Sapa, located in Lao Cai province, about 350 km south west of Hanoi is Hanoi city and it has the Vietnam’s highest peak, Fansipan, 3143m above sea level.
There's overnight train from Hanoi city to Lao Cai. Trains depart from Hanoi train station and arrive around 530 am in the morning. There are quite a few companies operating and tickets can be bought online. Upon reaching Lao Cai railway station, you need to catch a taxi which will bring you to Sapa. The journey takes about 50 minutes. You can also get a agency to help arrange a package for you.
We have engage a local agency to help out, our train is "Oriental Express" and depart at 930pm. The train's interior look pretty new and clean. Bed is soft, air-con is cold except that the bed is abit short for me.
The overall train ride is quite enjoyable, listening to the train running on the railway. Toilet are close before the train move off and only open up for usage after reaching a certain point of the ride. I manage to catch some sleep on the train, lucky that the train is not too shaky.
It's 6am in the morning and staffs working on the train start knocking on every door informing the arrival to Lao Cai. Weather is getting cold and air is fresh. We get ourselves prepared, get off the train and move on Fansipan. The van is already waiting for us outside the train station, am so hungry and wish I could have my breakfast now. We had our breakfast at the hotel and move out for the 2 day 1 night hiking. We will be having a home stay tonight, will be moving out with only the necessity and leaving our baggage in the hotel.
Our guide is a young lady, speak good English and friendly. Our group consists of around 5-6 peoples, coming from different country. It's always a good experience to mingle around and learn from each other. Before we start off, our guide gives us a brief introduction of today hiking and what we will expect to see. We are soon surrounded by a bunch of local granny, They follow us throughout our hiking, help us cross padi field, mountain and river. These granny are pretty fit, wore a pair of slippers and walk pretty fast. I slipped a few times and they helped me. When reaching the mid point for lunch, these granny start to sell their local product. Bought a few of them to thanks them for the help.
Home stay is fun, we are going stay at a house belong to one of the local people. There's a big hall at the second floor which is used to store their dry goods but now it's cleaned up and used for home stay. It's clean, mattress on the floor, mosquito net, pillow and with thick blanket. The toilet has been renovated with white tiles and water heater. The owner prepared dinner for us and treated us with rice wine, toasted for Vietnam prosperity and safety of everyone. CHEERS.....
Night fall and weather get cold due to the high altitude. Everyone sit around the long table outside of the house chit chatting, talk about their lifestyle and also how's the trip is. In the middle of the night, I can hear the sound emitted by the cricket. It's sound like the whole mountain is full of cricket, everyone calling out to one another.
The next morning, we continue the journey back to the city.
It's a very different experience for me, having going through these padi field, home stay with the local people and also getting to know new friends.
We finished the trip by going through another area of Sapa, the Cat Cat village before heading back to Hanoi city, It's pretty close to the Sapa town area, take around 30 mins to reach there on foot. We watched their cultural dance, some of the equipment used in the olden days. Along the way, we visited some of the local house and padi field. On the way back, we visited their market place too.
Sapa is a place good for photo taking, especially on their padi field. The gradient of the slope, beautiful sunrise or sunset reflecting on the water, the padi greenish make the photo outstanding.
There's overnight train from Hanoi city to Lao Cai. Trains depart from Hanoi train station and arrive around 530 am in the morning. There are quite a few companies operating and tickets can be bought online. Upon reaching Lao Cai railway station, you need to catch a taxi which will bring you to Sapa. The journey takes about 50 minutes. You can also get a agency to help arrange a package for you.
We have engage a local agency to help out, our train is "Oriental Express" and depart at 930pm. The train's interior look pretty new and clean. Bed is soft, air-con is cold except that the bed is abit short for me.
The overall train ride is quite enjoyable, listening to the train running on the railway. Toilet are close before the train move off and only open up for usage after reaching a certain point of the ride. I manage to catch some sleep on the train, lucky that the train is not too shaky.
It's 6am in the morning and staffs working on the train start knocking on every door informing the arrival to Lao Cai. Weather is getting cold and air is fresh. We get ourselves prepared, get off the train and move on Fansipan. The van is already waiting for us outside the train station, am so hungry and wish I could have my breakfast now. We had our breakfast at the hotel and move out for the 2 day 1 night hiking. We will be having a home stay tonight, will be moving out with only the necessity and leaving our baggage in the hotel.
Our guide is a young lady, speak good English and friendly. Our group consists of around 5-6 peoples, coming from different country. It's always a good experience to mingle around and learn from each other. Before we start off, our guide gives us a brief introduction of today hiking and what we will expect to see. We are soon surrounded by a bunch of local granny, They follow us throughout our hiking, help us cross padi field, mountain and river. These granny are pretty fit, wore a pair of slippers and walk pretty fast. I slipped a few times and they helped me. When reaching the mid point for lunch, these granny start to sell their local product. Bought a few of them to thanks them for the help.
Home stay is fun, we are going stay at a house belong to one of the local people. There's a big hall at the second floor which is used to store their dry goods but now it's cleaned up and used for home stay. It's clean, mattress on the floor, mosquito net, pillow and with thick blanket. The toilet has been renovated with white tiles and water heater. The owner prepared dinner for us and treated us with rice wine, toasted for Vietnam prosperity and safety of everyone. CHEERS.....
Night fall and weather get cold due to the high altitude. Everyone sit around the long table outside of the house chit chatting, talk about their lifestyle and also how's the trip is. In the middle of the night, I can hear the sound emitted by the cricket. It's sound like the whole mountain is full of cricket, everyone calling out to one another.
The next morning, we continue the journey back to the city.
It's a very different experience for me, having going through these padi field, home stay with the local people and also getting to know new friends.
We finished the trip by going through another area of Sapa, the Cat Cat village before heading back to Hanoi city, It's pretty close to the Sapa town area, take around 30 mins to reach there on foot. We watched their cultural dance, some of the equipment used in the olden days. Along the way, we visited some of the local house and padi field. On the way back, we visited their market place too.
Sapa is a place good for photo taking, especially on their padi field. The gradient of the slope, beautiful sunrise or sunset reflecting on the water, the padi greenish make the photo outstanding.
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