There are lots of Mamas in Sapa offering Homestays and hiking Tours. The problem is that they live in small villages around Sapa and there aren’t in the city every day.
There are some agencies in Sapa offering Homestays and hiking Tours for much more money, telling the tourists that you can’t do it on your own and you have to book it via them, which is not true. They aren’t paying the families much money, although for the tourists it is a very expensive option.
We bought a Vietnamese Simcard (Mobiphone 18GB for 300.000 VND and added some money for telephone calls 20.000 VND) and called Mama Khoe!
She never learned how to write so the only option is to call her, but her spoken English is very very good.
We called her a few days before we went to Sapa (2 days) and she told us to pick us up at the church in Sapa which was pretty easy.
(When you are arriving with the night train and not with the bus, take a Minibus from Lai Cai to Sapa. We got one for 40.000 pP- you should bargain here, they wanted us to pay 100.000 at the beginning).
When a Mama is going to pick you up, there are quite a lot of women from the city walking with you wanting to sell you their goods (scarfs, bags, etc.). Those aren’t friends of her, but she doesn’t want to send them away because they need to earn their living too. You don’t have to feel guilty not buying but of course you can and help them and their families.
We paid 800.000 pP for 3 days and 2 nights at Mama Khoe’s House getting 2x breakfast 3x lunch 2x dinner and everything is sooo delicious, especially her spring rolls that I am still dreaming of. You don’t have to pay that much but we wanted to support her and her family because they were so kind and made us feel part of the family. We got the chance to try happy tea and happy drinks, water for free and great tracking tours during the three days.
You can pay her at the end how much it was worth for you- so 800.000 gives you an idea what is pretty fair.
How we spend our 3 days
1. day hiking through rice fields, passing a few villages -about 4 hours to the place where you have lunch and about 2 more hours to her place
2. day Fansipan (which we paid by ourselves but it was definitely worth the money - 600.000 pP taking the cable car and 300.00 (4P, but we think this wasn’t a pretty good fare) for the taxi to the city and back)
3. day hiking and seeing some more villages and a waterfall... and after lunch a taxi back (paid by Mama Khoe)
She explained so much about the culture, living in Sapa and it was really interesting.
You need to know that it is pretty cold during winter and there is no heating in the Homestays. There is one room with electricity and WiFi, one shower with more or less water and a toilet. She lives at a little farm with her family. It might be that you aren’t the only tourist at her place but it’s funny doing drinking games in the evenings. You shouldn’t be allergic to dust, or taking a sleeping bag with you!
It was definitely worth the money and an adventure I won’t forget. You’ll get a pretty good idea of how her daily life looks like! I can highly recommend Mama Khoe and Mama Ti’s Homestay and wanted to share my experiences with you :-)
If you have any questions feel free to send me a pm :)
Have fun and a great time in Vietnam
Lena
