The term “Cloud City” might evoke the epic of The Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian’s epic cape game or even a wee bit of carbonite. Well, Sapa lacks all of those things but makes up for it with…well…lots and lots of clouds!
Sapa is situated in the Hoang Lien Son mountains of Vietnam that border China. Here you’ll find the highest point in Vietnam – Mount Fansipan (I swear it’s not a made up name) and a gorgeous alpine town. We were drawn to Sapa with our friends’ stories of verdant rice terraces clinging to steep hillsides a quiet escape from the buzz and bustle of Hanoi. We found that and more. More being mostly fog but also some incredible adventures.
Let’s get to Sapa logistics. Sapa doesn’t have a central “downtown” but instead has one main drag where most of the action happens called Cầu Mây. There is a lake and market to check out and there roughly 5-15 minutes walk away (respectively). The lake is apparently really beautiful in the spring and summer but everything in the city was covered in dense fog. We visited in mid January and it was RIDICULOUSLY foggy. How foggy you ask? Well, we live in the Sunset District of San Francisco and it made our “fogust” look like tahiti (see attached photo). That being said, we were able to experience some incredible moments of beauty we haven’t seen in many other places. A lot of this came down to straight up dumb luck as the weather changed every 15 minutes with varying levels of fog, clarity, then back to fog again.
Salmon hot pot! 
BBQ yummyness
One of the most intriguing aspects of Sapa is its very Vietnamese take on an alpine town. Everyone is bundled up in “North Face” outfits (read: knockoffs), in the buildings you see exposed wooden beams and big fireplaces-it seems familiar. With a closer look though its very Vietnamese with Salmon Hot Pot, Pho and BBQ places a plenty.
One of the most enticing draws to the city is to see several of the minority tribes in Vietnam come together to sell their wares, attend cultural events and even run love markets. The Hmong, the Tay and red-clad Dao. All of these tribes make the journey from remote villages scattered throughout the mountains to Sapa. This journey can sometimes take days to make. The love market is a fascinating event which we sadly missed. It harkens back to a time seemingly long ago when people met the love of their life in-person (!!!!!). Apparently when you live in a small village, the dating pool is pretty small so eligible singles from the villages surrounding Sapa make the long trek to the Love Market on Saturday to drink, dance and hopefully meet that special someone.
You can immediately identify them by their colorful clothes and distinctive personalities. Everyone we met from the tribes was incredibly friendly, welcoming us to visit their villages, learn about their culture and of course, buy their wares. These minority groups live below Vietnam’s poverty line so earning from tourists can be a necessity. At the main market you can find them selling everything from their colorful clothes to bringing entire cherry tree saplings on their back (for lunar new year). Kinda like a Christmas tree, but different.
After getting settled we decided to check out Cat Cat village since it was just 25 minutes walk from town. While the previous night was pouring rain, that morning it was clear as can be and we were treated to some amazing views of the Muong Ha valley. Cat Cat Village is pretty touristy- instead of exiting through the gift shop, it pretty much is the gift shop with people selling clothes, souvenirs and all sorts of Sapa themed brik a brak alongside “authentic representations” of village life. One interesting thing we noticed was the Vietnamese who visited often bought full Hmong or Dao villager outfits and immediately wore them- essentially cosplaying the minority groups in the village and posing for all the selfies. It was an interesting experience. The “village” is mostly built on a hill and at the bottom of the valley, I noticed a bunch of Hmong ladies walking down a long path and got the idea to follow them.
What we accidentally found was a gorgeous path that wound its way through the Muong Ha valley. Along every hillside, terraces growing everything from rice to holy basil abounded. It was jaw-droppingly beautiful- especially shrouded in fog. Our pictures really can’t do it justice. We met with a few of Hmong along the path who invited us to their homestays in their village just a few kilometers away. Unfortunately we were short on time. If you go, we HIGHLY recommend checking out the opportunity to do this. Please do it through one of the local companies like Sapa Sisters to ensure money actually makes it to these local tribes.
The view from up top 
The actual peak! 
Gondolas cutting through the fog 
An ocean of fog 
Pure serenity
Our next adventure was scaling Mount Fansipan- Vietnam’s tallest mountain. When we say “scaling” we mean….taking the brand new, Guinness Record-Holding cable cars right to the top. We’ll stop to mention that this cable project was/is super controversial as there was a lot of debate about the environmental and aesthetic impact of having a cable car go right to the top of such a picturesque mountain. It would be kind of like having Yosemite National Park put in a cable car to the top of half dome. Considering our time constraints, we chose the cable car route. The trip started out hilari-bad because the aforementioned finicky Sapa weather gifted us with fog so think, we couldn’t see across our tiny street. We were running out of Sapa time so we said “screw it” and paid the entry fee fully expecting to see absolutely nothing but fog. After thousands of feet of elevation gain and a few cable car exchanges, you get to the “top” of Fansipan where they’ve build several Buddhist temples and several huge Buddhas. To get to the actual top requires climbing 600 additional steps spanning the very large summit of Fansipan. This isn’t as easy as it might sound because the air is much thinner, its WAAAAY colder than the already cold Sapa and the weather changes every 15 seconds. Every. 15. Seconds. See the time lapse if you doubt us 🙂 After clambering to the top, we got insanely lucky and were treated to some of the most jaw-dropping views i’ve ever seen. Fansipan’s peak and the mountain tops around it poked through a sea of fog that stretched as far as the eye could see. The Buddhas standing tall and stoic as clouds coursed over them. It was a magical view. We got so enamored that we almost missed the last cable car home and that would have really sucked!
The next day we packed up our bags and headed back to Hanoi for our next adventure- a 3 day cruise on Halong Bay!