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Name: Coc Ly Markets
Address:
City: Sapa Vietnam
Phone:
What's it like?
If you've missed the weekend, and want to visit a regional market, then a day trip to Coc Ly on a Tuesday morning is highly recommended. Leaving at 7am a guide can be arranged to collect you at your hotel. Transport on this occasion has to be done by jeep due to the difficult terrain that can be found later on the journey. A useful tip is to ensure that you've brought all your luggage and have checked out of your hotel if you intend to return to Hanoi that evening as it could prove difficult to navigate the mountain road three times with a day. After a short stop in Lao Cai to deposit luggage for the later train journey you can then pull out of Lao Cai and make for the hills.
Coc Ly is a small market about 60km away up in the mountains. While initially it strikes you that a jeep might be a bit excessive it proves to be the perfect mode of transport as you pass motorcyclists smothered in mud, cars skidding about, and on occasion less powerful vehicles moving sideways rather than forwards!
Coc Ly market appears crammed along a thin strip of mud, compacted into a small ravine. The market is a riot of colour and activity. There you can see members of the Flower Mong people who unlike their more soberly dressed Black Mong cousins in Sapa
, wear brilliantly coloured costumes in red, magenta and with additional stitching and embroidery in all shades and colours.
The place is fascinating, everywhere people are shouting for your attention, shoving you aside, peering under canvas shelters as the rain began to come down. At the top of the ravine, men trade in tobacco and livestock - donkeys, mules and goats are all being sold. Just beyond the market, a suspension bridge swings across another ravine beyond which lies the Flower Mong village.
An alternative to taking the road is a boat ride down the river Chay where you can be picked up by jeep.
Despite it's sometimes unpredictable weather, Sapa with it's rich natural surroundings and colourful ethnic minorities makes an ideal break from the usual. It requires a minimum of two days, which means travelling by night train on the first and third evenings. If you can spare the time, it's a wonderful destination.
If you know of a great destination we're missing,
review it for us!!
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