Moc Chau & Sapa

A single girl loves traveling and gives you objective opinions and experiences on traveling in Vietnam.

Let me tell you another story about my trips.

Harvested rice field

Another memorable trip is going to Moc Chau and Sapa. I went there in November 2014 with another girl, Ms. Thuy, my best friend and the one who always accompany me in most of my trip.

We are two girls who like free traveling and don’t like traveling with tour. So we just booked air ticket from Saigon to Hanoi (normal rate is $120 in total/person), then we took bus to Moc Chau because there is no other transportation to the area except for motorbike but it’s too dangerous for two girls to ride during that route.

Moc Chau is 185km far from Hanoi capital (5-6hours by bus). We took route Ha Noi-Son La bus (ticket about $8/person) at noon. When we got there, it’s 20:00. We stayed in Truong Giang hotel with the rate around $15/night. I think this hotel is rather good.

The next day, we hired a motorbike from hotel to go around famous places such as kale flower hill, Heart tea hill, Dai Yem waterfall, Ban Ang pine forest, Ban On 5 caves… The rent price is $10/motorbike/day (fuel filled by renter).

Moc Chau is really good place to experience because of its wildness and beauty.

Aside from beautiful places in Moc Chau, the delicious food is also a famous thing there. We tried Bê Chao (small beef), Lợn Bản Nướng (pork) and Trâu Gác Bếp (buffalo) which are very special cooked foods and really cool to be tasted in Moc Chau.

The weather in Moc Chau is really special to me. It's cold in the night and warm in the day. The feeling of riding a motorcycle through large green tea hills and sloping streets is really fantastic. The wind slaps us on the face and the new day's sunlight shines our shoulder. It was the most wonderful memories.

Leaving Moc Chau, we came back to Hanoi because there is no good transportation from Moc Chau to Sapa. We took the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai city in 10hrs (it costed us about $20/person). From Lao Cai to Sapa we had to travel by bus with the distance of 30km (ticket $2/seat). It's a good bus because it's not crowded and the driver also stop for us to taking picture on the way.

Soon we got Sapa city and the driver sent us to the hotel whose owner is relative of driver (named Hoang Lan hotel, 13 Pham Xuan Huan street, Sapa town). The hotel is painted by pink color and look new and located in the city centre. Especially it's a very cheap hotel (around $13/night). Thus this is the affordable hotel for low budget like us.

We hired the motorbike from hotel with the cheaper price compared to motorbike in Moc Chau ($4/day). Also the quality of motorbike even better than the one we hired in Moc Chau. We used motorbike to visit traditional villages. One memory I still remember that we are only two girls riding on a motorbike to very strange villages of our different ethnicity, so we were a little scared at first. That's why on the way we asked to join with other foreign couples and they accepted with a very nice attitude with us (that's the thing I love at foreigners). We just rode together on the way but it helped us not to worry and more brave. At last we said goodbye to that couples and rode by ourselves because our plan was different from their.

                                 

We also met so many people of other ethnicity in Sapa such as Thai ethnicity, Tay, Dao Do... We went to famous places such as Thác Bạc (Silver waterfall), Cổng Trời (Sky gate), Hàm Rồng mountain (where we can see the whole Sapa city), Tả Van village, Cát Cát village... (You should not go Bãi đá cổ (ancient rock zone) because there is really no ancient rock anymore). 

Foreigners like to take trekking to villages in Sapa and I think it's a wonderful experience. A thing surprised me that Sapa people speak English very well. There are many Sapa girls do tour guider for trekking, so you can hire them (remember to bargain because they might recommend you a high price).

I still want to travel to Sapa many more times because there are still many hidden charms in Sapa.

They are waiting for you to discover.

p/s: My total fee for this trip was around $300 in 6 days.