Sa Pa- The place that snows in Vietnam

A lot of people were surprised when i posted about how cold Vietnam was on my IG story, well to be exact, only the Northern part of Vietnam has 4 seasons, the rest of Vietnam is probably more or less the same as Malaysia's hot humid all year round i guess. Sapa happens to be very cold because its at a higher altitude, in fact, the highest mountain in Vietnam- Fan Si Pan, is located in Sa Pa, quite a number of tourists visit Sa Pa solely for hiking! I was there during December, which was the winter season, which is why it was so cold. The title of this post was a bit of a click bait because i didn't actually see snow, but it does snow at the peaks in Sa Pa sometimes so it's not completely a lie. Oh, do you know it snows in India too? I didn't know until my friends who studied in India told me & I was so shocked haha. Malaysia is the only country i know that doesn't have winter now la. (ok, i'm just joking, i'm not that dumb ahha)

Again, we departed from Hanoi, we took the sleeping bus to Sa Pa, it was actually a lot more comfortable than i thought, there was even wifi on the bus. I sat on the bottom deck on my way there, and the top deck on my way back, i think both were equally comfortable la.

Upon reaching, we headed out for lunch. We explored Sa Pa by foot, so we did a lot of walking. When i say a lot, i really mean a lot.

smiling on the outside, freezing on the inside. 

had lunch at this restaurant, but i wouldn't recommend the place lol 

Apparently, salmon dishes are quite popular here, salmon hotpot was one of the "must-trys" we found online so we gave it a try. I did not like it, not a single bit. the soup was sourish & weird, no offence to people who likes it but it's just not my cup of tea. The salmon tastes fine, but the soup was so weird to me i do not enjoy it at all. 

we also got some pork which was not bad

smiling on the outside, freezing on the inside 2.0

it was super cold & foggy. 

there were sign boards telling us not to buy from the little kids..

There were kids everywhere, in their traditional wear, some not wearing shoes, some carrying even younger kids on their backs, trying to sell su souvenirs. They looked 7 years old, at most, some of them were so young and little i cannot comprehend how they learnt to deal with money and cross the roads.

"Kafa" is a cafe seen almost everywhere i go,
i think it's equivalent to Starbucks in Malaysia since i couldn't recall seeing any Starbucks in Vietnam
i just googled, there are Starbucks in Vietnam, i just didn't see any of them.

They have those small stools even at their "nice" cafes, i guess they love their stools! :) 

we stumbled across this street that looks like a market while walking so we went exploring

the nuts in Vietnam is cheaper than Malaysia so buy!!

Okay, short story, we were looking for toilet but everyone shook their heads when we asked if we could use their toilet, even the hotels nearby. When we entered this shop, they welcomed us very warmly & pointed us to their toilets even BEFORE we asked them about it. They were so nice so we decided to get a few cups of coffees and some souvenirs at the shop.

We also visited Sun Plaza, which is also Sapa Station.

they got really fancy toilets

here's another kid

there were a lot of people with make shift stalls, selling loads of pretty tempting barbecue stuff  everywhere
we found a bigger stall with some seats right outside Sun Plaza so we gave it a try. 

took a few photos while waiting for our food cause why not

one of my fav photo actually

here's what we got haha, it's just a snack before dinner so we didn't order too much la.
fyi, my family and I aren't really big eaters, so we don't usually order too much.
they were not bad, pretty cheap too.

Then we stopped by at a random restaurant we found on the road for dinner, it was pretty nice and reasonably priced also.

Cafe Pho Nui, just in case anyone is wondering

one of our orders- their famous beef noodles- pho! 

Okay, this post is getting too long, i'll make a part two, i'll include a list of things i note down in case you'd like to visit Sa Pa. Stay tuned !!

Oh, ending this post with a photo of our hotel room ceiling which i absolutely love. We stayed in Phuong Nam Hotel & it's really lovely.

Love, 

Sheunny