Cooking class in Sapa

Many people who visit Vietnam quickly learn to enjoy the delicious food. With our cooking classes, you’ll learn how to make it yourself as well as learn more about the ingredients and the traditions of Vietnamese cuisine.

Every day at 10:00am we start our cooking class with a tour to the local Sapa fruit and vegetable market located 10 meters from the front door of our cooking school. The Sapa fruit and vegetable market is very colourful with many wonderful organic fruits and vegetables to select from. The market is also frequented by the Ethnic Minority population in Sapa giving you a sense of being transported back to the 18th century as you mingle with the Ethnic minority people, purchasing some of the freshest vegetables you have ever seen. Sapa’s fresh mountain air, fertile soils and clean water make for some beautiful produce. As you walk through the market your chef will explain the ingredients you will be using in your cooking lesson. Once you have purchased your ingredients we take our transport 6km outside of Sapa to our beautiful Hmong Mountain Retreat where our cooking school is located, overlooking the beautiful Muong Hoa Valley and the terraced rice fields.

After looking about and conferring with your guide, you choose will choose what you want to cook. Then we return to our teaching kitchen to guide you through the steps of cooking your food. The lesson is very practical. By the time we’re finished cooking, you’ll be plenty hungry, so enjoy the fruits of your labor as you sit in our retreat surrounded by nature marvelling at what you have just managed to cook.

 As you leave, don’t forget to take the recipe with you. You can thrill your friends back home with your new cooking skills!

 

What’s included in the cooking class:
• Welcome drink
• English speaking
• Vietnamese Chef
• Tour of Sapa’s market
• All cooking ingredients
• Lunch
• Cooking demonstration
• Transport to retreat
• All recipes and notes

Minimum of 2 persons are required for each class to commence

Contact Evivatour for reservations

Best Restaurants in Sapa

Delta Restaurant
Address: P Cau May Town Centre
Phone:  020 387 1799
Price: mains US$5
Hours: lunch & dinner
A stylish and atmospheric place, Delta Restaurant is renowned for its pizzas, which are the most authentic in town, though the pasta is pretty decent too. Wash it all down with a drop of Aussie red.

Viet Emotion
Address:  27 P Cau May
Website : www.vietemotion.com
Phone: 020 387 2559
Price: meals 40,000-120,000d
Hours:  breakfast, lunch & dinner

This stylish, intimate little place has a bistro feel about it, with bottles of wine hanging from the ceiling, plus a fireplace. Try the trekking omelette, home-made soup, or something from the tapas menu like gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns). If the weather really sets in there are books and magazines to browse and games including chess

Baguette & Chocolat
Address:  Ð Thac Bac Thac Bac Area
Website: www.hoasuaschool.com
 Phone:  020 387 1766
 Price: cakes from 10,000d, snacks & meals 40,000-120,000d
 Hours: breakfast, lunch & dinner

If you’re craving a genuine European-style cafe, head to this elegant converted villa for a fine breakfast (sets cost 60,000d to 78,000d), tartine, baguette or a slab of gateau. There are also good salads, pasta and Asian and Vietnamese dishes, and the ‘picnic kits’ are a smart option for trekkers.

Tavan Restaurant
Address: Victoria Sapa Hotel
Phone:  020 387 1522
Price:  mains US$4-28
Hours: lunch & dinner

This hotel restaurant has a good rep, and is the place for a ser ious splurge. The Parisian chef has been here for years, and while there are Asian dishes on the menu it’s best to stick to European classics like the rack of lamb (US$20), raclette (US$28) or pasta (from US$4).

Gecko
Address: Ð Ham Rong Park Area
Website: www.geckosapa.com
 Phone: 020 377 1504
 Price: mains US$5-9, sets US$6.50-10
 Hours:  lunch & dinner

This large enjoyable French-owned place resembles an auberge, with a rustic feel and a menu of flavoursome country cooking: try the boeuf bourguignon or the ‘gecko’ soup (with potato, bacon and cheese). There’s a bar area and a little park-facing front terrace.

Pa Then Women's Costume

Pa Then ethnic women in their traditional red costume.

Like many other ethnic groups living in Vietnam, Pa Then people grow flax to get threads for weaving the brocade and fabrics for making garments. Most of the adult Pa Then women have learned how to weave and sew clothes from their mothers. According to Pa Then custom, women have to learn weaving and sewing not only to make the clothes beautiful, but also to prepare for their wedding.

A costume of a Pa Then woman consists of a kerchief, a blouse, a belt, a skirt, and a brassiere. The kerchief is a red cloth, embroidered with designs and wrapped up into round layers. The two ends are decorated with clusters of colourful thread tassels, which cascade down onto the wearer's ears.

The most attractive part is the red blouse, which has no collar but instead has two front flaps that are crossed when worn. The back flap is often longer than the front flaps. The costume is attractive due to the harmonious mixture of hand-embroidered pieces and grafted fabrics. On the red foundation ar

e the handy embroidered geometrical shapes, while the lower sleeves and two crossed front flaps' fringes are grafted with black blocs. Young women often wear a white shirt under the red upper blouse. The white collar then will go on top of the red base, making it more beautiful.

 With their skills, Pa Then women can weave and make unique skirts. Also in red, the skirt has folded lines in the upper hem and embroidered decorations along two sides. The front face has no decorations, just simple designs.

 The belt is a long white or black cloth that is tied around the wearer's waist, with its two tails falling down the front that looks like the skirt's fringes.            

Pa Then women have to spend nearly one month to make a complete set of their costume. Making the decorations and doing the embroidery work takes most of their time. However, their traditional costume is always of the same mode, and they wear it year round, in daily activities or during festivals. Because of this unique style, visitors to the upland provinces of Ha Giang and Tuyen Quang will easily recognize Pa Then women when they see their costumes.

At spring festivals, Pa Then women look charming in their red costumes, adorned with sparkling silver necklaces, ear-rings and bracelets.

Fansipan moutain

Location: Fansipan Mountain is located 9km south-west of Sapa Townlet in the Hoang Lien Mountain Range.
Characteristics: Fansipan is branded "the Roof of Indochina" at the height of 3,143m; Fansipan is to be approved as one of the very few eco-tourist spots of Vietnam, with about 2,024 floral varieties and 327 faunal species.

The topography of Fansipan is varied. Muong Hoa Valley, at the lowest altitude (950-1,000m), is created by a narrow strip of land at the base on the east side of the mountain.

Geologists say the Hoang Lien Mountain Range, with Fansipan as its highest peak, did not emerge in the mountainous North West of Vietnam until the neozoic period (circ. 100 million years ago). Fansipan, a rough pronunciation of the local name "Hua Xi Pan" means "the tottery giant rock". The French came to Vietnam and in 1905 planted a landmark telling Fansipan's height of 3,143m and branded it "the Roof of Indochina". Very few people climbed to the top of Fansipan at the time. Then came the long years of war and Fansipan was left deserted for hunting and savaging. The trail blazed by the French was quickly overgrown by the underbrush.
   
It takes six or seven days to reach the 3,143m summit, the highest peak of the Indochina Peninsula.

In 1991, Nguyen Thien Hung, an army man returned to the district town and decided to conquer Fansipan. Only on the 13th attempt did Hung, with a H'Mong boy as his guide, conquer the high peak by following the foot steps of the mountain goats. Scaling the height was meant to satisfy his eager will and aspiration to conquer the mountain without expecting that his name would be put down in the travel guidebook. After that the Sapa Tourism Agency started a new package tour there. It seemed the Fansipan Tour was meant only for those who wished to test their muscular power.

The summit of Fansipan is accessible all year round, but the best time to make the ascent is from mid-October to mid-November, and again in March.
   
Foreigners like best to book Fansipan tours between October and December, as this period is more often than not free from the heavy rains that obstruct the jaunt. But the Vietnamese prefer their tours to the peak of the mountain from February to April, as it is not so cold then. However, the best time for the trek to the mountain is from the end of February to the start of March, when the flowers all flourish and the climbers may behold the carpets of brilliant blossoms, violets and orchids, rhododendrons and aglaias.

Ban Ho Village

Ban Ho Village, Vietnamese Australian Tran Han expressed his excitement when he walked out of the Lavie Stream in the scenic village Ban Ho, more than 26 kilometers away from the famous resort town of Sapa.

Han said swimming in the Lavie was one of many unforgettable memories of his trip to northern Vietnam earlier this year, as the water was fresh and clean in the stream which ran from rocks and hills where a few minority groups live.

Young citizens of Lao Cai Province Vietnam and foreign tourists often trek to Ban Ho to indulge in the pristine Lavie Stream, enjoy the sweet sound of running water from the Ca Nhay Waterfalls and other natural attractions of the tranquil village.

The Lavie Stream, together with Muong Hoa Stream, weaves through boulders, hills, mountains and terraced paddy fields of Tay village, which is nestled in the breathtaking Valley Muong Hoa, adding the finishing touch to the picturesque image of Ban Ho Sapa.

Even though Ban Ho is not too far from the center of Sapa Vietnam not many tourists have visited the village because of the tough approach road, which is under construction and slippery in the rainy season.

However, the village is also accessible by driving from Sapa tours to Su Pan Village and then trekking 10 kilometers to Ban Ho. Topas is one of a number of tour operators who offer this one-day package, with cost determined by the number of participants.

Ban Ho Village, Ban Ho is worth the somewhat difficult journey to get there, as the village rewards visitors with stunning views of unspoiled sites and an opportunity to discover the daily activities of the ethnic people Tay.

On the way to the waterfalls, which were named by locals after seeing fish jumping out of the water in the old days, visitors will pass brooks gently running down bamboo cylinders that locals use to channel the water into their terraced paddy fields, wooden houses perched on the sides of rolling hills and wild flowers.

When they emerge from the water in the dry season the boulders and stones along the Lavie Stream are artworks that resemble different figures, depending on the imagination of viewers. In the rainy season from May till September visitors can see water flowers created by the splashing water running into the boulders.
The trails and roads from Ban Ho also lead to the quiet Red Dao Village of Nam Toong and other ethnic communities, where trekkers can enjoy the best of Northern Vietnam, such as deep valleys, amazing mountains and simple people