We travelled from Hanoi to Sapa after our Halong Bay trip on a night train booked through our hotel in Hanoi, the B&B Hanoi Hostel. We paid $60USD return per person for a standard ticket but somehow got upgraded to a deluxe ticket. The Oriental Impressive night train was quite clean and comfortable and the only thing that made me nervous was sharing a room with 2 strangers. Thankfully, nothing bad happened on the train and we got to Sapa safely. We got picked up by our hotel, Sapa Cozy 2 Hotel from Lao Cao station ($6usd return). Our hotel was really clean, huge and airy and was also really well located which made it easy to explore Sapa Town by walking (our favourite mode of transportation for cheapo backpackers). We actually made a last minute change to this hotel because we were afraid the other hotel we booked wouldn't be as clean.
Day One
We wanted to trek to Cat Cat village by ourselves but it started raining really heavily so we decided to take nap instead. Once it stopped raining, we dragged ourselves out of bed to trek to Cat Cat. The trek was actually downhill and so we only suffered when walking back to Sapa town.
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| Sapa Town |
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| Cat Cat Village |
We had to pay to enter Cat Cat village and then got swamped by little girls selling bracelets. They chanted "buy from me" and when we said "no thank you", they said "yes thank you". Cat Cat village is quite small and very ideal for a DIY trek without a guide. Most people took a motorcycle back to Sapa Town once they were done looking at the waterfall and village but we climbed all the way uphill back to Sapa because we were running out of money and it was really pretty anyway.
After climbing our way back to Sapa Town, we sat down at Natureview Restaurant for a meal. The ginger tea and soup was yummy.
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| Natureview Restaurant |
Day Two
I wanted to go to Sapa mainly to go trekking and experience the beautiful landscape of Sapa and it did not disappoint! We booked a tour with Sapa Sisters by going to their office a day before to choose our trek. Our guide was very friendly and shared a lot about her culture and religion. She even picked fruits from her family's garden for us to try. We walked through misty hills, a forest filled with butterflies and paddy fields.
Day Three
On our last day in Sapa, we just hung around restaurants starting from breakfast at Viet Emotion Restaurant. We had yummy Vietnamese coffee and their breakfast menu while people watching. We walked back to our hotel, checked out and made our way to Sapa O'chau for lunch/tea and had amazing fish and chips till it was time to leave Sapa and make our way back to Hanoi.
The minibus from Sapa to Lao Cai was nauseating and they told us to go into this restaurant while they helped us collect our train tickets. This just made me really annoyed because they just wanted us to buy something from the restaurant (but we didn't) and took a really long time to get our tickets. Travelling makes me nervous, especially in Vietnam. We also got scammed by the taxi in Hanoi when we got back from Sapa. He went round and round till he got to our hotel and it was 3x the price of our journey to the train station from our hotel. Also, was really nervous cause it was like 4am.
I was sad to leave Sapa because we really liked it way more than Hanoi and it was just so beautiful and cooling. There were so many chill cafes with amazing views that I would have loved to explore.
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