Cultural villages in Sapa

Cat Cat village:

Located 2 km from Sapa Townlet, Sapa District, Cat Cat is the village of H'Mong ethnic groups. There remain heaps of unique customs and practices of people here, one of which is the brocade weaving craft. After being woven, pieces of brocades featuring beautiful designs will be dyed and embroidered. And then brocade fabrics are polished by rolling with a round section of wood covered with wax in order to keep their colors durable. Besides, residents here are skilled at manipulating gold and silver jewelry which is graceful and can be purchased in the village and in other travel places in Sapa.Travel to Sapa

Cultural villages in Sapa 

H'Mong ethnic people still maintain their traditional custom of "pulling wife" which has made particular impressions on many tourists. When a man falls in love with a girl in the village, he can ask his friends to unexpectedly lure that girl into his house and keep her there for 3 days. After these days, the girl can either agree to become his wife or freely go home if she doesn't like him. In case she agrees, an wedding which usually happens from two to seven days will be officially held.

The old-age Cat Cat village with its special culture has drawn many visitors to come and discover.

Ta Phin village:

Ta Phin village can be reached by thirty minute drive North of Sapa. It is the living place of the Red Dao and Black Hmong people.

In addition to luscious scenery and distinctive culture, Ta Phin village is especially well known for its famous brocade. Main brocade products created by the skillful hand of women here are backpacks, handbags, handkerchiefs, wallets, overcoats, etc, all of which are decorated with sophisticated colorful designs of flowers, birds. As for ethnic people, brocade is not only for beautifying but for symbolizing love.

Ta Phin village's brocade has become the indispensable gift for tourists once coming here. Impressive designs on those products showing ethnic groups' special culture helps distinguish them from brocade in other places and become the distinctive feature attracting visitors everywhere.

Hanoi & Sapa Homestay 6 days

Sin Chai village:

Sin Chai village, located at the foot of Fansipan Mountain, is 30km trekking from Sapa town. It is the village of the Dao ethnic people.

Visiting the village will be a terrific chance for tourists to enjoy stunning landscapes as well as discover culture of residents. What makes this community village special lies in local people who will take the time to teach textile weaving and dying and to explain names and function of the local flora. There are also many interesting activities relating to traditional sports, tree planting for visitors to take part in.

If you travelled to Sapa, trekking to such cultural villages as Cat Cat village, Ta Phin village, Sin Chai village, etc would leave you unforgettable memories.

Discover Asia On An APT River Cruise

Winding your way past quaint riverside towns and floating markets surrounded by green fields along the Mekong Delta and its adjoining waterways is a great way to discover Asia. APT‘s Southeast Asia cruises offer beautifully furnished private suites, international cuisine and small group excursions on rickshaws and water boats. You can cruise magically through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, discovering hidden gems not seen by land.

A visit to the Mekong Delta cruise is so special because of its unique diversity. See kids riding on water buffalo, rice workers hunched over their fields, flocks of storks at dusk and rowboats on its maze of channels. Home to over 1,000 varieties fish, 20,000 plant species and an array of wildlife, the Mekong Delta is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. It’s Asia’s third largest river; a comma-shaped flatland that is also known as Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’, producing more than a third of the country’s annual food crop. Here are four countries you can explore on an APT Asian river cruise.

Discover Asia On An APT River Cruise

Otherworldly sights await at Vietnma’s Ha Long Bay
Vietnam
An APT Mekong Delta cruise can take you through the contrasts of beautiful Vietnam, from the hive of activity in its crowded cities,to the relaxed pace of the beautiful countryside. In northern Hanoi, you will find a beautiful blend of French colonial influence, with the modern pace of Asian city life before cruising onward past the spectacular mountains of Sapa and the sparkling Ha Long Bay.

Be transported further south to Saigon, where you will find a mix of soaring skyscrapers with French architecture and the energy of chaotic outdoor markets. Along the way, Australia’s revered chef, Luke Nguyen, can help you discover the culinary heritage of his home country.

See Cambodian life along the Mekong Delta
Travel to Cambodia
Channels carve a lifeline into Cambodia, a country full of history and magnificence. Visit the famous temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap and cruise past the beautiful Royal Palace. Located on the riverfrontm the Palace showcases classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding.

You can experience Cambodia’s lush countryside filled with rice paddies and sugar palms, cruising along the south coast past tropical islands and beach huts.

 Lush landscapes around the Nam Song River, Laos
Travel to Laos
After years of isolation, Laos is now one of the most laid-back Southeast Asian destinations. Enjoy the well-preserved culture, stunning natural environment and friendly people. Life in Laos still revolves around tradition and you can experience riverfront life unchanged over generations. See the historic royal city of Luang Prabang where hundreds of saffron-robed monks move quietly among centuries-old monasteries.

The Mekong opens up at Si Phan Don (meaning literally ‘four thousand islands’). It’s an archipelago of tranquil islands popular with travellers for cycling, swimming, tubing, boat cruises, kayaking, and dolphin spotting.

Cruise into beautiful Bangkok
Thailand
Known as the ‘Land of Smiles’, you’re awarded the opportunity see Thailand’s famous beaches and lush mountain ranges on an APT river cruise. Stop at Bangkok for a spot of shopping in its many malls, or take in its history by visiting the ancient temples.

Heading further north, the landscape changes to dense forests, where you come face to face with hill tribes of and see village life rooted in centuries of tradition. The Mekong Delta and its distributaries are lined with natural beauty and is the perfect waterscape to discover Asia from a different perspective.

Halong seafood

Visiting Ha Long Bay will provide you a chance to enjoy the beauty of one of World’s Natural Heritage but aside from this, you will also be impressed by a variety of tasty seafood that will melt even the hardest of appetites. It is said that seafood in Halong Bay cruise is more delicious than the other coastal places in Vietnam. This comment is true as many rock islands and coral reefs in Ha Long Ba provide nutrients to make seafood in the cliffs and coral reefs tasty and abundant in species. 5 places to enjoy seafood in Halong Bay

Counting on economic conditions and the convenience of the trip, you can try many ways to enjoy Halong seafood by yourself. Here is one way which most residents in Ha Long Bay usually enjoy and offer their guests.

Halong seafood

If you visit Ha Long, I can invite you to my house or a restaurant in Bai Chay, or visit  “snail supermarket” in Cai Dam or simply go around Ha Long for its well-known places like Huong Duyen restaurant in Tran Hung Dao Street or Cai Xa Cong in Ha Tu ward. You can even enjoy seafood on the tourist boats….. Some appetizers like hotpot an appealing and delicious way of enjoying seafood are also available for taste testing. Varieties of oysters, snails, crabs, squid, shrimp, fishes that are baked, boiled, fried or steamed will make your mouth watery. These kinds should be prepared in a moderate amount to enjoy many other local dishes. Next, some typical sour but inviting soups can be served like mussel or fish soup together and some other dishes like barnacle cooked with bamboo shoot, “Bong Thua” with kohlrabi, or squid or cuttlefish with celery leaves and fresh garlic are always available. Finally, rice can be enjoyed with a sunny fried mackerel. If you need vegetable dishes, water spinach or collard greens sauted with garlic are ready to serve. If hotpot is chosen, seafood choice relies on your favorite. Moreover, hotpot soup has the kind of sour taste   made from tamarind, star fruits, tomato and many kinds of green vegetables such as water spinach, broccoli, fresh onions, celery, cauliflower, tofu ….can be served. Rice noodles or instant noodles can be ordered at the end of meal. Visit Halong with Travel to Vietnam

One kind of drink that can be considered as a particular specialty of Ha Long is Ruou Ngan (a kind of local seafood like clam dipped in wine), which is quite suitable to serve with seafood. There are three ways of making Ruou Ngan; the first one is  shelling out 3 live intestines of Ngan and putting them into a big cup and then chopsticks in opposite directions are used with trashed hands to poke, hold down and hit until guts get soon crushed finely, dilate and turn into dark red. White wine is poured into it and a glass of fresh rosy wine suddenly appears in front of us. Another way to make, Ngan which is not too old or too young is to tie cleaned shells to boil, then shell out for putting 2 or 3 guts and their water into the cup, depending on drinkers’ taste. Wine is poured into it and chopsticks are used to gently poke two sides and make their liver bladder rupture. As a result, we can enjoy a light pink or bluish glass of wine depending on the way of cooking Ngan. The third way is putting from 3 to 5 bowels into a small aluminum pot, then pouring wine and boiling again. Finally, a hot drink is ready to serve.

Ruou Ngan tastes tangy and slightly salty when tried for the first time, but then its fragrance effuses at the tip of tongue and suddenly makes our body incredibly warm. This kind of alcohol can be addicted if used regularly.

Nuôi hươu nai lấy nhung dễ hay khó?

Ông Nguyễn Công Hà ở ấp Miễu, xã Phước Tân (huyện Long Thành) - một người nổi tiếng trong nghề nuôi hươu, nai lấy nhung cho biết: "Nuôi hươu, nai chăm sóc rất dễ, vì chúng vốn là động vật hoang dã nên sức đề kháng cao, ít khi bị bệnh. Thức ăn của chúng là tất cả các loại lá cây và cỏ. Một con hươu trưởng thành ăn 5 ký cỏ hoặc lá/ngày và nai là 10 ký/ngày. Vào mùa cắt nhung hươu, nếu cho chúng ăn thêm tinh bột khoảng 300-500gam/ngày và những lá cây có nhiều nhựa như sung, mít, đu đủ... thì chất lượng nhung sẽ tốt hơn".

Nuôi hươu nai lấy nhung dễ hay khó?

Được biết, sau 2 năm nuôi, thì hươu giống và nai giống đực bắt đầu mọc sừng non màu hồng nhạt trông rất mịn được dân gian gọi là nhung. Nhung từ khi mọc đến khi cắt khoảng 50-55 ngày. Nhung nai tốt nhất là khi cao khoảng 26cm và hươu là 22cm. Khi cắt nhung phải dùng dụng cụ sắc và được khử trùng cẩn thận, cắt xong phải tiến hành cầm máu nhanh để tránh mất sức cho hươu, nai. Sau đó cho hươu, nai ăn 3 lần vào sáng, trưa, tối và bổ sung thêm thức ăn tinh bột như: cám gạo, cám ngô để giúp chúng nhanh hồi sức. Bình quân mỗi con hươu một năm thu được 0,5 - 1 ký nhung và nai 1,5 - 3 ký nhung. Hiện tại giá bán ngay tại các trang trại là 450 ngàn đồng/100gam nhung nai và 850 ngàn đồng/100gam nhung hươu. Hươu, nai nếu chăm sóc tốt có thể cho nhung đến 30 năm. Nhung hươu, nai từ xưa đã được coi là loại dược liệu quý hiếm, bổ dưỡng dùng cho người thiếu máu, người già...


Theo các chủ trại chuyên nuôi hươu, nai lấy nhung, nhu cầu mua nhung trên thị trường hiện nay lượng cung không đủ cầu. Nếu muốn mua nhung với số lượng lớn, khách hàng phải đặt hàng từ đầu mùa thu hoạch.


Không chỉ nuôi hươu, nai lấy nhung, các trại chủ thường nuôi thêm hươu, nai cái sinh sản để tự cung cấp nguồn giống, đồng thời việc bán con giống cũng cho họ khoản thu không thua kém gì nhung. Hươu, nai phối giống tự nhiên và nuôi con bằng sữa mẹ đến 4 tháng tuổi mới tách ra nuôi riêng. Nai 3 năm sinh sản hai lần và hươu một năm sinh sản một lần. Nai giống khoảng 6 tháng tuổi hiện nay có giá 50 triệu đồng/cặp và hươu 15 triệu đồng/cặp. Chuồng trại để nuôi hươu, nai tương đối đơn giản, mỗi con chỉ cần diện tích khoảng 5m2 và  xung quanh được quây bằng lưới B40 cao 2m. Chi phí chăm sóc, mua thức ăn cho hươu, nai chỉ khoảng 2-3 triệu đồng/con/năm.

* Để mua được nhung thật

Bà Đào Thị Thìn ở xã Bắc Sơn (huyện Trảng Bom) một người có thâm niên gần 30 năm trong nghề nuôi hươu, nai lấy nhung cho biết: "Cách tốt nhất để tránh mua phải nhung giả là người mua trực tiếp đến tận trang trại và đợi người ta cắt nhung xong thì mua. Trong trường hợp không có mặt tại chỗ khi người ta cắt nhung, thì khi mua nên cắt ra xem thật kỹ, nhung còn tươi có màu hồng nhạt, mềm và bên ngoài có lớp lông măng mịn như nhung. Còn nhung giả, bên trong thường được làm bằng thạch cao". Ông Hà ở ấp Miễu, xã Phước Tân cũng cho biết, nhung thật khi sấy khô có màu xám đen và rất cứng, nhung giả sấy khô thường mềm. Song, người không quen rất dễ nhầm lẫn, tốt nhất là khi mua nhung nên chờ cắt xong là lấy về, làm như vậy nhung sẽ đảm bảo về chất lượng.

Những người nuôi hươu, nai còn cho biết thêm, nhung hươu, nai tươi bảo quản trong ngăn đá của tủ lạnh có thể để được từ 2-3 tháng. Cách dùng tốt nhất là thái nát hoặc nghiền nhỏ nấu cháo, ngoài ra có thể dùng ngâm rượu. Nếu muốn để lâu nên sấy khô, nhưng chỉ sấy ở nhiệt độ 50 độ C, nhiệt độ cao quá sẽ mất đi chất bổ dưỡng trong nhung.

Halong Bay nightlife

Nightlife in Halong has drawn locals as well as visitors to spend their vacation here. Halong is the popular tourist destination of Vietnam, which seldom goes to sleep.

Halong Bay nightlife

This beautiful city of Vietnam beams with large number of activities even at the odd hours of the city. The residents as well as the tourists to this city of Halong indulge themselves in various kinds of fun and merriment especially at night. There are large options of nightspots in the city, which are worth paying a visit. The dazzling and happening Nightlife in Halong is really worth mentioning. Visit Halong with 5 best cruises in Halong Bay

You will come across plethora of nightspots that are scattered throughout the city. Party-hoppers of different age groups visit these night spots of Halong with their pals and relatives. There are ample of options for night entertainment at this city. Some of the fashionable nightspots of the city are bars, pubs, nightclubs as well as casinos. There are many nightclubs in Halong. Read more: halong bay map

Most of the nightclubs of the city remain open for the visitors till late hours. The college-goers visit the nightclubs usually in groups. The nightclubs of Halong remain packed with locals and visitors even at the wee hours of the day. The main attraction of these nightclubs are it excellent sound system and spacious dance floor. In the nightclubs of Halong the DJs belts out some heart pulsing music including rock music to jazz. Some of the deluxe hotels of Halong like, the Saigon Halong Hotel have an onsite nightclub. Visit Halong with Vietnam tours

Talking about the Nightlife in Halong we cannot afford to miss out the bars and pubs of Halong. The bars and pubs in Halong offers relaxing ambience to sip your liked drinks. You can try out wide varieties of local as well as international drinks in these venues. Nightlife in Halong also includes casinos. Royal International Gaming Club-casino is one of the popular casinos of Halong.

Yen Duc Village

Yen Duc Village is about 60km to the west of Halong Bay on the way from & to Hanoi. Besides the Halong Bay cruise trip, on the way from Halong Bay to Hanoi, you can consider a short trip to Yen Duc Village – a typical Vietnamese agricultural village which is rich in culture and traditions. Yen Duc village is a beautiful village in the North of Vietnam, the village has immense rice fields, Kinh Thay river,  many ponds, gardens in the local houses. The local life is kept away from noisy outside. Yen Duc Village has many historical monuments and a famous ancient pagoda named Canh Huong which contains cultural and historical values dated back to Ly and Tran dynasty in the village, all the alley roads are very clean with unique stone walls, especially the local villagers are very friendly, honest and extremely hospitable. Visit Halong Bay with V'spirit cruise Halong bay

At the moment, there are 3 tour options: 2 hour tour; 3,5 hour tour ( with lunch) and 5,5 hour tour ( with dinner). The 2 hour tour and 5,5 hour tour option will be suitable for Halong Bay cruises which check out at 12:00 to arrive Yen Duc village at 2:00pm while 3,5 hour option will fit the  cruise check out time at 10:00 from Halong Bay to arrive Yen Duc at 12:00 for lunch. If you have time, the 5.5 hour tour can be a good extra experience awith gardening, fishing and a dinner in the village. It is 1,5 hour driving to the village for this tour then 2 more hour to Hanoi. Read more Halong Bay map

V'spirit cruise Halong bay

Joining a trip to Yen Duc village is a great chance to visit the charming fields, a holy pagoda, a historical site and other relic sites while wandering narrow alleyways in the odorous fresh air and talking with hospitable local people. With a convenience graphic location, Yen Duc Village is a good link with unique experience for the customers after Halong Bay cruise.


Yen Duc village is in Dong Trieu town and 60km West of Halong city. The village was recognized as a national relic in 1993.

Yen Duc is a beautiful village with poetic scenery, charming rivers, historical mountains and sacred legends and relics related to Ly and Tran dynasty.

Considered as a “Stone wall” under the war, the village was a cradle of revolutionary movements with many brave, ingenious heroes and local people sacrificed to protect their hometown. Over the years, their names are still alive together with each famous mountain, river and pieces of land here.

Similar to other rustic countryside, the local people here are very diligent, gentle and optimistic.

Currently, Yen Duc village is one of the few villages in the Delta still retain traditional agricultural features and beauty with the golden rice fields in harvesting time, the gardens of area trees in the sun and the ponds below the green gourd platforms.

Where to shop in Halong

Shopping is one of the most popular activities when one travels. In Halong Bay, shopping is not about big malls with branded items. Expect a different shopping experience when you are in the area. The following places are a good  starting point: Halong bay cruise

Halong Market

Being constructed and officially operated in 2003, the new Halong Market is one of the most attractive destinations in the city that draw a huge number of local and international tourists coming for shopping. The market is located in the center of Halong City at Bach Dang Street, and considered the largest markets of this coastal city. Products which are exhibited and sold here are diverse in range from normal to luxurious goods and pretty competitive in price. Customers are easy to find anything here, from clothes, accessories, and electrical devices. Food and drinks are also sold in small restaurants in the market. Moreover, this is also one of the places that sell specialties of Halong City, such as dried squid or seafood, with most ensured quality and reasonable price. Halong Market opens all 7 days a week, from 6.00 am to 6.30 pm

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Halong Night Market

Where to shop in Halong

For various tourists who visit to Halong City, Halong Night Market is a place that they should not miss out. The market is a group of more than a hundred stalls which sell diverse types of products, such as handicrafts, handmade accessories, clothes, and other dispensable items such as swimwear, lotion, or hat. Tourists tend to come to this place for purchasing unique products of the beach city like necklaces made from seashells, snails, wooden small boats, or T-shirt with images of Halong Bay on. And the great things is that sellers here are friendly with advance English skill, so that tourists should not be worry about bargaining, posing, and tourists can have a nice chat with them about this charming city. Halong Night Market opens 7 days a week, from 6.00pm until midnight

Bai Chay Commercial Center

Being established on the base of a minuscule market at Vuon Dao Street, Bai Chay Commercial Center is one of the largest and most modern shopping center in Halong City. Products here are diverse from regular to deluxe goods, and price range is a little bit higher than other markets in the city. However, this extra money is paid for better services, as well as ensured quality of each product.