A day in Sa Pa and Cat Cat

After a slightly shorter sleep than we would have liked due to some construction next to our hotel we were ready to start the day. Originally the plan was to hike up Fansipan, the biggest mountain in Indochina with 3147m. Charly was very excited about that, but due to the fact we arrived in Sa Pa at almost 20:00 after a 6h ride the previous day and we hadn’t booked a guide yet, we decided that we wouldn’t do the hike. As an alternative to the 9h hike one can take the new cable car up the mountain, which was a good enough alternative. Charly was really disappointed to hear that unfortunately the cable car and furnicular were under maintenance for 5 days, so there was no way we could make it to the peak of Fansipan. In a way it made us feel less bad for not doing the hike, since we would have only done it one way taking the cable car down anyway. With Fansipan in the clouds but otherwise great weather we did a walk through the city, to a lookout foto point ( for the Instagram pictures) and then to Cat Cat village. In total we walked 12km up and down to The Valley so in a way we did our own hike. We hiked down to Cat Cat village in The Valley, which is a must see when in Sa Pa. in the Sa Pa there is an ethnic minority called the Hmong people, who are famous for their brocade weaving and unfortunately in Sa Pa for letting their children beg. There was a steep entry fee and the beginning part was really touristy with souvenir shops. Further in the village we could walk through rice fields thiugh and past a river with water wheels. It was rice harvest time so we could observe that as well. There were many picture spots and we were really lucky to have a relatively clear day. The downside of that was burning sun and little to no shade. Overall we were happy we went even though its very commercialized and you even need to pay for a toilet visit. We were so exhausted we took a taxi ride back up to Sa Pa. There was an entry Apple health said we had burned 1000kcal working out so we had a nice dinner at a vegan restaurant and some spaghetti. After we enjoyed another massage. Vietnamese massage involves a lot of “hitting “ to increase blood flow which at first is a bit silly and not so relaxing but our muscles were happy. For reference a 60 min massage is usually around 18€.Read more