Sapa

There are a bunch of mini-buses waiting at the train station in Lao
Cai to take people to Sapa. The Chinese border is only 1km away if you
want to take a peek. The mini buses try to charge 100,000vnd to go to
Sapa but the lonely planet says it should be 28,000. I had to fight
pretty hard to get it for 50,000 (they were pulling away and I refused
to pay more and they drove a little ways away and stopped and still
asked for 70,000 before accepting 50,000. I met a couple who managed
to get it for 40,000 but it didn't leave from the train station. I
think I saw two Vietnamese on my minibus pay 50,000 each.

The drive to Sapa is gorgeous and if the weather is good it would
definitely be nice to have a private car which I was getting offered
for 300,000vnd. Got dropped off in front of the market in Sapa and a
guy asked me to look at his hotel. I ended up staying there and it was
decent (Cam Tu guest house, tel: 0203 871 339, No. 011 Fanispan St.)
Good size room (2 beds) a balcony with a bit of a view, cable, wifi,
hot shower and electric blanket, heat was extra though (it was real
cold and foggy) for 140,000vnd. They had a hair salon in the lobby and
I got my hair cut there for 50,000vnd but I wouldn't recommend it. The
girl randomly cut parts of my hair, brushed my bangs to the side and
asked "ok?". Haha no not ok! She hadn't even cut about 70% of my hair!
After multiple discussions through a translator she managed to give me
an actual haircut which was alright. Pretty ridiculous experience
though.

The one day the fog cleared in the afternoon and I went for a hike to
Cat Cat village and down the valley. Cat Cat village is 3km down hill
from Sapa and they charge 20,000vnd entrance. It's kinda a waste of
time cause it's basically all shops for tourists. There are some very
pretty vistas though and an ok waterfall. From there I continued down
the valley on an unmarked trail through the rice paddies and didn't
see any other tourists. This area is spectacularly beautiful and I
wished I had more time to keep going down but the sun started setting.
A woman pointed me in the direction of Sapa which was a pretty arduous
climb back up on a questionable path. If the weather was for sure
going to be good I could have spent a couple more days there hiking
around but I think it's unpredictable and dense fog is very common.

Leaving Sapa I booked a minibus to Dien Bien Phu (near the Laos
border) through my hotel for 200,000vnd. That's the cheapest I found
around but there was a sign on the bus saying Lao Cai to Dien Bien Phu
was 170,000 so if you catch it yourself you should at least be able to
get that. The minibus was alright, not packed with people and goods
which was nice. The drive for the first hour is amazing so try to get
a window. We left Sapa around 8am and arrived Dien Bien Phu around
230pm with a couple stops.