Rare Adventures

Category: Adventures

Stories about travel and adventure

SaPa – spectacular attractions from Cat Cat to the Fansipan Cable Car

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.

23/06/2026
Exploring Sapa and unexpected victory celebrations

With Hanoi completed it was time to head off on our adventures around the north. First stop was Sapa for the trek and the trip up to the Fansipan peak on the longest cable car in the world, but first we had to get to Sapa.

We considered the train, as it would have meant going through Train Street, but when we mentioned it, the locals thought we were mad. It takes much longer than the bus and involved a taxi from the station up to Sapa, and apart from that it is booked weeks in advance to it wasn’t an option.

The coach to Sapa was our first experience of their travel system and it is unbelievably good. Half the route is by motorway, after which you end up back on their slow old roads and the long windy route up to Sapa.

The coach was amazing, generally referred to as VIP, it was like being on a business class flight, the seats were huge reclining seats and loads of leg room. As a person of 6 foot with long legs, I notice such things and these buses are fabulous.

After sea level and claustrophobic heat in Hanoi, Sapa is in the northern mountains at about 1500m above sea level and the change is immediately noticeable, it was raining and noticeably cooler,

The other thing that you immediately notice is that is steep, in every direction, when you leave your accommodation, it is steep. You will also quickly discover that it is really and lively at night.

There has been a huge investment in Sapa to build it as a tourist centre. Much off the tourist infrastructure has been built in the last 15 years, so you are not visiting a historic centre in any way. The investment to exploit Fansipan mountain infrastructure has been incredible, to the extent that the train runs right into the centre of the town is built into a shopping mall and apartment block for the privileged.

The other unexpected factor was that how busy it was, there were crowds everywhere. The entire town was gridlocked, our bus dumped us outside of the town and told us to get a taxi. We then discovered that we had arrived in the middle of huge event to celebrate the Vietnamese victory over the US 50 years ago. A huge stage was built in the central park area, with a huge celebration that dominated the days we were there.

We watched the celebrations involving singers and dancers with video screens behind them, it then dawned on us that the videos were images of bombing during the war and glorifying the power of their military. In such a fun loving country, with lots of people celebrating and having a good time, it was a real culture shock to have the full force of the Communist Party machine in our faces. It’s their country and we enjoyed the celebrations but it was a wake up call about the reality.

Sapa itself is a real mountain town that is busy establishing itself as the trekking centre of the north, and the commercial development reflects this. There is a steep, busy main street that is full of shops selling trekking gear. This was very handy as I had come equipped with no suitable clothing for heavy rain or cold temperatures, so I had an excuse to stock up with new T shirts, fleece and a puffer jacket, none of which I wore after the 3 days in Sapa.

There is more to Sapa than the big park and one shopping street. There is a lovely lake around at the top of the town around which there are bars and restaurants and I suspect that if the war victory celebrations, then the area around this lake would have been much busier.

Lots of people we met were staying in homestays outside of the town and used Grab taxis to get in, there was cheaper accommodation was either further up the hill or further down it. it wasn’t expensive, so we stayed at the grand looking Lacassa Hotel 500m from the centre, it seemed to be the legacy of the French occupation period, or rather a relic. Its grand appearance wasn’t matched by the internal décor, but to be fair it was being redecorated and presumably it will be a lot nicer when it has finished. There was an amazing mural on the walls on the walls of the staircase.

We did a couple of trips, firstly we did the tour of Cat Cat village, Moan Park and Fansipan mountain. A major reason for the trip was to trek through the rice fields, which was a bit of a disaster. We will cover both in later blogs.

22/06/2026
Unforgettable Jeep Tour Experience in Hanoi

Having done the walking tour of Hanoi, it still felt that we still needed something else to complete the trip. On the way to Halong Bay, we shared a minibus with a mum and daughter who claimed to be Portuguese and from Porto, (where we went last year), but with strangely Russian accents.

Their story unraveled pretty quickly, but it was very interesting that they didn’t want to admit to being Russian, not that it made any difference to us, they were just nice people. They told us about the Jeep Tour and how much fun it was, so as we had a spare evening, we booked ourselves on to the tour.

Evening was a good choice, as Hanoi is hot and steamy so to have the tour at dusk was great as it was a bit cooler and we could really enjoy the Vietnamese love of bright lights. We booked our tour with Back Street Tours and were picked up about 4pm by our guide, DuyVu.

Duyvu was excellent, very knowledgeable and lots of fun to have around.

The jeep was the real deal, really rough and ready, bouncing around along the road and a great vehicle for negotiating the holes in the road. We were lucky that we didn’t have any rain, so the top was down and we really felt part of Hanoi, and scooters and bikes buzzed past us on both sides as we made our way through the traffic.

The Jeep is a 6 seater so we had a couple of companions, this time from Israel. With the war in Iran charging ahead and Israel being hit by rockets, it all felt too raw to discuss, so we focused on football instead, normally.

First stop was the Long Bien Bridge, a crazy long train bridge over the Red River and an introduction to the quirky Vietnamese sense of humour, in the little café at the station, they were using the casing shells from bombs as flowerpots and light holders!

We then popped into Train Street, this was the new one that they are “developing”. The one in the Old Quarter seems to be so overwhelmed by tourists that they needed another one. So, they have given the people in another street where the train runs permission to turn their front rooms and courtyards into bars. When the train is gone apparently it all changes back.

Next stop was the B52 War Museum, DuyVu our guide was full of information about the war and clearly very proud of his countries achievement, having survived being at war with the most powerful country on earth and coming out as winners, I’m sure tours of Iran will have a similar theme in years to come.

Many of the relics form an open air park, or playground, so we saw kids happily clambering over fragments of B52 bombers having a fine time.

We then headed for the backstreets of West Lake and a tour of the alley ways where people lived, often alongside their scooters. The intensity of their living spaces was amazing, crammed into miles of little lanes, you certainly wouldn’t want to fall out with your neighbours or have an up and coming trumpet player living next door!

By now, it was getting dark, so we went on a long open top tour around the city. This part of the trip was great because it filled in a lot of gaps. The trip took us around the government buildings, most of which were twinkling with bright lights.

Then on to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, this is quite a tourist attraction to see his body at rest. I have to be honest, standing for hours in a queue to solemnly walk past his body didn’t really tickle our fancy so I was happy to have seen it, that was enough.

The trip then took us through as shopping district with some of the most famous and expensive designer brands that were the real deal, a total contrast to the shops of the Old Quarter. One had the ask the question, who in Vietnam could possibly afford to go shopping in these places, unless of course there was a ruling elite or had very wealthy tourists!

The last stop was the Hidden Gems café for dinner. This was a great little place tucked into an alleyway, as always. I love the Vietnamese innovations, all the furniture was made out of bits of scrapped motorbikes and scooters, which were turned into tables and chairs.

After great food and more egg coffee, conversation with our Israeli pals about who would win the English Premier League, it was time to head back to the Old Quarter in the Jeep and to say goodbye to everyone.

Thanks to DuyVu and Back Street Tours for a great evening.

18/06/2026
Hanoi Travel Tips: From Train Street to Egg Coffee

Once you have settled in Hanoi and adjusted to the crazy pace of traffic, the intense humidity and probably got wet, it is time to have a look around. When you start to wander the streets, it will quickly dawn on you that the whole place is a labyrinth and within a couple of minutes you will be lost and looking for Google Maps to get you out of trouble.

Our starting point for these situations is to find a guided walking tour so that you get your bearings and then maybe a bus or something so you see the sights. One of the big attractions that everyone goes to is Train Street, you don’t need a guide to find it and it is a lot of fun, so we ticked that box on the first evening, which got us off to a flying start.

You do, however, need to be aware that there are TWO Train Streets. There is the original one which is packed with travellers and lined with cafes and bars, and there is a second one that is building up but isn’t as popular yet.

We went to both; they are both fun and you can have a pint of their local (expensive) craft beer and enjoy being nearly crushed by a train. Safety is impressive, when they hear the train horn, bar owners appear blowing whistles and basically everyone gets out the way of the train, the alternative is to die or be seriously injured by the aforesaid train. Self-preservation is at the core of Vietnamese safety culture.

Beer Street was another essential drop off point on our first night. This is the hub of the backpacker community with strings of music bars spread around a block. I think this is the local authorities cunning plan to keep beery Westerners together in one place, and be prepared for Karaoke, it is almost their national pastime.

To avoid wandering aimlessly in the heat, we booked a walking tour for the next morning with these guys. It was very cheap, only costing $5, and that is because the guide is a volunteer. They are normally students aspiring to become guides, it is their way of learning their trade and improving their English. This worked well for us, our guide was quite inexperienced but we had a nice morning with her, visiting the French cathedral in the centre of town (bit boring), and then walking to the Hoem Kiem Lake.

The lake is famous for its giant turtles, which are now extinct as the last one died in 2018, the bodies of the last two are held in the Jade Temple, which sits on an island accessed by the Huc bridge. It is a really cool place and really gives out a good vibe about the history of Vietnam and its various gods and ancient dynasties.

Our guide then took us through back streets and winding staircases to her favourite little bar, where we were introduced to the wonders of Vietnamese Egg Coffee, which sounds revolting but it is really rather wonderful, and there is also a Salt Coffee which is equally as good.

The guide was very flexible and was happy to take us anywhere, but the problem was, we had no idea what we wanted to do, which was why we had a guide. So eventually we settled on visiting the French Prison, but it might have been more helpful if there had been an itinerary to be honest.

The French Prison was a particularly dark and daunting place. It turns out the Vietnamese are not easy to concur, in fact they fought of Genghis Khan 3 times, not to mention a long list of Chinese dynasties that followed.

The French bit off a bit more than they could chew back in the day, with lots of uprisings going on at regular intervals. They took a very European approach; they built a prison and threw all the troublemakers in jail. The tour of the prison is quite a blood curdling experience showing the miserable conditions the French imposed on their prisoners, male and female, it is amazing what humans can cope with.

One of the most poignant displays related to the history of the US bombing of Hanoi. The prison was used to house the US aircrews that were shot down, there were plenty of propaganda pictures of the crews having a lovely time which was clearly nonsense, but the pictures of the devastation caused by the bombing were deeply moving.

The key message to the world is that carpet bombing doesn’t work, you cannot conquer countries from the air, and that you can’t defeat a religion or a philosophy, in this case Communism. So, 50 years on, the message is still there, Afghans, Syrians and Libyans survived blitzes from the air.

In 2025 we have an active war in the Middle East where the US is trying, once again, to defeat one of the most dogged and hard core philosophies from the air. Just look at history, the weapons change but the outcomes don’t.

When it was all finished, we tipped our guide, said goodbye and felt in need of a cooling off. Inexplicably, we tried to walk the 15 minutes back to our hotel using Apple Maps, 45 minutes later, very hot, and still lost, we changed to Google Maps and found our way back to the hotel and slumped into the pool with an ice cold beer.

Basically, a walking tour of Hanoi is very hard work. On this visit we didn’t get to see the political buildings and designer shops as they weren’t of much interest to us, The other big attraction is the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, once again, not of much interest to us.

15/06/2026
It’s hot in Hanoi – this is what to expect

When you are planning your trip to Vietnam, Hanoi is bound to be in your list. It is the hub for most of the best adventures and it has a charisma that dates back to the war with the US.

As part of your research, you will quickly realise that Hanoi is a hot and steamy place, the bit that shocks is the humidity. It hits you as soon as you get off the plane. On the cab ride in you will see lots of water and cross the huge and muddy Red River, there is a reason for so much water.

Before you get to Vietnam, make sure you download the Grab app for your phone, it is a Vietnamese version of Uber and works really well, whether you are at the airport or hopping around town, it protects you from dodgy dealings and guarantees a good price.

Most travellers head for the centre of Hanoi where all the action is around Hoan Kiem Lake, to the Old Quarter area if you are budget conscious or the French Quarter area if you are less concerned, both of which are situated close to the lake.

As part of our planning we settled on the Old Quarter and stayed in a hotel called the SQ Hang Gai, which was 5 minutes from the lake and a great location. We stayed in this hotel 4 times during our trip as Hanoi is the hub you come back to after the trips. We found the hotel really good value, very friendly staff, nice rooms (pay the little extra for the superior room) and the small pool on the roof which does the job, though I wouldn’t expect too much from the gym.

After we checked in and had a shower, we headed out to explore the streets and were immediately overwhelmed by the traffic. The whole place is so intense and manic, there are motor bikes everywhere and they obey no rules of the road at all, other than don’t hit each other and just keep moving.

Cars do seem to have some sort of road rules but not many. Crossing the road involves putting your life at risk, the technique is to put your arm out to signal you are crossing the road, start walking and it’s best if you close your eyes. If stop, then the bikes start swerving either side of you and you end up like a little human island in a sea of scooters, so the trick is don’t stop.

Once we adjusted to the traffic, we then had to adjust to being wet. It wasn’t the rainy season but the skies opened at amazingly regular intervals, especially early evening, and when it rains, it really rains, so whenever you visit, you are going to need a waterproof. If you don’t have one don’t worry, there are 100s of shops selling North Face and Patagonia gear, or at least very good copies so have your cash ready for a bit of haggling.

When you go out looking for a beer, you need to look upwards, because most of the decent bars are not at ground level. Our favourite was Hello Hanoi, which had good music, fun and staff and good food. Lot of the hotels have roof top bars overlooking the lake, or more likely, overlooking another hotel bar or tower blog.

Beware that all streets seem to look the same and there are lots of them, it is very easy to get lost and Apple Maps is next to useless, it seemed to be even more lost that I was, Google Maps was much better, but it’s still confusing.

Hanoi itself doesn’t have a huge amount of history to look at, partly because it was flattened by B52s in the 1970s. There is some French influence but it doesn’t really stand out much, they love balconies on their houses, but that is about it and there is the Cathedral.

I’ll cover things to do in Hanoi in another blog.

11/06/2026