Activities in Sapa District: Time: From January the 29th to February the 23rd 2010 Place: Ban Phung, Thanh Kim, Su Pan, Hau Thao, TaVan, Ta Giang Phinh, Ban Khoang, Suoi Thau Commune. Content: Each commune projects film and propagates cultural information twice. Folk culture Festival in the villages: Thanh Phu Xoe Dance Festival: Time: 9h00, February the 18th 2010 (January the 05th 2010 lunar calendar). Place: Thanh Phu commune center. Content: Praying for bumper crop of Tay group, Music performance and Folk games. B?n H? Then Singing Festival: Time: 9h00, February the 19th 2010 (January the 06th 2010 lunar calendar) Place: B?n H? commune center. Content: Praying for bumper crop of Tay group, Music performance and Folk games. San Xa Ho/ Gau Tao Festival: Time: February the 20th 2010 (January the 07th 2010 lunar calendar). Place: San XA Ho commune center. Content: Gau Tao Worship, Music performance and folk games of Black Hmong people. T? Phìn Giao duyen singing Festival: Time: February the 21st 2010 (January the 08th 2010 lunar calendar). Place: T? Phìn commune center. Content: Greeting New Year, Giao duyen singing Festival of Red Dao group. T? Van Traditional Down to field Festival: Time: February the 23rd 2010 (January the 10th 2010 lunar calendar). Place: T? Van commune center. Content: Praying for bumper crop of Day people, Music performance and folk games of Day people. Participating Thu?ng temple activities in Lào Cai city: Time: From the 27th to the 28th of February 2010 (From the 14th to the 15th of January 2010 lunar calendar). Place: Thu?ng temple in Lào Cai city. Content: Taking part in incensing in January the 14th afternoon at Thu?ng Temple. On January the 15th attending some activities at turning back to origin festival celebrated in Lao Cai City.

Source: www.traveltosapa.com

Sapa Restaurants , Gerbera Restaurant

GERBERA RESTAURANT

Address: No. 31, Cau May Road, Sapa town, Lao Cai, Vietnam
Tel: (84-20) 871 064 ; Fax: (84-20) 871 064
Website: http://www.sapatravelguide.com/nha-hang-gerbera.htm

Welcome to Sapa! Welcome to Restaurant Gerbera! Restaurant Gerbera is a fine dining restaurant with Vietnamese and international cuisines. An excellent and wide choice of domestic and international wines is available. With its classical style and casually friendly atmosphere, Restaurant Gerberca welcomes you for breakfast or pre- and apres theatre dinner. Our restaurant was built with Sapa’s bamboo, it combines the traditional and modern architecture in an warm and comfortable atmosphere.

From Restaurant Gerbera, you can see the whole view of Sapa town in a magic beauty, and further is the Hoang Lien Son range with the highest peak in Vietnam and in Indochina, Fansipan.

If you want to see some of the traditional people who live in the area, want to know which excursions one can do from here, and want to see some nice pictures of the landscapes in the region, we can book a tour or hire vehicles for you.

Breakfast

Our restaurant serves some special dishes for breakfast including Vietnamese breakfast, Asian and European breakfast, and Pancake.

Starter

Customers can start with Soup, Salad, Spring Roll or Potato and Sweet Potato.

Main Course

Various kinds of special dishes are available for customers to choose namely Sapa chicken (with steamed rice), Sapa duck (with steamed rice), Sapa goose, Sapa rabbit (with steamed rice), Sapa wild pork (with steamed rice), Sapa pork (with steamed rice), Venison (with steamed rice), Sapa beef (with steamed rice), Shrimp (with steamed rice), Squid (with steamed rice), Sapa fish (with steamed rice), Curry (with steamed rice), Tofu, Sapa vegetable, Green bean sprout, Bamboo person shoot, Rice, Noodle, Spaghetti, Pasta, Hamburger, Special food, and Hotpot.

Dessert

Customers can enjoy some kinds of fruits and cakes

Source: www.sapatravelguide.com