{"id":7113,"date":"2026-02-08T06:38:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7113"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:38:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:38:39","slug":"10-sapa-and-the-highest-point-in-se-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7113","title":{"rendered":"10. SAPA AND THE HIGHEST POINT IN SE ASIA."},"content":{"rendered":"

We have one night in Hanoi, where we met Robin, Linda and family, before heading NE to the high country.\u00a0 Sapa is the target.\u00a0 We reject a wildly unimpressive option to take the overnight train and book a nine-seater luxury van for the six hour drive!\u00a0 Leaving Hanoi, we passed the Nhat Tan Bridge for the fourth and penultimate time.\u00a0 Lots of paddy fields in various stages of preparation.\u00a0 Little plastic covered propagation areas where the rice plantlets are being readied for planting out.\u00a0 Some plots being trampled systematically by water buffalo to make them soft and muddy.\u00a0 Just the occasional patch being planted by serried ranks of ladies in conical hats.\u00a0 It’s really a bit too early for that!\u00a0 We heard that the farmers do not own their paddies.\u00a0 These are allocated by central government on the basis of need (or just possibly, who they know!).\u00a0 They are all effectively tennant farmers.\u00a0 Maybe big families get extra plots.\u00a0 Reading between the lines, the government can “reposess” an allocation and give access to that area to another family.\u00a0 Sounds like a case of “short and curlies” to me!<\/p>\n

Traffic here is relatively motor-bike free.\u00a0 Lane discipline seems poor until the road etiquette is understood.\u00a0 Firstly, they drive on the wrong side of the road.\u00a0 That hadn’t been exactly clear in the city where bikes go every which way!\u00a0 On a dual carriageway with two lanes either side (like the one we are currently on), the traffic stays (largely) in the “outside” lane.\u00a0 That is the lane closest to the central reservation.\u00a0 Overtaking is done (largely) in the “inside” lane.\u00a0 The logic as explained to me is that the (relatively slow) motorbikes drive (largely) on the outer edges of the road.\u00a0 Through traffic drives (largely) as far away from the bikes as possible!\u00a0 Follow that if you can!<\/p>\n

Three stops at highway service stations where they sell a wide range of goods we really don’t need!<\/p>\n

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… including some rather large footware!<\/p>\n

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Getting into the more hilly areas, we hit a few tunnels …<\/p>\n

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… and fail to get onto a newly constructed bridge … because it’s so recent that it’s not yet finished and open to traffic.\u00a0 So we, and a load of heavy lorries, wend our way slowly down into the valley and torturously up the other side.\u00a0 It’ll cut 20 minutes off the journey time, when the bridge is completed!<\/p>\n

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Having left the sulphurous, smog-laden atmosphere of the area around Hanoi, our vision is now obliterated by increasingly dense mists as we climb into the clouds!\u00a0 We just can’t win!\u00a0 The roadside is more or less the only zone where commercial activity can take place.\u00a0 Both verges for miles on end are covered in planters filled with orchids.\u00a0 Preparations for Chinese New Year in a few weeks time.\u00a0 On the steep hill sides we get vague images of terraced rice paddies.<\/p>\n

Overtaking on blind bends seems to be endemic on this winding, hilly route.\u00a0 How everyone misses everyone else remains an enigmatic mystery!<\/p>\n

Finally, the road lurches into the outskirts of Sapa.\u00a0 The style of building is largely, darkly basic.\u00a0 Small trade businesses occupy every available nook and cranny.\u00a0 As we arrive in the centre of town, the increasing evidence of tourism is apparent.\u00a0 Rows of restaurants, coffee shops, massage parlours, new buildings, hostels and eventually hotels.\u00a0 The largest of these, Le Coupole, is to be our lodgings for the next few days.<\/p>\n

Our living room …<\/p>\n

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… and bedroom.<\/p>\n

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A really lovely room, very posh.\u00a0 Very colonially French but the view from the balcony is non-existent.\u00a0 Just clouds.\u00a0 We have to imagine the town spread out in front of us – and the more distant mountainous terrain.<\/p>\n

But we can see the pool.\u00a0 A magnificent space dominated by huge statues of swimmers and divers and six huge chandeliers.\u00a0 Every pool should have such illumination!<\/p>\n

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In the morning, Robin and I set off looking for the Silk Path Grand Hotel – the big sister of our first hotel in Hanoi – the one which was so narrow that we had to enter the front door sideways on (although in my case that didn’t make much difference!).\u00a0 In plan view, it was only a few hundred metres away.\u00a0 But every metre ahead was also a metre up hill!\u00a0 The view of the town from up there was better than yesterday.<\/p>\n

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Briefly!\u00a0 Five minutes later and the mists swirled in!<\/p>\n

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This Silk Path Hotel is a rather grander affair than it’s\u00a0 baby sister.\u00a0 About half of the whole hotel in Hanoi would have fitted into the foyer here!<\/p>\n

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Back to our hotel … the view of the high mountain range came out of the clouds long enough to get a photo from our balcony …<\/p>\n

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The two wings of the hotel were joined on the tenth floor by an open air bridge linking the bar (top right) with the dining room (top left) …<\/p>\n

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We walked round town quite a bit, using the quieter back streets where possible (for personal safety!).\u00a0 There are flags and bunting all over the place.\u00a0 The gold stars on red represent the Vietnamese flag.\u00a0 The hammer and sickle is the emblem of the communist party.\u00a0 There are several reasons for all this flag flying.\u00a0 Firstly, the national general election is due in a week’s time.\u00a0 Second, Chinese New Year follows a couple of weeks later.\u00a0 And thirdly, the people of Vietnam really like flags.<\/p>\n

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An evening stroll round the lake in the middle of town with colourful illumination…<\/p>\n

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Tomorrow is our last whole day in the mountains.\u00a0 We are hoping for a clear-sky day as we plan to visit Fansipan, the highest point in Indochina.<\/p>\n

An early breakfast and a short walk from the hotel brought us to the monorail station for transport to the cable car.\u00a0 The hotel provided WOW fast passes but this delayed us by 10 minutes!\u00a0 However, from then on, boarding the cable car and subsequent funicular was super-fast!<\/p>\n

Here we are emerging through a cloud layer with a bunch of enthusiasically happy-looking tourists!<\/p>\n

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… and on up the final stage …<\/p>\n

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… to the top …<\/p>\n

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We were so lucky with the weather, beautifully clear, but COLD!\u00a0 The water being used to clean the top steps was turning to ice as we watched.\u00a0 Not a clever bit of maintenance in sub-zero conditions!<\/p>\n

Next day we transferred back to Hanoi (after a bit of relaxation on the hotel roof) …<\/p>\n

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… for onward travel to Ph\u00fa Qu\u00f3c.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have one night in Hanoi, where we met Robin, Linda and family, before heading NE to the high country.\u00a0 Sapa is the target.\u00a0 We reject a wildly unimpressive option to take the overnight train and book a nine-seater luxury… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vietnam-and-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7113"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7146,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions\/7146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}