A Misty Sapa day tour | CheapAsiaTours.com

A trip to North Vietnam would be incomplete without reaching Sapa. A sleeping beauty wrapped in the misty blanket. Sapa is somehow so cold that snow falls amidst the winter. Sapa in the spring boasts cherry blossoms in strong vitality. And Sapa is also a natural air conditioner in contrast with the unbearable tropical hot.

A lane meanders around mountains and gets crooked with hills to lead to the Silver Waterfall. From a mountain cracks several hundreds of meters high, strong currens descend, tossing silver white bubbles like blossoms, thus its name Silver Waterfall. Thunderous water sounds echo repeatedly through dark forests, making the wilderness even more mysterious.

Magnificent Muong Hoa Valley

From the large road, turning to a small 3km alley which is the lane of ethnic people to Cloud Bridge, we can see a suspension bridge across Muong Hoa River flowing through a valley 17km southeast away from Sapa Town. The old bridge was replaces with a new wooden bridge safer and more solid. If lucky enough to travel when the mist soars from Muong Hoa River to envelope Cloud Bridge, we can find ourselves afloat on the ocean of the mist and winds. In particular, Muong Hoa Valley is also home to 196 strange carvings by primitive inhabitants thousands or myriads of years ago that many archeologists have failed to interpret their messages. This is the Ancient rock field, a heritage of the ancient Vietnamese, which consists of prehistoric carved stone slabs scattered over terrace fields. In this rock field, the most outstanding are Spousal Rocks, a pair of stones featuring a couple facing together in association with a legendary romance of a faithful couple who wished to live happily. However, as they were about to see each other, both were turned into stones.

To Sapa, you should visit Ham Rong Mount linked with a legend of a couple of dragons from the dawning of history or artificial diverse beauties of an orchid garden that is divided into portions, making up a prairie adorned with cherry blossoms and orchids … Ta Phin Cave is meanwhile full of intriguing mysteries.

When it comes to the Heaven Gate, people usually think of Ha Giang with its Quan Ba Heaven Gate. However, few know that Sapa also has a heaven gate. It is the highest traffic road in Vietnam thanks to which we can marvel at Fansipan Peak – the roof of Indochina.

From Sapa Town and heading north for about 18km, the road to the Heaven Gate meanders around overlapping mountains and hills with sun shadows like looming figures. This pass lane is called Tram Ton that encircles Hoang Lien Son Rangers and the Heaven Gate is the peak of this pass. At this heaven gate we can thoroughly appreciate the mightiness of Fansipan Mount, the highest peak of Vietnam and Indochina as a whole, thus its name “the Roof of Indochina”.

Spectacular Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range
Fansipan peak - Sapa Northwest Vietnam Tour

Mist covers the Fansipan Peak

Heaven Gate also offers us a panoramic view of terraces that were voted as the American Travel and Leisure Magazine as one of the seven most beautiful terrace fields of Asia and the world, a wonder of some elusive arrangement art as its calmness invokes our emotions of Northwestern plateaus.

The beauty is also unintentionally created by peaceful coexistence of ethnicities: Hmong, Rough Dao, Tay, Giay and Xa Pho … Their rich ethnic cultural history helps enrich the general social landscape of the Northwest. Sapa attracts visitors with Cat Cat, a long standing hamlet of Hmong people, which is home to traditional craftsmanship such as plantation of cotton and flax; Ta Phin Hamlet with weaving legacies, jewelry crafting villages, beautiful old houses and an old customs of “wife abduction”.

Ethnic locals at Sapa market

Following the locals, we reach Sapa market, a traditional essence of ethnic people of Hmong and Dao people in Lao Cai uplands in particular and Northwestern region in general. The market takes place once a week on Sunday morning. Due to long distances, people reach the market from the last night, especially the young. They come early to spend their night dating, courting and playing some folk games of their own ethnicities. After a market stroll, many young couples get closer as they wish to see each other again. The next spring, many of them become lifetime spouses. As a result, Sapa markets have long been a common place of romance.

Today Sapa has been awakened in the haze. Modern lifestyles have also substantially charged the town. It’s up to you to judge whether the lifestyle is suitable. Sapa should always be a must-visit of those who travel to this friendly country of Vietnam.