Ta Phin

Ta Phin is well known firstly by its traditional handicraft for many years. The village is far from Sapa Town about 12km and becomes one of the best destinations for tourists who love to explore the life in the highland in the North of Vietnam.

How to get in

Ta Phin is located not far from Sapa Town, so if you handle the ways to Sapa, you know how to come to Ta Phin easily.

From Ha Noi, you take a train to Lao Cai Province. The time on train is about 9 hours, so most of all tourists who choose the night train to transfer and overnight on train. You will come to Lao Cai train station in the early morning, and then take a local car or moto-taxi to transfer to Ta Phin Village. The train from Ha Noi, you can take a ticket in the station located in 120 Le Duan Street. Or you can book a train ticket from the travel agencies in Ha Noi center.

In the case that you do not transfer by the train, you can take a bus or a coach from Ha Noi. There are many buses or coaches that arrive from here everyday. Some popular names for you to book the bus ticket like Hai Van Coach (Tel:  0203 872 606), Hung Thanh Coach (Phone: 0989 294 294), Ha Son Coach ( Tel: 0466 626 262), Vietbus (Tel: 0436 272 727).

Go around

Ta Phin does not have so much more famous destinations for your exploring like in Sapa. However that is not the problem for the trip when the village has its own attractions. There are two places in Ta Phin where you must come to visit like The old monastery of Luyen Tam Monastery and Ta Phin Caves. The landscapes here attract people by the great natural features from the fields, small lines in the commune, the hills, the valley, the field terraces and the mountains, so you may have the trekking time to explore all best corners of the commune. And you should save the time to discover the brocade village where you can meet the clever local women with their best products. One more special point that fascinates tourists who have time to bath with local herbal leaves by the Red Dao. It is the great therapy that makes the body and mind lightly, also to be good for the health.

The weather

Ta Phin Commune has its great weather like Sapa. You can visit the village around a year without worry about the climate. You can feel the four seasons in a day with the pure morning of the spring, the light sunshine at noon as in the summer, the romantic moment in the afternoon of the autumn time and the cold a little bit of the winter in the night.

The best time for you to visit Ta Phin is from February to March and August. These months are the gold times for tourists to explore the best pictures of Ta Phin.

The interesting thing that the local people who concentrate to work in the field from February to September and the rest months of the year, they take care about the tourists who come to visit the commune. So if you come to visit the village in the period of February to September, you may stay with them and go to the field with them to enjoy the normal life of the local people. The rest time of the year if you come, you can travel with them around the commune like the friends. They will share with you a liquid and talk together about the activities that happened in the past year.

Food and drink

Ta Phin has its local food and drink like in Sapa with local dished including “thang co”, “com lam”  - the rice that cooked in the bamboo, smoked bacon, corn liquor  etc. To taste the local dishes and local drink, you can stop by some small local restaurants or enjoy these things with the host of the homestay where you are staying.

Staying

Most of tourists who come to Ta Phin, they stay at the homestay and enjoy the time here with local people friendly. So it is not difficult for you to find out a homestay for staying. Ask the local people and then there are some who help you to have a nice staying.

Shopping

Ta Phin is the famous place with the brocade weaving, so the first things for your shopping that are the brocade products in the village. You can find out here in the brocade village the bags, the scarves, brocade fabric etc. There is also the small local market where you can buy local things in which there are brocade products, vegetables, corn liquor and herbal leaves.

Culture, Holiday and People

There are two main ethnic groups who live in Ta Phin Commune like The Red Dao and Mong or Hmong people. They are so nice, kind and friendly in the normal life, in the field or even in the time of serving tourists as the people who are work with the tourism jobs’ role.