Sa Pa, Vietnam

Day 1 in SaPa

We arrived in Vietnam on schedule after a smooth and comfortable flight with Vietnam Airways on their non stop London to Hanoi route.

We were met by our driver, booked through Viator and soon were on our way- a 4-5 hour car journey North into the hills, to our base of the next couple of days- Sa Pa.

We had splashed out on the nicest hotel in town- the French colonial La Coupole, sitting majestically in the centre of town, and was relieved to be offered an early check in on arrival at 10:45am. Despite not getting barely any sleep on the 11 hour flight, we were keen to push through the day, so went for a swim and then showered, changed and went for a beer at the stunning roof top bar.

We had booked VIP tickets (£70 for the two of us) through the hotel for our afternoon adventure- a trip up Fanzipan mountain, which rises high on the outskirts of SaPa.

The train station to get to the cable car station is a relatively a new addition, and is found at the bottom of the hotel- we enjoyed the VIP treatment as we were escorted to the front of the queue of the Funicular railway.

It’s Vietnam’s longest funicular and the views are magnificent!

From here we moved onto the cable car, which has two Guinness book of record awards- one for the longest 3 rope freestanding cable car in the world (6282 metres long) and another for the biggest ascent by cable car rising 1410 metres throughout its journey. It was relatively windy and as such I found the journey terrifying actually! However the alternative would have been a two day trek- this was over in just 15 mins and the views were incredible.

After the cable car ride and with our feet firmly back on the ground, we made our way up 100 stairs- still being escorted and treated royally and into the 3rd stage of the journey to the top- a short 2-3 min funicular ride to the peak. This sharp ascent gives great views of the trail back down along with the large Buddha, which is the highest seated bronze Buddha statue in Vietnam, at the height of over 3,000m, which rises 21.5m and is cast of over 50 tons of copper.

At the top, sadly the cloud cover blocked views for us- we were 3143 metres up here and at the highest point in Indochina. It was also blowing a hooley but this helped our flag waving!

By now we were getting tired and cold- but we managed the 20 min steep ascent on foot down to the cable car, past the pagoda and Buddha and into the warm of the cable car station. A quick bao bun for lunch restored our energy levels and we made our way back down the mountain- thankfully on a less rocky cable car this time!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening enjoying a mooch and some bar action around SaPa. It’s a tourist town with a hiking influence, so shops are tailored to the hikers. We found a great rooftop to enjoy happy hour overlooking the main square before making our way down to an even better terrace bar with staggering Mountain View’s. At 93p a beer, with million dollar views, the beer slipped down well indeed and we were genuinely happy as Larry- if not knackered!

Soon our bellies could stand it no longer though and we headed for a traditional family restaurant mid way on the Main Street. Viet Home restaurant was a lovely wooden traditional building and the owner was so welcoming to us. We chose the salmon hotpot for two- which is the local dish here and included sapa grown mushrooms which were heavenly!

The hotpot comes out in sections along with a big pan of broth and hot plate. She showed us how to cook it adding the mushrooms and tofu first, then the salmon for the last minute. You then spoon it over some noodles and the taste was just incredible. We really enjoyed it! I also tried the local rice wine.

After dinner we took another walk through the town, which came to life after dark and hikers had returned presumably from their long hikes. We however started fading fast. Pleased to have made it to 9pm, considering we’d only landed in Vietnam at 5am that morning and not really slept- we’d had a great first day, we made our way to our oasis of the hotel de la Coupole.

A perfect first day in Sapa!

Day 2 in Sapa consisted of a relatively early start after a disrupted nights sleep thanks to jet lag. We checked out at 8am and made our way for breakfast in a small cafe opposite the Sapa sisters office, before meeting our private guide, Ma from Sapa sisters for our day trek. Before leaving the office, route options were shown to us and we chose the downhill route into the valley at a medium difficulty. Ma led us out of town and before long we were descending into the valley surrounded by green rice terraces. Our track led us past small Vietnamese farming communities, and we passed local families tending to their land and animals. Kids were playing, using plastic trays and leaves as a sledge on the track, and skipping. All waving us by with huge smiles and enthusiasm.

We passed through a couple of small villages and enjoyed a lunch stop overlooking the river. I had been worried that these small villages would touristy, and whilst there were definitely some tourist stalls evident, the majority of the trek really did feel like we were experiencing the local life off the beaten track. Ma gave us a wealth of interesting info along the way.

It really was an excellent experience and the 6.5 miles wizzed by.

After our trek, we headed back to the hotel, which whilst we had checked out, had kindly allowed us to store luggage and use the pool etc after our trek. Which we were happy to make use of.

We had some time to kill in Lao Cai so enjoyed a meal and some street beers next to the station, before boarding at 8.45pm.

At 5pm we made our way back to the Sapa sisters office and caught a transfer to Lao Cai for our overnight sleep train back to Hanoi.

We’ve experienced a Vietnamese sleeper train before on the Hanoi to hue route- which probably is more tradional in that it’s not only tourists that use it. This route to Hanoi from Lao Cai and vice versa is more of a tourist only train and as such the toilets were more palatable and we thought the room was better too. A sleeper train is still a sleeper train though and no matter how much more luxurious it is, the actual journey is still bumby as heck, and probably should be named (you’d be lucky to) sleeper train! We settled in with a bottle of red and some train snacks, and whilst we were a bit more comfy than last time, sleep wasn’t exactly forthcoming!