Sapa

Date: 2018-12-03 to 2018-12-07

Sapa itself is not worth visiting it is a dirty and very touristy city in the North of Vietnam.

But the landscape around with all the small valley and villages and the famous ricefields is amazing.

I did two hikes one down the valley in South East direction which is really famous. So I went to the Cat-Cat village, paid entrance there walked there around and was not so really amused by all this touristy stuff there, visited the site with the waterwheels and the headed down the valley. After a while I was almost alone sometimes I met pigs or dogs and just one other trekking group. It was an awesome experience and I really enjoyed it, except the way back. Do not try to go back on the street!

The second hike was up north in some parts the trail of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon of 2015 until Ta Phi village. There I visited a cave and met nice local people from the Mong tribe. I would recommend this trekking tour – sometimes I had to search a little bit the path, but I had no severe problems to find it. The route is amazing because you cross some small passes, which are nice viewpoints for enjoying this amazing rice terraced landscape situated in front of you.

The bad thing is that on all hiking paths you see the pollution of plastic and even the river coming down from Sa Pa was foaming like you can see on following image: