Our bus to Sapa was very luxurious. We each had our own cabin with a lie flat bed, which vibrated if you turned on the massage feature, WiFi, charging ports, bottled water and even a TV (though this didn’t work). The journey was supposed to be 6 hours, but after circling Hanoi a few times to pick everyone up it took closer to 8, so pretty much took up our whole day. We’d booked a place on the edge of town hoping for a great view, but when we arrived we discovered the view wasn’t worth the extra hike into town every day (it’s sometimes hard to tell from a map where is convenient to stay and where is up a huge hill), so we moved somewhere more central at the last minute. It was dark by the time we were checked in and ready to explore town, and very very foggy. From across the square could only see the lights of the church, nothing of the building itself. We looped around the couple of lively tourist streets, and down a road of restaurants where every building was brightly illuminated. We found a BBQ place where you cooked the sticks at your table, and tried a few different options, only discovering at the end that what we thought was pork was actually goat.

Our first full day in Sapa we had a slow morning while we tried to figure out the best order for our days. We settled on doing the shorter hike close to town, which started with a steep descent into the valley. It was still very cloudy, but less foggy than the previous evening, so the views as we descended were our first proper glimpse of the famous Sapa rice terraces. Cat Cat village is very close to town, and therefore now very touristy, and we had to pay around $6 just to enter the village. From the ticket booth the path led past a giant multicoloured slide, and it was clear that this was not going to be a traditional village experience as advertised. We took the less busy path alongside the river to reach Cat Cat, which was a very scenic stretch of buildings along both sides of the water with bridges crossing the river at various points. Every single structure had clearly been built only in the last 15 years or so, with the express purpose of being instagrammable. We wandered slowly along the pretty walkways, occasionally having to stop and wait for a photoshoot to finish. The waterfalls scattered through this section of the valley were also very pretty, though after taking one of the higher paths around the edge of the village we discovered that at least some of the waterfalls were man made. When we were finished exploring there was around 40 minutes until the next cultural performance, which was included with our ticket, so we sat at one of the cafes by the river and ordered smoothies while we waited. Creed’s frozen passionfruit concoction was fantastic, and we’ve been on the lookout for a second one ever since. The cultural performance was enjoyable, particularly the old man playing a leaf like a harmonica, and the weird boat shaped flute which a young man played while doing roly polys all over the stage.

We exited the tourist village at the other end to where we’d come in, and here we finally found an actually traditional village. We wandered down the valley a little way, and then across some bamboo walkways through rice fields with water wheels spinning in the stream. At this point the sun came out from behind the clouds, so we decided to continue our walk to make the most of it, descending further into the valley and into stunning countryside views. After about an hour then fog started to roll back in. The paths back up the mountainside were hard to spot, so we ended up walking further than intended before climbing a very steep dirt road back to the main paved road where we got a taxi back to town.

The next day we took a different route out of town, descending into the valley a little before the spot we’d finished at the day before, to continue on a longer hike through the rice terraces. Halfway down the steep descent we found a beautiful cafe terraces with panoramic views of the entire valley, and a very cute puppy with a sweater on. We spent the next few hours walking past rice paddies, limestone karsts, small streams, wild buffaloes, and always absolutely incredible views. We passed some stalls with local crafts, and at one small village we discovered many locals in traditional dress drinking lots of rice wine, clearly celebrating something. One person was playing a drum, and another was playing the weird shaped flute that we’d seen at the show the day before, which was cool to see as a real example of current Sapa culture, not just as a performance for tourists. We continued walking and soon came upon a bigger village with lots more handicraft shops and restaurants full of tourists. It was around lunchtime, and this was clearly the lunch spot on all the organised tours. Keen to get back out into the wilderness we kept walking, though it wasn’t long before we sat and took a break for a while. The next village was not far, and from there the last point we had started on the map was close enough that we could make it before dark. We veered further up the mountain, the path turning from farm track to bamboo forest, before descending again towards a lake and a waterfall, our final destination. We’d packed an overnight bag in case we wanted to find a homestay and continue hiking the next day. There weren’t any options for continued hiking that didn’t involve long stretches on the highway, but we decided to stay at a homestay anyway, rather than drive back to town. We ending up having tasty local food at a rustic lodge, and woke up to yet more stunning valley views.

In the morning, with no hiking plans, we decided instead to rent a motorbike and explore the further out villages that required a vehicle to get to. We continued down the valley a little way to get to some more viewpoints, before returning all the way up to Sapa and beyond it to a couple of waterfalls higher up in the mountains. At this height it was very cold on the bike, but still the best way to get around and see everything we’d starred on the map. After the waterfalls we headed down a different valley, with more great scenic photo spots on the way, to a large cave which had many small passageways to squeeze through, and was very cool to explore. Our last spot for the day was a traditional herbal bath of the Red Dao people. We visited a village spa with tubs in private rooms overlooking a mountain, and had a very relaxing soak. Our way back into Sapa took us past the night market, which we hadn’t made it to yet, so we stopped for some weird street food: burnt rice, a rice paper Vietnamese quesadilla type thing, and some questionable deep fried things on sticks.

On our final day in Sapa we climbed the mountain right outside of town. The mountainside has been turned into a garden with flowers, sculptures, caves and viewing platforms. There was supposed to be another cultural show as part of the ticket entrance, but when we got to the performance building there was noone there. We wandered the many pathways, and found ourselves at a viewpoint overlooking Sapa town. Fortunately it was not foggy on this day, so we had a great view, and from here spotted a temple in town that we hadn’t known about. The rest of the way up the mountain did look more foggy, and wouldn’t afford us any better views of the town or valley than we’d already seen, so we decided to head back down and visit the temple instead. After one final wander through town, we headed back to a great Indian restaurant for lunch and then to the hotel to wait for our bus to Ha Giang, which was much less luxurious.

We’d been sad to learn that the funicular railway and cable car to the top of Fansipan, the highest mountain in southeast Asia, was closed for around 3 weeks exactly when we were there. Hiking the peak instead took a minimum of 2 days, and was also not particularly enjoyable at this time of year, so we skipped this. But otherwise I think we had a very full experience of Sapa and the surrounding villages, on foot and by bike, and we were ready to move on.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!