And I’m very happy that our Culture has been discovered

I am a Hmong American when I saw this video I was surprised. I born in Laos and fought the Secret war when I was 10 years old then escaped to Thailand and then to the USA. I think the world need to know why Hmong people are all over the world?

Eight bits of advice when travelling to Sapa District (population of less than 80,000) 1 - Look for local expertise, preferably an experienced guide from the Hmong or Dao ethnic groups. This will open up greater cultural opportunities and make your time in Sapa more rewarding. Please also bear in mind that all tour guides dealing with international travellers are required have a licence or work with a company who have an Inbound Tour Operator certificate. Without this, your trek will be illegal and almost certainly uninsured. Unfortunately, at this time, most freelancers are working illegally, and this comes with risks to you and your group. Avoid this by asking your guide their licence number. 2 - Choose your trek carefully. While villages like Lao Chai, Ta Van and Giang Ta Chai have developed to cater for tourists, they have lost their traditional charm. If you need WiFi, a hot shower and access to bars and a pool table, then these are the villages for you. They have a backpacker feel and are good places to meet other travellers. That said, they do experience a large volume of tour groups every day. These are the villages people are talking about whenever they mention that Sapa is too touristic. They are not representative of the wider area. Likewise, Cat Cat Village is owned by a tour company and is an ideal option if you like the thought of dressing up in tribal clothes and seeing organised dances and routines with hundreds of other paying spectators. Think of this village as a an attraction. It has a theme park feel and is very busy, especially with Vietnamese day trippers. Because it features in many poorly written guidebooks, the village receives many unsuspecting guests hoping for authenticity. Cat Cat has been landscaped to include many sites for taking selfies with designated view points throughout. If you’re interested in nature, culture or authenticity, this place will not suit you. Do some research and find a trek that suits your own needs. Because almost everyone goes to these few locations, it does mean that the all of the other villages are wonderfully authentic. If you want an off the beaten track adventure, away from tourists, look at organisations such as ETHOS who offer award winning private treks with experienced local guides to more remote areas. All treks and experiences are tailored to the needs of the traveller. They are heavily involved in the community and have been rated as number one on TripAdvisor for over five years. 3 - Ask your chosen guide / company where your money goes. In an area where 50% of the population are registered as poor, it is essential that any income from tourism spreads to more than one individual. Have a look at their literature or down their news feed on social media to gauge what they are like as individuals or as an organisation. Are they in tourism purely for profit or are they involved in community development projects like village clean ups or education for instance? 4 - Skip the well recommended but not particularly interesting Silver Waterfall. The Love Waterfall is a far more beautiful option with the added benefit of now having canyoning and abseiling as an activity. The walk to the Love Waterfall is very picturesque and the plunge pool makes a great place for a swim on a warmer day. 5 - Be prepared for a decent hike. Sturdy walking shoes are essential. That being said, you don’t need hiking boots. Depending on recent weather conditions, paths will be slippery regardless of what you have on your feet. If required, shoe hire is available in the Sapa area. Choose a hike and difficulty level that suit your personal fitness and adventure levels. Walking in a big group will mean your guide will choose a route that the least well prepared can manage. Alternatively, you’ll end up with an unpaid entourage of local ladies hoping to help you over the slippery sections in exchange for you buying their textiles. This can be eliminated by assuring a fair distribution of wages and choosing a private trek. 6 - Do the overnight experience. You can opt for a day trek, and I’m sure you’d love it, but staying with a local family, in their village, in their home, is incredible. See how they live day to day, meet additional family members and feel like part of the village. Check out the reviews for the top outdoor activities in Sapa and the homestays are very highly regarded by travellers, with good reason. 7 - Time your visit well. While Sunday plays hosts to the busiest market day, weekends see many more travellers, particularly Vietnamese from the lowlands. A typical weekend sees Sapa’s visitor numbers swell to almost ten times that of a typical week day. Hotel rooms become more expensive and the town feels much more hectic and noisy. Monday to Thursday is far quieter, more relaxed and altogether more pleasant. 8 - Consider an alternative to Mt. Fansipan. Although the highest mountain in Vietnam, the cable car construction train at the summit takes away from the climb to some degree. Ascending only to find 50 others at the top taking selfies certainly spoils the ambience. Look at climbing other mountains instead. There are plenty that offer challenge, natural beauty, forests and are very rarely climbed. Examples include Bach Moc and Pu Ta Leng. Finally, it is important to know that Sapa is a huge district with a central town and 94 villages and hamlets. All tour companies offering packages from Hanoi, booked from hotels in Sapa or organised in tourism information office in Sapa offer pretty much the same trek. This sometimes gives the illusion of over-tourism. They sell these tours to make a profit. Their objective is to minimise costs and maximise profits. The great news is that you can trek almost anywhere else, stay in local homestays or walk in the 30,000 hectares of protected forest and you’ll really see the other side of Sapa. It is a place rich in wildlife and culture and it is very easy to do walks well away from places visited by tourists. Those who have been to Sapa and say it’s too touristy either visited on a package tour and only spent time in the busy villages or travelled independently and stuck to the few villages recommended in the guide books. Food wise - don’t miss the freshly made hotpot with local vegetables. Many places also sell rainbow trout spring rolls.

Short but beautiful piece. Thank you for making this. Can't wait to visit this place in a couple of months.

This video does Sapa no justice. It’s the most beautiful place in the world!

Thanks for sharing! I'm glad that our Hmong in such a poor village like that able to communicate in with foreigners travellers.

Thanks for showing the love to our hmong people !

There's a correction I feel I should make with this video having recently returned from Sapa. It's said in the vid that the locals are turning straw into thread. It is actually Hemp fibres that they are twisting together into thread.

Hi i am happpy that you expands our traditional clothes. I am from Viet Nam and I live in SA pa region. Now SaPa changes a lot. there are high rise buildings in here. Thank you your video. we always welcome you come to Sa Pa.

Im live in sapa vietnam

very beautiful video ☺ thanks for sharing

Thank you for that great video!

So beautiful! Peb Hmong os peb Hmong, cas peb Tsis muaj ib daim av es peb haiv neeg Hmong tawg ua sab ua sua mus nyob txhua lub teb chaws. Thov peb Hmong khaws peb tej puavpheej tseg cim tias peb yog Hmoob. Txawm tias peb Hmoob tawg mus puv ntuj los peb ceev peb lub npe Hmoob nawb cov kwvtij neejtsa. Sib ntsib dua -vammeej hawj

i like vietnam culture and people. i have few friends on FB. i wish to visit once .... but money need... so i will visit in future... i like mountains and greenery very much

I'm Kinh !! I love Sapa and love the Hmong songs!

wow! awesome! they live like old fashion way back then. so cool! Hmong people are so nice! we rock!

The H is silent. Mong is okay. Lovely video.

so cute people !

I like Hmong people. I have a good friend Hmong in college.

hearts to hearts and hands to hands. that's all!

Nice video

The majority of Hmong people still live in China until now! It is Laos and Vietnam which expelled many Hmong people!

Such beautiful people. Greetings from Israel.

The women in minutes 1:30, are they from Lao Chai village or from Sapa village?

Nice people 👍❤️

i love hmong

damn it! I miss Sapa at this time.

Good!!

I was from Thailand and I was really poor with my siblings and parents so we walked all the way to the United States

I'm Love Hmong 😍.

Wonderful people. Beautiful indigo belt how much did you eventually pay for it. Joking, The people are beautiful but naturally, they can be so persistent to make a sale because it helps support their family or a whole village.

Hello. I am Tung. I live in Lai Chau, Viet Nam

I've just been to Sapa. Nice experience however it didn't take me long to see that the Vietnamese people are taking advantage and exploiting the hmong people. The Vietnamese have built a billion dollar tourism industry on hmong culture but wont employ the hmongs in their restaurants or hotels. The hmong people of Sapa speak fluent English, french and Vietnamese. They have a better grasp of languages then the local Vietnamese. Good enough to exploit but not goid enough to employ. Speak to the Hmong Pele and they'll tell you exactly how it is. Cultural appropriation at its finest.

Hello i com flom vietnam

The straw are hemp which are used to make their clothes.

i love viet nam

I'm Hmong as to kuv luv kav

Omg a lot of western people call Hmong people H-mong. The H doesn't help, let forget about the H just say Mong.

Wow hey

Hahaha lol I like the way how she said the black hemong hahaha is Hmong and also I'm a Hmong asutralian butwas reasontly was born in new Zealand

She speaks really good English.

I’m Hmong I was born in Thailand and My Hmong name is Bao Thoj I go to school and my cousins do when I didn’t go to school all I knew is hmong not anything else I only understanded hmong

greattttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Koj puas xa in tugntxhis ua Kam than xa rau kuv na puas Tau

hmoob sa pa paub hais lus mes kas kawg yom

thank you .Thank you for visiting our country Gửi phản hồi Lịch sử Đã lưu Cộng đồng

It's not pronounced ha-mong it's just hmong the h is silent :x

Places We go, the word H'Mong it doesn't make sense, the H doesn't help just say Mong it make sense better. These messages from the Hmong United State.

H in hmong is silent just an fyi

In a video is a Hmong lady - Mama Va - with her daughter - She was the best lady from all hmongs - we also made a short video about her- The cutest lady i ever meet! you can see it here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o8eSprmCyNLYYGg.html

Hahaha...she said ha - mong like Clint Eastwood in grand turino...

I am Montagnard indigenous indigenous Central highland now I live in USA ,American citizen so sad to see minority vN live in poverty even my Montagnard indigenous Central highland too ,we facing many problem vN government seem like they not recognize us VN citizen.

The H is silent in saying our people’s name. Ugh

The h is silent in hmong...

Hmong pronounced mong no H Sapa became into being when the Hmong were kicked out of China

dam is a good thing the veit pple didnt kill ot torture them after the fall of the war in laos

Ha mong boi! ITS HMONG! THE H IS SILENT! SO JUST SAY MONG! GEEEEZZZZZZ

When I heard Huh-mong I cringed so hard.

Everything was great till she said Ha-mong, buts its all good. Everyone says Ha-mong or mong with a strong "g"

You pronounce Hmong wrong. The H is silent and nasal.

Not straw. Hemp.

I think it's great that you are covering this culture, but please, take the time to understand things better before you speak like what you are saying is fact. I live in Vietnam. I've been to Sa Pa many times. I'm moving to a village near Sa Pa in a few months to live with a Hmong family I've known for 1.5 years. You got a number of things wrong in this video, for example the "straw" they use to make thread is hemp. Please frame things as your impression or understanding based on your experience there as a tourist if you haven't done enough research to be confident that information you are conveying is actually fact.

And Kinh people call Hmong Hơ Mông =))

like subscr

OMG! lol here comes another person who says HA-mong. LMAO

I have a girlfriend that is a Hmong and im interested in it now

Qué pasa? Con este grupo tan mal educados qué raro eso!!

The poor Hmong people of Sapa are grossly exploited by the Vietnamese locals. None of the money made in the town make it's way to the Hmong villages. The Vietnamese hotels n restaurants refuse to hire them in the hope the Hmong people keep living poor to encourage tourism. Sapa is cultural appropriation at it's finest. Use Hmong people's name n culture to gain money but have no respect towards the people.