Mountain View Hotel Sapa

In the green mountains of Vietnam, often covered in fog, lies the town of Sapa. This was my last destination in Vietnam and had been talked up to me since the very beginnings of my backpacking trip in Australia. After a fast goodbye to Ciaran and Amy in Hanoi and a decent overnight train ride I checked into the Mountain View Hotel. This place has great views, particularly the restaurant deck, and as I was later to discover, very very caring staff. Only $5US for a great room to myself with a g...

The journey from Hanoi to Sapa was by another Sleepertrain. Unlike the sleepertrain I got from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, this one was 4 bed cabins and a lot more luxurious, and you could even turn the light out! It left Hanoi at 8.30pm, arriving in Cha Pa at around 5am. Cha Pa is right on the border with China, in fact when you get to the station you are approx. 500m from there! It was then onto a mini-bus for the hour long journey up the mountains and into Sapa. When you arrive the first thing ...

It is so gorgeous here. The name of our hotel, Mountain View, is very fitting. Here's the view from our window: Unbelievable, right? The minibus ride to Sapa from the train station took an hour and it was absolutely stunning. Surrounded by mountains, streams and waterfalls, and lush green terraced rice paddies... it was the best $1.50 I've ever spent. We decided to hike up to the big radio tower to get a view from above. It turns out the radio tower trail is in this big tourist area that you ...

We decide to do Sapa on our own rather than opt for a tour. We get the overnight train to Sapa from Hanoi which leaves at 9:20pm and gets in about 6am (to Lao Cai). We opt for a soft sleeper carriage which has 4 beds and aircon, seems the best option - certainly better than the 'hard seat' which is a wooden slatted seat! Once we arrive we get a minibus to Sapa (about 1 hour) the views along the way are amazing, Sapa is high up in the mountains. We stay at the Mountain View hotel ($12) and our...

Wow, wow, wow! Sapa is amazingly beautiful. Words cannot describe it, and pictures can't do it justice. It's just breathtaking, literally. It is way up in mountains and surrounded by lush green mountains with rice terraces and waterfalls, and the hill tribes. It is among the most beautiful places I have ever been. Best of all, I've got a great private room here with a private balcony overlooking the valley, and for only $10 (though that is significantly more expensive than other places in tow...

I've just finished a 3 day trek in Sapa. We arrived in Sapa on Monday morning after taking the night train north. We paid $32 for a return ticket, which I thought was a bit steep but the berth and beds were very nice so the price was fitting. We are staying at Mountain View Hotel. The first night we had a great room with mountain vistas and a bathtub! We booked our trek through the hotel and set out on Tuesday morning. Our guides name was Ger. She is a very determined, clever and confident 18...

Sapa is absolutely beautiful. It is located in Northern Vietnam which means it is quite cool! we actually need long pants and a long sleeved shirt. its a nice break from the heat. We took an overnight train to Lao Cai and then a bus brought us into Sapa. We are staying in a guest house called 'Mountain view' and it is exactly that. the rooms have a 180 degree view of the mountains and their rice paddy terraces..absolutely gorgeous. The first day in Sapa was free to relax and rest up before ou...

We arrived early in Sapa with little sleep on our train, Gemma caught the following after realizing on boarding the lady at the counter gave her the wrong ticket. On arrival in Sapa all the buses outside wait for passangers to board and fill their seats but we soon realised that they wait for the next train to come in order to fill up the seats before leaving which meant we saw Gemma at the station in the end. After another good hour of waiting we began to get impatient, the sun had risen and...

Ore 8.00 e' ora di alzarsi.... fuori gia' si sente il vociare delle donne H Mong fuori dagli Hotel. Dopo la colazione siamo pronti per raggiungere a piedi il villaggio di cat cat, abitato da H Mong neri. Li osserviamo nei loro mestieri quotidiani... C'e' chi batte il ferro, chi tesse e chi tinge le stoffe con prodotti naturali. I bambini, sono in ogni angolo ... sul sentiero, nelle capanne e in spalla come fagotti alle giovani mamme... che famiglie numerose! dopo una lunga discesa per entrare...

Hey doods and dudettes. Once again, sorry for the backlog of blog entries but it's hard to keep on top of things when you are constantly high on Opium. That was a joke by the way Mum! I am currently on my fifth day of feeling well, which has been the most days in a couple of weeks. I am off on a 3 day hiking mission across Tiger Leaping Gorge in the morning (it is 5.43pm now) so I may not be able to do another blog for a few days. It depends whether they have internet in the middle of nowhere...