ETHOS - Spirit of the Community

28/09/2026

The Wild Table: An Adventure in Learning and Discovery

If you’re visiting Sapa and want to experience something really different, we have lots to offer. Join us for two days in the mountains, walking with Hmong guides, gathering food and spending a night in the forest.

Along the trails, there will be opportunities to ask questions, discover unfamiliar ingredients and notice plants we might otherwise pass by. What grows here? How is it gathered and prepared? What can a shared meal teach us about the place we are visiting?

We’ll carry our equipment, make camp together and help prepare food over an open fire. There will be time to share stories, listen and enjoy the conversations that happen when we walk, cook and eat together. The Wild Table is an invitation to explore with open minds, learn from one another and get to know Sapa through its people, its forests and its food.

Find out more about joining us: https://www.ethosspirit.com/the-wild-table

27/09/2026

Community-Based Tourism in Northern Vietnam

Northern Vietnam’s mountains and rice terraces may draw you here, but it is often the people you meet along the way who any journey real meaning.

This may mean walking with a local guide, sharing a meal in a family home or learning a traditional craft. Each can reveal how landscape, culture and everyday life are connected.

Our guide to community-based tourism in northern Vietnam explores these possibilities through trekking, homestays, cultural workshops and motorbike journeys, with practical advice on choosing experiences that support local livelihoods, respect community choices and offer a deeper understanding of the places you visit.

Read our full guide to community-based tourism in northern Vietnam. Link in the comments below.

17/09/2026

Why do some children sell to tourists in Sapa?

Our three apprentices have been working on a self-study task exploring this question, with the aim of looking beyond first impressions and learning how to approach a sensitive subject with curiosity, care and an open mind.

The purpose is not simply to produce an answer, but to develop the skills needed to reach a considered one. Through independent study and discussion, the task asks them to distinguish between what they have observed and what they have assumed, examine the evidence behind different explanations, and consider the perspectives of children, families, visitors and others in the local community.

We are not asking them to repeat a particular ETHOS viewpoint. We want them to question what they read and hear, recognise where information is missing, and feel able to reconsider their initial opinions as they learn more.

This is where our visitors and followers can get involved.
We have put together a short, anonymous questionnaire asking about visitors’ experiences and opinions concerning children selling to tourists in Sapa, including any advice they have seen or heard during their visit. The responses will give the apprentices an opportunity to explore how different visitors understand the situation and bring those perspectives into their wider study.

Are you in Sapa now, or have you visited before? We would be grateful if you could take part, whether or not you have personally encountered children selling. You do not need any specialist knowledge, and there are no right or wrong answers; we are interested in your own experiences and what you think.

Take part here: https://www.ethosspirit.com/visitor-survey1

Thank you for contributing to the apprentices’ learning and helping them consider this question from a wider range of perspectives.

To read more about Child Sellers in Sapa - https://www.ethosspirit.com/blog/needs-must-understanding-why-some-hmong-children-sell-in-sapa

11/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who has supported the ETHOS Apprenticeship Programme so far.

As of 11th September 2026, we have received US$5,397.70 towards the full 30-month programme, bringing us to 14.29% of our total funding goal.

Every contribution helps us provide Pang, Sinh and Ta May with the time, training, education, accommodation and practical experience needed to develop their skills and build towards long-term careers in tourism. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has chosen to be part of that journey.

We will continue to share progress openly as the programme develops, including updates on what the apprentices are learning, the work they are doing and how the programme is evolving.

You can follow our shared programme updates here:

https://www.ethosspirit.com/shared-programme-updates

Frank Holowich & Pam Williams (Ohio, USA)
Wayne & Sandi Newby (Australia)
Anonymous Donor
Nina Boydell (Australia)
Rafik Sarkissian (Armenia)

Thank you for helping us move the journey forward.

07/09/2026

A huge thank you to our guest for choosing ETHOS and joining our Hmong batik workshop yesterday.

It was a lovely day of learning, drawing and creating together, guided by the knowledge and experience of our local artisans. Her beautiful hand-drawn h**p panels are now being dyed in our natural indigo vat.

We cannot wait to see the finished results. Photos coming soon.

05/09/2026

Getting to Know Sapa: The ETHOS Treasure Hunt

Moving to a new place is about much more than finding somewhere to live. If you are going to feel settled, confident and independent, you need to understand the place around you. That was the purpose of our ETHOS Treasure Hunt.

For Pang, Sinh and Ta May, the activity was designed to build friendships, encourage teamwork and give them the opportunity to explore Sapa together as they begin their new lives here.

Their route took them across very different parts of the town, from the Sapa Museum to the grand entrance halls of five-star hotels, from fast-food restaurants to the temple and Sapa Market, but the challenge was not simply to find places.

We encouraged the apprentices to look beyond the obvious and focus on the variety of Sapa. Which areas feel peaceful? Where are you most likely to meet large crowds? Where can you find the best-value food? Which parts of town are dominated by tourism, and which still feel connected to everyday local life?

These details matter. Over time, this kind of knowledge creates a much deeper understanding of where you live. It helps you navigate confidently, make better decisions, discover useful places and begin to feel that a new town is becoming home.

For Pang, Sinh and Ta May, the Treasure Hunt was also something simpler and equally important: a chance to explore, solve problems, laugh together and begin building friendships as a new team.

https://youtu.be/hO0z50E-QBo?si=BBpneCc3i4rDN4nq

For regular updates, please visit our Shared Programme Updates page.

https://www.ethosspirit.com/shared-programme-updates

2nd September 2026Moving to a new place is about much more than f...

04/09/2026

Needs Must: Before You Judge a Child Selling in Sapa, Ask Why

A boy approaches you in Sapa selling a key ring. He has a baby on his back wrapped in a blanket.

You say no but he keeps trying. It is easy to see a nuisance but is harder to empathise with the family circumstances that led him there.

In this case, that means a father left with permanent injuries after a serious accident. A home damaged by landslides more than once. A mother travelling a difficult mountain road to sell only when weather and circumstances allow. An 11-year-old boy carrying his two-year-old sister through the night market, selling enough to help cover the fuel that brought the family into town, sometimes collecting uneaten food before making the long journey home.

Then, after only a few hours of sleep, he is expected at school before 7am. When he falls asleep in class, he is called lazy.

This is why “just don’t buy from children” is not the whole answer.

We are not defending child selling but this article is written to encourage people to look beyond the behaviour and understand the circumstances that create it. Poverty, unstable income, poor access, damaged homes, limited employment and enormous differences in spending power do not disappear because a tourist says no.

Privilege can make judgement very easy. Empathy requires us to ask harder questions.

Read the full story: https://www.ethosspirit.com/blog/needs-must-understanding-why-some-hmong-children-sell-in-sapa

02/09/2026

(Tiếng Việt ở dưới)

Today is Day One.

This morning, Ta May, Sinh and Pang arrived at the ETHOS Apprentice House carrying bags, clothes and all the practical things needed to make a new place feel like home, but they were also stepping into something much bigger.

Today marks the beginning of a two-and-a-half-year journey. Over the months ahead there will be classroom based learning and fieldwork, new skills and unfamiliar situations, successes and mistakes, difficult days and very good ones. There will be plenty of questions. Hopefully there will be lots of laughter. We hope this is the beginning of new friendships and, we hope, the beginning of new found confidence.

Around them is a community of people who will teach, encourage, challenge, listen, work alongside them and be there when things become difficult.

Thirty months is a long time. None of us knows exactly who these three young women will be when they reach the other end of it, and perhaps that is one of the most exciting things about today.

For now, there a new house to settle into and the first small steps of a very long journey to take. Ta May, Sinh and Pang, from all of us in the ETHOS community: welcome. We are very happy to have you as part of our team.

More details here: https://www.ethosspirit.com/shared-programme-updates

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Hôm nay là ngày đầu tiên.

Sáng nay, Ta May, Sinh và Pang đến Ngôi nhà Học viên ETHOS với hành trang cho một cuộc sống mới. Những bộ quần áo, những vật dụng quen thuộc rồi sẽ dần làm nên cảm giác của một mái nhà. Nhưng phía sau những điều giản dị ấy là một bước ngoặt lớn, khi ba cô gái bắt đầu viết nên một chương mới của cuộc đời mình.

Hai năm rưỡi phía trước sẽ có lớp học và những chuyến đi thực địa, những kỹ năng mới, những trải nghiệm chưa từng có, những thành công và cả những lần vấp ngã. Sẽ có những ngày không dễ dàng, nhưng cũng sẽ có thật nhiều tiếng cười, những tình bạn đẹp và những khoảnh khắc khiến các em nhận ra mình mạnh mẽ, độc lập và có khả năng hơn mình từng nghĩ.

Ba mươi tháng là một quãng thời gian dài. Chúng ta chưa thể biết Ta May, Sinh và Pang sẽ trở thành những người phụ nữ như thế nào khi chạm đến điểm cuối. Và có lẽ, điều đẹp đẽ nhất chính là được chứng kiến sự trưởng thành ấy từng ngày.

Trước mắt các em là một mái nhà để thuộc về, những tình bạn để vun đắp và vô vàn điều mới mẻ để khám phá. Bên cạnh các em sẽ luôn có một cộng đồng sẵn sàng chỉ dẫn, khích lệ, lắng nghe, đồng hành và cùng các em vượt qua những lúc khó khăn.

Ta May, Sinh và Pang, thay mặt tất ca cô, bác, anh, chi, em trong cộng đồng ETHOS, thật hân hạnh được chào đón các em.

Chúc các em một khởi đầu thật tốt đẹp.

01/09/2026

Hi, my name is Cha. I’m from Sapa, and I’m part of the Black Hmong community.

Sapa is a big place, and while the town was busy with tourists today celebrating our National Holiday, life in many of the villages continued as normal. Away from the crowds, the villages remained peaceful, quiet and staggeringly beautiful.

People were taking care of their animals, working in the fields, making clothes and simply continuing with everyday life.

Here are a few beautiful moments from today in my home, Sapa.

1st September 2026

01/09/2026

Sapa’s golden season is upon us. Ripening rice and the harvest will continue across the valleys over the next few weeks. If you’ve been thinking about coming to Sa Pa, we’d love to welcome you to the mountains and share this beautiful time of year with you.