Trek Fansipan Sapa

Travel Sapa and Ta Phin village, there are different ways of getting around in Ta Phin of Lao Cai Province, and many travelers prefer travel to the ethnic village from Sapa Vietnam. This offers strollers more time to relax and explore the world of past and present attractions.

On road – Sapa, Vietnam

To explore Ta Phin village, it is recommended for travelers to spend one day strolling up and down 12 kilometers of hilly terrain from Sapa to Ta Phin where H’Mong and Red Dao minorities live. They will see them working in their terraced paddy fields and traveling back and forth from the market to their homes. [...Read more]

Sapa Vietnam, the district of Lao Cai Province, is a quiet and modest area nestled in high mountains and drifting clouds, surrounded by magnificent natural beauty.

Sapa valley, Vietnam

From April 15 to 20 the ‘In the Clouds’ festival will brighten up this region with colorful national costumes of the ethnic groups living in Sapa, including Mong, Dao, Tay and Xa Pho, Giay.

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Boasting sublime unspoiled beauty, from rolling verdant hills to spectacular terraced fields, Sa Pa is a mix of natural wonder.

Pa Cheo farmers cultivate rice

Near the Chinese border in the northwest province of Lao Cai and around 376 kilometers from Hanoi, Sa Pa, founded as a scenic resort by the French in 1903, is best known for its wild, unspoiled landscapes.

Sa Pa’s scenic highlights include Hoang Lien Son National Park and the awe-inspiring 3,143-meter-high Mount Fan Si Pan – the highest mountain peak in Indochina. Every year, the area attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world who come to marvel at Sa Pa’s lush vegetation and spectacular scenery.

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Bac Ha fair opens every Sunday in Bac Ha district, the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai. The fair is known for its cultural identity of ethnic minority people.

The fair attracts not only domestic tourists but also many foreigners who come to look for colourful brocade, skirts of Mong ethnic minority people and specialities of the mountain region.

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Editor’s Note: This is the second installment focusing of Cheryn’s travels in Vietnam. Be sure to read Cheryn’s other blog post about Hanoi’s old quarter.

Sapa field, Vietnam

We arrived at the train station in the city of Lao Cai and boarded a bus to Sapa. An hour later, the landscape changed from flat to mountainous and the views became dramatic, with terraced rice paddies trickling water from one to another and colorful hill tribe people on the side of the road, carrying baskets of leaves on their backs or selling veggies and fruit from roadside stalls.

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This is a four-day trek tour of Richard L.Carey in Fansipan, Sapa, Vietnam. It is about his trekking expedition and how interesting Mt. Fansipan was.

Taking advantage of a discounted All-Asia ticket on Cathay Pacific Airlines my friend Ken Olson and I went to Vietnam in early November 1998. We decided that Hanoi might be more interesting than Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and Ken also found some details on the Web about the town of Sapa and the highest peak in Vietnam which was nearby. Fan Si Pan, or Fansipan in some guidebooks, is also known as Phang Xi Pang although this probably Vietnamese spelling is not used much. The name Sapa is also seen sometimes as two words and on older maps is called Chapa. Fan Si Pan is the high point of the northwest-southeast running Hoang Lien Son range which extends for about 19 miles between the Red River and the Black River. The peak is about 180 miles northwest of Hanoi and is 17 miles from the Chinese border at the town of Lao Cai.

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The Young Man Odyssey told his trekking tour to the top of Mt. Fansipan with two other companions. Although it rained, the trek was still incredible.

There is no larger mountain in all Indochina than Fansipan. (Indochina: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam.) The Three Caballeros(Three Gentleman), was a term that our group used to define itself. The Three Caballeros climbed Fansipan to the top.

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Mllebienlein and her friends discussed about her Mt. Fansipan travel. Some complaint about the hotel but the trek tour was fine.

Hello,

We have just come back yesterday from a two day trekking tour to the Fansipan mountain top and got brutally ripped off by our hotel – the Pinocchio Hotel in Sapa.

After having spoken to several agencies to check the prices (ranging from 55-120$ for the same program/people) we choose the Pinocchio Hotel, where we stayed, to organize the trip for us. It was more for the ease of having everything “in the same place” than any particular other reason.

We agreed on a price of 60$ per person, for a group of three people, where Pinocchio would take care of the guide and porter, our food and the equipment (tent, sleeping bag, etc.) and the administration (entrance fee, some insurance, etc.)

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As usual we talked to a lot of people before we committed to a tour company and were given a whole range of itineraries and prices. The first guy we spoke to said that no one was climbing the mountain at this time of year as it was so wet. He also quoted a price of $120 each which was way too much. As we went around we found cheaper and cheaper prices. The last stop at the Friendly Cafe was close to the cheapest at $50 but had the best itinerary.

Normally I prefer to climb mountains by myself but in this case I think it makes a lot more sense to go with a guide. The bottom section of the mountain is a constantly shifting network of trails. Even if you could find a decent map navigation would be a bit of a nightmare. It isn’t too expensive and all of your food and accommodation is taken care off.

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I still can’t believe I did it (because everyone said the weather was too bad) but I did, I climbed Mt Fansipan… and when I say climbed, I seriously do mean CLIMBED because it certainly wasn’t like any other walk I have ever done!

It’s supposed to be the highest peak in Indochina at a height of 3143m and to get to the top usually takes 3 days, unless you are in incredibly good shape, lacking time and want to put yourself through hell and do it all in 2 days. So I thought I’d do it in 3 – on the first day this involved hiking to a base camp at 2000m, the second day was the ascent to the summit – going straight up 1000m – and the third day was easier, just involving hiking out of the jungle.

So from my first day in Sapa I was looking out for people to do the trip with me, which was harder than I expected. Sapa is a really beautiful town which feels just like the Alps, it is really relaxing, and I guess most travellers aren’t on holiday, especially during the rainy season, wanting to do a really tough climb! But I met an Israeli guy (Raz) who had just spent 4.5 years in the army who was interested in the climb, and then the next day we met Selyf (from Wales), who had climbed many mountains in the UK, so we booked the trek together. We did meet a few people who had come back, some having been turned back due to the bad weather, and no one was recommending the trip, everyone was saying it was too tough!!

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