Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Week 2, Sapa Vietnam









We arrived in Sapa on a night sleeper bus with Sao Viet from Hanoi.

(I honestly chose it because it was the only option with a bathroom rather than scheduled bathroom stops.) The experience was interesting - from the really good provided food at the bus company station, to all the passengers bagging shoes on stepping onboard, to the tiny curtained cubicles complete with flat bed and non-functioning TV. As I dozed on the 5 hour overnight trip, I reflected on the difference between my hope to actually sleep on an overnight sleeper train, and the reality of a road vehicle's unpredictable movements and angle changes - imagine swerving sideways while heading uphill with your head lower than your feet as the bus drives uphill on windy mountain roads...



I took an epic nap on our arrival at our remote homestay about 5.5km north of the town of Sapa. 

We spent 4 nights at a homestay with a H'mong family: beautiful surroundings, really excellent local food, friendly and helpful hosts, and comfortable private room. In the area, off the main road there are at times steep, rocky paved motorbike/walking paths that wander through the local farming communities. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our self guided trek through an abundant farming community (with terraced rice paddies, covered rows of tomatoes and peppers, creeping squash vines, fields of cabbages, fruit trees, etc) to the Ta Phin Commune about 5.5km north: home of Red Dao ethnic minority, 


the Ta Phin Cave (where a local boy happily took ~75 cents each to turn on the lights inside the cave - there we walked, crawled and climbed through an expansive cave system which has important historical significance for sheltering soldiers, food, and weapons while protecting Vietnam's northern border in 1979), and multiple locations for relaxing in medicinal herbal baths ($7-8), drinking tea, and eating delicious local food. Would recommend! 

(We could have also partaken in massage treatments, but I'm still averse to any chance that someone might actually touch/traction the skin near my neck - while, a month in, the skin over the wounds is now closed, allowing me to enjoy the baths - it is still quite uncomfortable - healing from skin cancer surgery is no joke!)

Next we relocated into the actual town of Sapa - much larger than I'd initially realized, filled with tourist infrastructure - numerous small homestays and very large hotels, tons of restaurants and shops, a huge market, loads of locals in ethnic dress selling handicrafts all over town, complete with child hawkers (beggars?) carrying infants. 

Our homestay in town is about 1 km uphill from the town center, on the road to the Fansipan Mountain. We happily walked the 2km further uphill to the Cable Car station/ (skipping the Monorail ride from town). The infrastructure here really shows the capacity this place has for handling thousands of tourist a day from all over Asia and beyond. It was busy, but clearly not at capacity the day we visited.

The highlights were Fansipan Cable Car (which covers a horizontal distance of over 6km and a vertical rise of almost 1.5km into the clouds) followed by the ~700 step climb passing numerous Buddhist statues and shrines to the summit of Fansipan Mountain, the Roof of IndoChina.

There were moments when the clouds blew away and we could see back down into lush valley below (but we didn't manage to snap those pictures).


In town we've had some delicious food (Kepfram has more on that coming...) - including some of the best vegetarian food I've ever eaten at: SU Vegetarian Restaurant (@MichelinGuide, you missed something)....


Next we're heading north to the Chinese border in Lao Cai where we'll start our train journey back south on an 8 hour overnight sleeper to Hanoi, changing there for a 2 hour ride onwards to Ninh Binh ("Halong Bay on Land"). Stay tuned!

-Ellie

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Ellie, 4:51 PM

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