We met with Jen in the morning and headed straight for the small restaurant with the great view. The air seemed a bit more clear this morning so we had breakfast with a great view and could even see the cars from the cable car as the were moving across the valley in the distance. This was the first place to stop when we left on $4 motorcycles just after breakfast. The cable car station is a bit outside Sapa town, a giant project with a big building for the cable car station. The cable car itself is also impressive, being the longest of its kind in the world going from Sapa to the top of Fansipan mountain - some 1600 metres vertically and almost 6000 metres long. The design has allowed them to have some crazy distances between the pylon so once your cable car exits the base station the nearest pylon is almost 1500 metres away making it feel like you fly across the valley below.
And so it continues until the top of the mountain is reached some 15 minutes later. Really impressive. Malene, not being to happy with big heights, was a bit quite on the way up but it was also a windy morning with the gondola swaying from side to side. We made it safely to the top though. The construction on the top of the mountain is similarly impressive with temples being constructed and a set of stair leading to the top of Fansipan and the highest peak in Indochina. We enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain together with a crowd of happy Vietnamese guys taking photos of them holding the Vietnamese flag. Clearly excited. The hike from Sapa to Fansipan used to be a two day hike with an overnight stop in a small village on the mountain. Now its 15 minutes and there has been some protests and angry comments about spoiling the mountain. On the other hand this has been a tradition in Europe for so many decades to do cable car to various summits, so who's to blame the Vietnamese for also wanting to do the same. And they are willing to put the money into the projects - some $200 million being spent on Fansipan. We were happy to go there, the view from the top impressive, and going up and down with the gondola even more impressive.
Back at the scooters we headed back to the main road and found a place for late lunch, then further up and down the road crossing the mountain pass at almost 2000 metres, our scooter sounding and acting a little tired trying to pull two people up the steep road. But we made it up and down. Unless you spend an hour going down the mountain to the valley and continue to the not so nice town of Lao Chai there is really nothing to do and see except a couple of waterfalls and the countryside which is mountains and more mountains. Impressive to look at.
We didn't stop at the waterfall, just did our driving and by 4 PM we were back in Sapa after a long day on the road. We decided it was coffee time - it always is - and had our last cup at Hillside station this time, then back to the room to relax and for dinner we went to Hillside Restaurant and had nice and expensive dinner - but we are worth it, aren't we. All day travel planned for tomorrow going to Hanoi by local bus and train from Lao Cai if everything works out as it is supposed to.
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| That's us |
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| Breakfast with a view |
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| Checking out the view from the Balcony |
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| Fansipan Legend |
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| Still not at the top |
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| Getting closer |
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| Finally at the top |
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| Impressive view |
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| Patriotic Malene |
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| Going down |
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| On the road again |
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| Heading back to Sapa Village |
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| Because we're worth it |
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| Dinner with Jen and Malene |
