- Level of Difficulty: HARD
- Trekking: sealed road; local paths, rice terraces
- Ethnic Minorities: Zay, Red Dao, Black H’mong, Tay
This is a long and demanding trek with a lot more off-road trekking. For this reason, it can only be done when weather conditions are good and it demands a certain level of visiting a wide variety of ethnic minority villages. The scenery is beauti – ful and at Ban Ho Village there is the opportunity to meet people of the Tay minority.
Our trek starts with a trip by car to the Zay village of Ta Van, the starting point of the trek. This is the only village in the Sapa area where the Zay people live. We spend time looking around the village. We continue along local paths and through rice terraces and scattered settlements to the Red Dao village of Giang Ta Chai. Here, we meet the Red Dao minority with their colourful traditional dress and stop for our picnic lunch.
After lunch, we trek through a wilder and more uncultivated area to the Tay and Black H’mong village of Seo Trung Ho. We then trek further down the valley to the Tay village of Ban Ho. In good weather, we can walk to the river where it’s possible to swim. Finally, we take a car directly from Ban Ho back to Sapa5. [SU PAN] – BAN HO – THANH PU (One day)of physical fitness. It takes the traveler further down the Muong Hoa Valley.