Cat Cat Guesthouse Sapa

So Kim ( a friend from work) and I left Saigon on a plane to Hanoi (jetstar $77). We arrived and discovered some of her friends from home were still in town and we would be able to meet up with them for dinner (highway 4 great food). After a quick bite we thought we would try to catch the night train to Sapa. We arrived at the station at 9:10 P.M. and discovered there was a train that was leaving in 5 mins. We were quickly grabbed by two man and told it would be 320 dong...$20 usd for the tra...

Great weekend getaway but prepared to catch up on sleep when you get back into Hanoi if taking the train and you can't sleep! We left Friday night. Sze was great in handling all the logistics, we got our tickets (you're given vouchers first) through an agent which were then exchanged for real tickets at the train station through meeting up with the tour agent's representative. Finding the guy was an exercise on its own with lots of people milling around as with any good old Asian train statio...

17/1/06 Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, and Sapa Tis our last night in Hanoi. Caught the overnight train from Sapa last night, complete with startlingly rude French couple in the other bunks. We had a ball in Sapa. I've never seen such spectacular views. We stayed at the Cat Cat hotel (very apt as we saw two cats!) and our room, whilst being at the end of a stupidly high number of stairs, had a balcony with the most stunning panoramic view of the mountain ranges. Sure, there was heaps of noisy construct...

To be updated Sa

Walk up the mountain and relaxing in afternoon. Night train back to Hanoi

We arrived in Lao Cai at 6am, having had diddly-squat shut eye... and got a minivan to Sapa. Got to our hotel (called Cat Cat Hotel)... and decided to go for a little hike to the village of the same name (Cat Cat Village), which was only 3km down the hill. At first we thought we were being stalked by a H'mong Hill Tribe woman trying to sell us stuff.... then it was two, then three. We ended up chatting (they spoke very good english from listening to tourists), and they walked all the way to t...

Setting off in the late evening we sped through Hanoi on the back of motorbike taxis to the train station where we were to catch the night train to Sapa. We found our way into our compartment which was pretty cramped and had two 3-tiered bunk beds in it. Eve and I were the first ones there so proceeded to settle in. I had a bottom bunk and Eve had a middle one. After about 10 minutes we were joined by a huge family who colonised the compartments around us. In our compartment there were the ol...

Train eventually arrived at 5.45am. I'm sure the bunks are made for the height of the local population. Drive up to Sa Pa was fantastic, great views of mountains and terraced fields (at least I hope so as we could see b****r all due to the fog. Very steep road for 1 1/2 hours up to Sa Pa. Once sorted had a look around the local market, looked at strange fruit, dog meat for sale (assume it was that on account of the tail), and other unrecognisable items. 'You buy, you buy' is still ringing in ...

5am - again. After a peaceful New Year's Eve dinner (Vietnamese and banana pancake with no chocoloate :( ...) with Janine and Melissa (later joined by a Kiwi called Barbara), we went to bed early. At least, we were able to toast to the new year according to Australian time. At 5.45am, we took the public bus to Lao Cai. Boringly enough, there was no hiccup in terms of overcharging like the day before and the journey was very smooth. We drove through fog which was so heavy that visibility was l...

Well this has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Sapa is located halfway up a valley so you are looking up toward the mountains and down towards the bottom of the valley which makes for a stunning view. Fansipan Mountain is one that you look up at, I believe it is 3200 meters high making it the highest mountain in Vietnam. Christina and I are planning a trek up there, takes 3 days to get there and back. Staying at a great place, the Cat Cat Hotel which is great (thanks t...