Trekking in Sapa, Vietnam
Sapa is a small town located in
Lao Cai Province in Northwest Vietnam, which is close to Chinese border. It is
famous for its mountainous area that many people, mostly tourists come here for
trekking while Vietnamese from the south come to relax, also enjoy the cool air
and the beautiful scenery. There are two common ways to reach Sapa by public
transports, either by train or sleeper bus.
Train. Trains are only available until Lao Cai which is one hour
ride from Sapa town. It takes 8 hours
from Hanoi to Lao Cai and each train leaves at night, mostly departs at 21.00 from Hanoi Railway Station and arrive at Lao
Cai Railway Station at 05.00, so you would stay overnight on the train. A
one-way train ticket would cost about USD
30 per person for 4 berths cabin and USD 60 for 2 berth cabin. Once you
arrive at Lao Cai Station, you have to hire a minibus to go to Sapa. I’m not
sure how much this would cost but there will be lots of locals offering minibus
or taxi services at the exit gate of the station.
Sleeper bus. It may sounds weird but sleeper bus takes less time
and cheaper than the train, which is 6
hours from Hanoi to Sapa Town. The
price ranges between USD 10 to USD 20 per person based on the bus type and
mostly offer pick up service from hotels in Hanoi or Sapa. The bus leaves
several times each day. It might be better to take the overnight bus so you
will not waste too much time.
If you are planning to trek in
Sapa, it’s better for you to hire a local guide since you will pass mountain
road and rural area. I tried to compare the price between booking a Sapa tour
by train from Hanoi and book everything by myself and turned out the price is
not much different. So I decided to book a 2D3N Sapa tour by train. Other tour
options are available, like 2D1N or 4D3N or even longer, but it looks like 2
days would be pretty enough to explore Sapa. We booked the tour from a hotel in
Hanoi called Madam Moon which has
travel services and they have been reviewed by Trip Advisor. The staff who helped
us called Julia and she was really helpful. The tour cost us USD 125 per person, included round-trip
train ticket, land transfer from hotel to the train station, 1 night stay at a
3 star hotel in Sapa, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 days (total 6 meals),
and private local guide for trekking. They offer 2 options of hotel in
Sapa, Panorama Hotel or Vista Hotel, both are 3 stars and located close to each
other. We chose Panorama hotel instead since it looks good and has better
reviews. If you want rooms on the highest floor, there will be additional
charge of USD 10 per person. However, we booked 2 rooms with one of them on the
highest floor and the travel agent upgraded the rooms, so we got 2 rooms on the
highest floor. To book the tour, we had
to make 10% deposit payment and settled the remaining right before we
started the tour. Most of Sapa tours are private tour, so just tell the agents
if you have any concern about the arrangement and they will help you on this.
The tour lasts for two days with
trekking as the main activities. First
day trekking would be around 12 km (7 km mountain road and 5 km concrete road)
to Y Linh Ho, Lao Chai, and Ta Van Village while the second day trekking would
be around 13 km to Matra and Ta Phin Village. Each trek would last around 5 to 6 hours depends on how fast you
walk. The route is actually flexible, if you don’t want to go to any of the
village, you could ask the guide to arrange another route. They will also give you
options, either to go through mountain road or concrete road. Mountain road
might be more challenging and has better views. The trek would be pretty easy
on summer. However, the mountain road
will be extremely slippery during rainy season as it’s covered with mud and it
could be dangerous since some areas are quite steep. It was raining when we
went, so the local guide recommended us to rent a boot or trekking shoes from
the hotel instead. Sandals are totally prohibited.
You can wear your running shoes if you bring any, but it will be covered with
mud. So if you can find one that fits your feet, you should rent instead, since
it only costs VND 30,000 for one whole day while shoe laundry would cost VND
50,000. All the locals we found were wearing boots and they said it is more
comfortable. Remember to prepare a poncho as well, as the rain could come unpredictably.
So here’s how our trip looked like.
Wednesday, 13 June
2018
We just finished our trip to
Halong Bay that day, so we came to their office in the afternoon and paid the
remaining balance. We left the office at 20.00 to go to the train station,
accompanied by one of their staff. They could pick you up at your hotel in
Hanoi if you want. Hanoi Railway Station is located around Old Quarter area and
it only took 5 minutes from the travel agent’s office. The staff gave us the
boarding pass and the voucher to return to Hanoi (always keep the voucher or
you won’t be able to go back), and walked us to our cabin. The train departed
at 21.00 and it was time to take a rest.
Thursday, 14 June 2018
We arrived at Lao Cai Railway
Station at 05.00 and went to the exit gate to find someone bringing paper with
our names written. Then we got into the minibus, shared with other tourists, to
go to our hotel in Sapa which was Panorama Hotel. Once we arrived in front of
the hotel, many local women came all of a sudden and it was something unusual
to see. When we got out from the minibus they started asking us “where do you
come from”, “what’s your name”, “how old are you”, and other questions. We
answered them while keep on walking to our hotel and then they started to leave
us one by one. I personally do not understand what they were trying to do, but I
thought they were building connection with the tourists.
We went to the receptionist, but
unfortunately our rooms were not ready yet, so they told us to have breakfast
and take some rest at the lobby before the guide pick us up at 09.30 to start
trekking. There are bathrooms, changing rooms, and toilets available at the
hotel lobby, complete with the clean towel as well. The breakfast was Vietnamese
with some other usual breakfast menus like bread, cereal, and milk. Not long
after we had our breakfast, a young Vietnamese girl, turned out to be our
guide, came to us and ensured that we were going to trek. She then gave us some
brief instructions and pleased us to get ready.
We finally started trekking at
09.00 and it was drizzling the moment we got out from the hotel, but we still
continued. We walked on concrete road for about 10 minutes before stopping at a
T-junction and here, we saw many local women (like the one we saw in front of
our hotel) wearing traditional clothes of Sapa while carrying a basket on their
back, which is filled with souvenirs to be sold to the tourists. The guide
ensured which road we would like to take, either mountain road or continue with
concrete road. We chose the mountain road instead, as concrete road might be unpleasant
considering many vehicles passed by and there might be traffic as well. And the
long journey started. Even when we just started the mountain road was already
slippery and some were quite steep so that we asked the guide how long we will
go through that kind of road. The locals we saw before followed us and helped
us by holding our hands. The journey felt like a very long one. It might be
easy on summer but the rain had made the road muddy and extremely slippery. That’s
why the locals wear boots, because there’s no way you can keep your shoe clean
in this situation. We saw rice fields around us along the way, but we couldn’t
really enjoy the view as we tried not to fall when walking. We passed the super
slippery mountain road for about 4 hours before reaching a restaurant for
lunch. There were 2 or 3 stops during the trek for us to take some rest. You
have to bring some water with you because it is a quite long walk and we couldn’t
find anyone selling mineral water.
Before we entered the restaurant,
the locals who followed and helped us said that they would no longer walk with
us as the remaining trek were pretty easy and that they would like to sell us
some souvenirs before they leave. Basically, what they sell were handmade crafts
made by the locals like scarf, purse, bags, and others which cost about VND 250,000
to VND 300,000 each. Some tourists feel this is quite annoying that the locals
try to follow and build connection with them in order to make them buy the
souvenirs, considering the souvenirs are pretty expensive and it’s not something
that they really need. Moreover, if there are three locals following you, it
means you have to buy from all of them to make it fair. However, it is not
their fault either. Making money in Sapa is extremely hard, that the only way
the women can do is selling souvenirs to tourists, and they have to pass the tough
trek every single day in order to sell. At that moment we bought from them just
as a gratitude, considering they have helped us along the way.
The rest of the day was free time,
so we decided to clean ourselves and take some rest for a while. We had dinner at
the hotel before going out again. Unfortunately the menus were exactly the same
with our lunch, except they swapped the pork with chicken, but it tasted no
different. It was drizzling again when we walked around. There are lots of
restaurants and hotel around Sapa Town, there is also a traditional market open
at night. Around the town we saw another group of locals selling souvenirs, but
this time they are kids, mostly girls, with some of them carrying baby on their
back. They follow tourists while keep saying “buy one from me”. There are also girls
sitting on the roadside wearing a traditional headpiece, waiting for tourists
to take pictures with them. Why girls? Because the boys are too shy and it’s
also to get sympathy from the tourists. If you walk around, you will find many
notice not to buy from the children as the government worries it will encourage
the kids to stop going to school.
Friday, 15 June 2018
Our plan for the day was to visit
Cat Cat Village which took around 3.5 hours of walking. We had breakfast (again,
the menus were same with the previous day) before we left at 10.00. The trek to
the village was much easier than the day before, as all the roads are concrete
roads, no soil and mud. It was really cloudy that we couldn’t see the scenery
around us. We actually expected that the village would be where the local
lives, but unfortunately all we could see were souvenir shops rather than
traditional houses. Cat Cat Village is a tourist attraction which requires tourists
to pay for a ticket to enter the village. Two main places we visited were the
flower garden and the waterfall. If you are strong enough to have another long trek
on your second day in Sapa, just ask the guide to bring you to another village,
as there was nothing much to see at Cat Cat. We got back to the hotel at 13.00
and said goodbye to our very kind guide called May. She has been a guide for six years and she has a facebook page named
Lothi May. You can contact her if you’re planning to trek and need a local
guide in Sapa, she will help you to arrange the tour.
Then it was another free time
before the bus pick us up at 17.00 to go to the train station in Lao Cai, so we
had lunch at the hotel, took a shower, and rest for a while. There are some
places to be visited in Sapa like Sapa
Church (Stone Church or Holy Rosary Church), Sapa Lake, Ham Rong Mountain,
Silver Waterfall, and Sapa Market. But due to the limited time we had, we
only went to Sapa Church and Sapa Lake. The Church was built by the French and
it only opens for Sunday Mass and certain event. The air in Sapa is cool so it’s
always nice to walk around. The minibus finally picked us up and it was time to
leave Sapa. Once we arrived in Lao Cai, they dropped us at a restaurant next to
the train station, which is also the train office. The staff walked us to our
cabin inside the train at 20.00 and the train departed at 21.00.
Saturday, 16 June
2018
We arrived in Hanoi the following
day at 05.00 and the staff from Madam Moon, the travel agent we used, picked us
up to their hotel. They lent us a bathroom to take a shower, pleased us to take
some rest at their lobby, and also provided us with some breakfast. We went to
the airport after that, so they also helped us to book a taxi. The taxi cost around VND 400,000 from Old
Quarter to Hanoi International Airport. Public bus is available, but make
sure you spare some time and ask your hotel where the nearest bus stop is.
If you’re going to Vietnam, you
should definitely spend a few days in Sapa. It might not be as popular as
Halong Bay, but it is really worth a visit, especially if you love trekking. It
is also a nice place to stay even though it rains a lot, as the mountainous scenery
are beautiful, the air is cool, and it’s a nice city to walk around. You can
also continue your trip to China if you want, considering it is really close
with the border.
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