As with many scenic places, the tour groups have practically taken over Sapa in the past few years and everything we've read cautions travelers to brace for overcrowded trails with a constant stream of persistent villagers trying to sell you something.
Transportation is always a challenge when trying to get around in the mountains, so it's no surprise that the majority of visitors to this region join one of the hundreds of organized tour groups departing from Hanoi.
After much research, we decided to stick to a do-it-yourself itinerary. The cost wasn't all that different, but we didn't want to feel rushed and confined to a group itinerary. We definitely have plans to spend a couple of days in Sapa, but we also desired a more quiet mountain town to settle in so we ended up choosing Bac Ha.
Why Bac Ha?
Why Bac Ha?
- Fresh mountain air
- Very friendly locals
- Sunday market
- Hiking
- Not too many tourists stay overnight
- Easy transportation from Lao Cai train station
Here are some travel details from Hanoi to Bac Ha.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS
We didn't find a lot of online travel resources available for Bac Ha. Travelfish.org had the best information and hotel suggestions, which corroborated with some of the info found in Lonely Planet Vietnam. None of the hotels had any kind of web based booking and none of our email inquiries were returned so we just called one of the hotels directly, Ngan Nga Hotel, and made a reservation. Fortunately, the person spoke decent English, but should not be counted on as the norm!
For $25-$35/double, Ngan Nga Hotel at 133 Ngoc Uyen was a decent home base. The location, right in the center of town, was great and the accommodations including breakfast was fine. The large clean rooms had TV, phone, fan, and air conditioner. The bathroom was one of those found in much of Southeast Asia where the shower, toilet, sink is all in one space and everything gets wet after a shower (why do they construct the bathrooms this way?!), but there was plenty of hot water which was welcome in this cold weather. We didn't notice any cleaning service our entire stay, and the towels were slightly worn and had old stains, and the wifi signal didn't reach our corner room on the 4th floor, but oh well. The best part about the hotel was the staff. This place seems to be a family run operation and everyone was always willing to assist with a smile. Mr. Tan spoke the best English and was very helpful throughout our stay.
For mid-budget lodging, we noticed a spiffy brand new hotel called Sunday Hotel across the street that hadn't been mentioned anywhere. Their website quotes $45/night. Other accommodations we saw included Cong Fu Hotel (mentioned in Lonely Planet), Sao Mai Hotel (large hotel but slightly away from the main square and market), and Ngan Nga Bac Ha Hotel (not related to the Ngan Nga Hotel we stayed at, but 3 doors down. Confusing, yes).
OVERNIGHT TRAIN: HANOI TO LAO CAI STATION
The best guide to Vietnam train travel is seat61.com. We didn't know the exact date we were going to Lao Cai (train station closest to Sapa and Bac Ha) until we arrived in Hanoi, which was a mistake because when we went to the Hanoi train station to buy train tickets for 2 days out, all sleeper cabins were sold out (many of the tour operators but them in blocks). Therefore, for this 10-hour journey, we opted for a soft chair in an air-conditioned car on the last train departing. The other (non)option was a hard bench seat in a non-air conditioned car.
After having experienced soft sleepers for most of our train travel through Vietnam, the soft chairs were a rude awakening. We did have assigned seats and they were similar to bus seats. The air conditioner may have been working, or maybe not. The doors on the end of the car were open the entire way, so it was hard to tell. It got humid real fast. There were plenty more passengers in this car than the number of seats available. We're not sure how this happened, but we literally had to crawl over people sitting in the aisle and those laying around in the ends of the car to get to the restroom. Also, men were chain smoking in the rear, creating a "lovely" smoky atmosphere.
The good news? This experience cost us only $10/pp instead of $25/pp for a sleeper car.
Our advice is to avoid the soft chairs and secure a sleeper cabin by setting dates early and purchasing train tickets as soon as possible from either Saigon station or Hanoi station! Also, trains to Lao Cai leave from Hanoi Station "B" off Tran Cuy Cap street (not Le Duan street side).
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| View from front of Lao Cai train station. Bus station is at end of this tree lined boulevard. |
As expected, hoards of taxi and minibus drivers accosted as we got off the train at Lao Cai station. We filtered our way through the station in search for the actual bus station where we thought we would find transportation to Bac Ha for a decent price.
The bus station is not exactly across the street from the train station as some of the online information states. It is on the opposite end of the main boulevard stretching away from the train station. Maybe 200 meters or so down the main boulevard.
We refused our hotel's offer for a private car at $60, so they suggested we drop into one of the many restaurants lining this boulevard, order some breakfast, and ask the restaurant to help flag down a Bac Ha bound bus and help us negotiate a reasonable cost that shouldn't be more than $5/pp.
We didn't know exactly what they meant, so we headed towards the bus station and were able to secure a couple seats on a minibus to Bac Ha for $5/pp (they wanted $10/pp). Once we got going, we understood what the hotel meant. This bus was not full, so we slowly circled the entire town of Lao Cai at 5mph for about an hour, looking for more passengers. We crept by all of the restaurants where the owner could've easily flagged him down for us!
After an hour in a minibus with officially 12 seats, we were packed in like sardines with 20+ hill tribe folks hitching a ride back up to the mountain. The 2-hour ride started innocently enough, but we quickly realized something was very wrong when all the hill tribe folks looked green and had their heads down. Many of them came equipped with plastic bags, which they proceeded to vomit in...the entire way. We did our best to avoid the "splash" and felt really bad for them because clearly, they get very, very car sick!
THE TOWN OF BAC HA
There really is no bus stop in Bac Ha. Apparently, all buses drop passengers off in front of the temple gates. From there, the entire town is accessible by foot.
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| Buses drop passengers off in front of the gates at intersection of Duong Ngoc Uyen street . |
We couldn't find a decent map of Bac Ha online, so here's a homemade one that may be of help.
This town is in the throws of trying to meet the needs of the growing tourism, so much of the information we read seemed out of date already. For example, a very key piece of advice we read is that Bac Ha doesn't have an ATM or bank. Well, that has changed. The town actually has one bank and ATM now. Most of the restaurants previously mentioned in websites were largely non-existent, replaced by some other version of the same thing. We also noticed new hotels not mentioned even a year ago.
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| View of surrounding mountains from Bac Ha |
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| Side streets of Bac Ha. |
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| Agribank ATM machine at end of Duong Ngoc Uyen street. Didn't have Star or Cirrus sign, but said it took VISA and MasterCard. |
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| Hmong hill tribe ladies hanging out in the main square of town. |
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| Large vases on motorbike! What won't they carry on a motorbike? |
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| Peanuts drying in the sun on the sidewalk. |
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| Our hotel breakfast! Biggest baguette the size of a football. |
As a side note, the local radio station blasts the daily news and stories and music from the government each morning for an hour during the week and 2 hours on the weekends! We were woken up to public announcements through outdoor speakers that reverberated throughout town at 6am. If not the loud speakers, then it was the roosters!
There's plenty of hiking options around Bac Ha. The scenery may not be as famous as Sapa, but it was still stunning to us. It was nice just to breathe some fresh air after spending so much time in the chaotic cities of Vietnam. We just started walking down the street into the mountains and never came across another gringo soul! We saw plenty of corn growing and ran into a whole group of kids walking home from school. They were all very friendly, shouting out "Hello" and "Goodbye". Small kids were playing in the trees, also shouting "Hello" to us. They were so cute. The adults were more shy but if we smiled at them, they gave us a huge wide grin full of crooked, sometimes rotting teeth.
