Day 1 – Cat Cat Village & Sapa Town:

Fresh off the overnight train from Hanoi, we arrived at our hotel tired & hungry.  First things first, we ordered a huge breakfast & a much-needed coffee 🙂  Then we turned our attention to what we wanted to do for the day.  We had already planned to hike up to the summit of Mt. Fansipan the next day, so we wanted to visit some of the villages nearby.

After breakfast, we set out for Cat Cat Village, which is 3km from our hotel.  It is a downhill hike to the village, and when you arrive, there is a booth there collecting entrance fees (40,000 VND per person).  There’s a store right across from the ticket booth that sells technical clothing (i.e. North Face, Jack Wolfskin, etc).  The prices at this store are the cheapest compared to other similar stores in Sapa Town (as of Apr 2014).

The village itself was small but pretty.  A bit too much tourism though, and the ladies from the H’mong tribe are pretty persistent in selling their wares.  There’s a small waterfall inside the village, which is a nice place to take a break.  In the same area, you will find a small auditorium where traditional dancing is being performed.

Aside from the beautiful rice terraces, my favourite part is the primary school.  The children are really cute 🙂  We dropped off a little baggy of school supplies with a little girl while we were there.

When you are ready to leave & you don’t want to make the uphill trek back into Sapa Town, there are a lot of motorbikes soliciting tourists for rides.  We chose to walk back & warm our legs up a bit for the next day’s much more challenging climb.  Allot 3-4hrs for visiting Cat Cat.

Our Hotel:  We stayed at Sapa House, which is very close to Sapa Town.  And we were pleasantly surprised when we found the rooms looked as nice as their website photos.  See my Tripadvisor review here.

Places to Eat in Sapa:  See my next post.

Day 2 – Climbing TaPhin Mountain & Motorbiking through TaPhin Village:  Continue reading about our visit to Sapa.  Day 2 is on my Top 3 Experiences in Vietnam list, so check it out 🙂  Continue to Day 2…