The easiest well, only way to get to Sapa is on the night train. I tried to find alternatives but thats pretty much it if you don't want to be on the slow bus or the hard seat of the train for 9 - 12 hours. I paid a bit more and got a berth on one of the privately owned posh carriges that attached to the 9.15pm service. I do recommend it - it was quite comfortable and I slept the whole way. The worst bit is the rude awakening at 5am when the train pulls in to Lao Cai, the closest stop to Sapa. An hour up a twisty, turny mountain road and I arrived. It was so cloudy that you couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains - it felt like being on an island of land in the middle of the clouds. Beautiful and a bit eerie. I stayed in the most lovely room above the Bauguette and Chocolate restaurant. My room was called Croissant and the placed smelled of freshly baked pastries. Heaven. The town itself pretty much exists to feed tourism - treks to local villages is the main reason people visit and women in traditional costume follow you up and down the main street urging you to buy the local handicrafts. It can be a bit daunting even after experiencing the overzealous sales techniques on display in the rest of Vietnam. (You, you, you
- come into my shop!) But they are quite sweet and leave you alone after a few polite refusals. The next day the weather had cleared a bit an I got to see some of the views that Sapa is famous for with the terraced rice paddies and generally lovely mountiains. I must admit the charms of Sapa wore off pretty quickly and I cut my visit short. I think that is mostly due to how little time I have left rather than the town itself. So I headed back to Hanoi with the intention of heading straight to Halong Bay.
The easiest well, only way to get to Sapa is on the night train. I tried to find alternatives but thats pretty much it if you don't want to be on the slow bus or the hard seat of the train for 9 - 12 hours. I paid a bit more and got a berth on one of the privately owned posh carriges that attached to the 9.15pm service. I do recommend it - it was quite comfortable and I slept the whole way. The worst bit is the rude awakening at 5am when the train pulls in to Lao Cai, the closest stop to Sapa. An hour up a twisty, turny mountain road and I arrived. It was so cloudy that you couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains - it felt like being on an island of land in the middle of the clouds. Beautiful and a bit eerie. I stayed in the most lovely room above the Bauguette and Chocolate restaurant. My room was called Croissant and the placed smelled of freshly baked pastries. Heaven. The town itself pretty much exists to feed tourism - treks to local villages is the main reason people visit and women in traditional costume follow you up and down the main street urging you to buy the local handicrafts. It can be a bit daunting even after experiencing the overzealous sales techniques on display in the rest of Vietnam. (You, you, you
- come into my shop!) But they are quite sweet and leave you alone after a few polite refusals. The next day the weather had cleared a bit an I got to see some of the views that Sapa is famous for with the terraced rice paddies and generally lovely mountiains. I must admit the charms of Sapa wore off pretty quickly and I cut my visit short. I think that is mostly due to how little time I have left rather than the town itself. So I headed back to Hanoi with the intention of heading straight to Halong Bay.
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