Its always been my dream to climb mount fansipan in Philippines but considering the long journey and long leaves, careful plan need to be made months prior.
Normally, hiking Fansipan requires 2 days and 1 night but searching online, it can be done within one day if you fit enough. Finding the right guide also plays a role - me and guide, same mission to conquer Fansipan, daypack.
The mission to reach fansipan and coming down by hiking aka foot. Some of hikers going up by hiking and going down by cable car. It is actually up to individual.
The journey begins by arranging the transport from Hanoi airport to Sapa town :
Transportation from Hanoi Airport To Sapa
1) Flight to hanoi (Noi Bai Airport)
2) Take taxi to sao viet bus office (2km from Hanoi Airport)
or you can ask sao viet bus to pick up at Hanoi Airport to sao viet office
3) bus to sapa bus station
4) taxi from sapa bus station to sapa square or hotel
Duration and Distance
1) Flight to Hanoi (from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia = 3 hours)
2) Taxi to sao viet office = 5 minutes
3) Bus from Hanoi (sao viet office) to Sapa bus station = 5.5 hours to 6 hours
4) Taxi from Sapa bus station to sapa square = 2,3 minutes (1km)
Note : if you take the train, the train will stop at Lao Chai station, 30 minutes from Sapa town, so you need a taxi from Lao Chai to get to Sapa.
Booking Made:Express bus - from Hanoi to Sapa. Book via website vexere.com
Fansipan hike - book directly with the guide Mr Chu via whatsapp
The JourneyWe made pre-arrangement with fansipan guide (Mr Chu) few weeks before hike via whatsapp. We also made pre-arrangement with Vexere personnel (a transportation website where we made the booking) via email and whatsapp.
Upon reaching the airport, we immediately bought Vietnam Simcard from local telco at the airport itself, cost around RM88 for 5 days package. Then called the Vexere office, luckily the vexere personnel made arrangement with the van driver to pick up us at the airport.
They (vexere personnel) asked us to go to domestic airport which was located 2km from international airport to meet the van driver from sao viet express bus. We took the free shuttle bus from the airport. The bus will arrived at a frequency of every 5 minutes. We handed over the phone to staff at the airport information counter to speak with our van driver as he could not speak english...how difficult it was for us.
The van took us to Sao Viet express bus office, located only 2km from the airport and wait for the bus to ferry us to sapa town. There are 2 types of commonly used transportation to sapa - sleeper bus and limousine. Sleeper bus is a normal bus but with beds (lower bed and upper bed) while limousine is a van or small bus (which is a little bit faster than the bus).
The Fansipan Hike
We rode a bike from sapa to fansipan trailhead around 15km at 5am in a freezing temperature, please wear your jacket and glove. The hike will be guided by Mr Ho, (Mr Chu's younger brother).
Total Hike
10.21km ascending 5 hours 34 min
10.7km descending 3 hours 47 min
Total distance : 20.9km, 9 hours 21 min
Fansipan Height : 3143 meters
From Start to 1st Check Point
Distance from start - 3.5km
Time taken - 1 hour 17 min
1st Check Point
From 1st Check point to 2nd Check point
Distance from 1st check point : 3.2km
Time taken from 1st check point : 2 hours 15 min
Distance from start : 6.75km
Time taken from start : 3 hours 32 min
Can you see the building on top of the mountain?
That's the peak
2nd Check point
That's how we do it.
Smoking pipe
equipped with electrical socket
Your are very near to the top of the mountain when you hear a loud sound of cable car one after another depart and dock at the station.
At one of the steepest section...becareful ya
You are almost there when you reach this staircase
Let's climb up
They have built a building structure so big like a shopping complex thanks to thousands of tourist mostly from China.
Wei come on la, when will I reach the top
woohoo...close up with cable car
inside the complex
upper floor....
a tourist attraction
Once you are here, prepare for torturous stairs climbing and make your way to the top. Yes, we had been fooled when we reached this building as we thought we were there...haha.
Lets climb
climb
Distance from 2nd check point : 3.4km
Time taken from 1st check point : 2 hours
Distance from start : 10.21km
Time taken from start : 5 hours 31 min (around that la)
climb to get here
more climbing needed
climb...
climb to get here...continue climb
Yay! finally...on top of the mountain
Personal glory...proud to be malaysian...crazy one
There are several peak station (a pyramid shape) to cater for tourist, please select any of it, if not, you never get a chance to take photo...haha
Made it in 5 hours 31 min.....10.21km
Ascending Time
From peak to 2nd check point - 1 hour 10 min
From 2nd check point to 1st check point - 1 hour 25 min
From 1st check point to trail head - 1 hour 15 min
Total ascending time - 3 hours 47 minutes (around that la)
I think I'll keep this...
We started hike around 6.40am and reached back to trailhead around 4.17pm, what a long day but grateful that we completed in daytime...wohoo!
almost 21 km in 9 hours 34 min
It was an unforgettable experience not only the fansipan hike but the journey to Sapa itself. I would recommend hiking fansipan to enjoy the beauty.
Leaving Fansipan with a thousand memories
Thanks for reading.
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