Nobody comes to Sapa by accident, it isn’t on the way to somewhere else so there is a purpose, and is mostly to see some of those iconic photogenic places that make their way into Vietnamese marketing materials, or you are here for the trekking, which was established by the French in the last century, presumably they were bored of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
Top of the list for most people are Cat Cat village, Moen Park and a trip to the top of the highest peak in Indo China, Fansipan mountain. After a bit of hunting around we found this tour that meant we could tick all the boxes in one day.
We started at the old stone church in the centre of Sapa where we met our guide and our fellow travellers for the day, boarded the bus and headed to Cat Cat village, important to note that there are no cats in Cat Cat village, in fact, I don’t recall seeing any in Vietnam generally.
Cat Cat village is conveniently located in the valley below Sapa, and lot of people simply followed the footpath down the hill. On the way we noticed lots of shops selling or renting traditional outfits, mostly for women. They were all in a very oriental theme, and they could have make up, hair and all sorts of other beauty treatments in these stores, it seemed a very odd thing to do on holiday.
At the start of the tour of Cat Cat, you get the chance to do a huge slide on an inflatable ring, which seemed a bit of an odd tradition too, but we had a go as it was more fun that walking down the steps.
Cat Cat village is entirely made for tourists, It is very quaint, with a river running through the middle of it, with manmade weirs to cause waterfalls and along both banks are examples of traditional buildings and cafes, but nobody lives here anymore, I suspect them might have been moved on to make way for the tourists.
It was a very pleasant hour, drinking coffee, watching the traditional dancing, avoiding shops, listening to bands and generally just chilling out. There was also the strange spectacle of the Koreans getting dressed up in traditional costumes and having their photos taken, they were everywhere and we couldn’t really work out why, it seemed like some sort of wedding ritual, but nobody was getting married. These people were everywhere you went, posing on bridges, posing on horseback, posing in the river – it was all very weird.
The guide then ushered us back to the bus, and on to the Moana Park, which the guide introduced as the Instagram park. We were looking forward to seeing some of these iconic and mystical structures from the brochures.
This was a truly fake place with lots more Koreans queuing up for their Instagram photo with each of the structures. Basically, this was a park, with a beautiful view of a valley, which makes for some great photos, unless it’s foggy, which it often is at this altitude.
So, we took a few photos and headed for the Fansipan cable car. This was an incredible journey that starts with the Mường Hoa Funicular railway from the centre of Sapa, a line that runs across valleys and through tunnels in the hillside to arrive at a mid-station, with an amazing terraced area that would have offered fabulous views, if it were not for the fog, yet again.
We stopped here for lunch, before heading for stage 2, the cable car. Having spent many years in the mountains of the Alps a cable car journey is hardly a novelty, but this journey was. It is the longest ride in the world at over 8kms, the cars flow between gigantic pylons that are mounted on rocky peaks. They carry you across valleys and up to the top of highest mountain in the region.
I have to admit to being gobsmacked by the human ambition and achievement to build such a structure in such an inhospitable environment. There seemed to be no access roads to any of the structures, which meant men had to walk there, carry the materials and live there while it was being built, it is truly incredible and the sort of thing no Western country would ever consider building, but this is Vietnam and their cousins to the north (China) seem will to help.
Arrival was also spectacular but inevitably spoiled by thick fog. We climbed to the platform with the enormous buddha, which we could hardly see, but not to the top, is the fog just gets thicker. Luckily, they had thoughtfully built a Starbucks at the top of the mountain so we huddled in there and warmed up.
As I was having my photo taken with my Plymouth Argyle shirt to prove we are most travelled supporters, a bloke came over and said “I hope you lose on Saturday”, unbelievably he was a fan of Luton Town, and we were in a head to head with them at the weekend for promotion, talk about a small world. I tried to work out why they had built a shrine to Buddha, when they aren’t really Buddhists, or in fact why they had built the cable car all the way to the top of this distant mountain, and it was the same reason as for Cat Cat and Moen. Nearly all these attractions have been built for tourists and without doubt, they have invested billions in this up and coming industry.
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