EXPENSIVE trip up Vietnam’s HIGHEST mountain (Mt Fansipan, Sapa) 🇻🇳 Is it WORTH IT?

Hi, we're Jordana and Grant from Shot in the Dark Travel. Come join us on our epic adventures around Southeast Asia. Stay tuned to watch us get a cable car over the incredible Muang Hoa Valley in Sapa, Vietnam, before going up through the clouds to the top of Mount Phan Xipan, the tallest mountain in Vietnam. We then check out the beautiful Cat Cat village. Morning guys, so we're up early and we're going to have breakfast at the hotel and then we're going to climb, well we're going to get the train and then the cable cars up to Phan... Phan Xipan Mountain. Phan Xipan Mountain, it's not called Phan Xipan is it? Maybe Phan Xipan? But he keeps calling it Phan Xipan but... I keep calling it Phan Xipan but that's it. Yeah, Phan Xipan. Phan Xipan Mountain. And then we're going to go to Cat Cat village so yeah, we're going to get some breakfast now. Yeah, I've been literally terrified of the cable car and dreading it for the past week so let's hope it's not as bad as it might be. I've got here, I was advised by the guy working here, apparently that's a traditional Vietnamese breakfast where you get the rice and the beans and then you put a few bits on so I've got a bit of tofu, a bit of peanuts, a bit of sauce on there, a bit of dim sum, some fruit, watermelon juice. I'm going to share a bowl of pho or pho as they call it in Vietnam. I've got some sauces on the side, omelette and then Giordano's got a few little bits as well, same as me. Delicious. Yeah, oh wow that looks different. Tell me if I am eating this wrong because I'm pretty sure you don't eat this Lee. It's got like pork in it, it's really nice, I think you'll like it. So as you can see behind us we're at the Sun Plaza, this is where we'll be grabbing a train up to the cable cars that then will take us to the top of the mountain. It's such a beautiful building and apparently the train's really cool, it looks quite French style and so yeah, let's go and have a look. So me and Grant have done a big mid-dress for the weather, everybody's wearing trousers and coats, we're both wearing t-shirts and shorts. So we've just got off the train, so we're halfway up the mountain now and it costs 100 dong each if you want to come here and if you don't want to go all the way to the top, to be honest, I think it's worth coming here just by itself. The views are absolutely amazing as you can see over our shoulders and the gardens, there's like a beautiful garden, gorgeous plants, it just smells so beautiful and there's like lots of little picture bits, there's where we'll show you now Grant walking up the stairway to heaven but yeah, it's really, really beautiful. So yeah, if you don't want to pay to go up to the top of the mountain, this isn't going to break the bank, you still get the beautiful views and the flower garden. Grant trying to look good going up the stairs but coming down's another story. The handrails are too low, it's all been built for people who aren't six foot. Oh my god! Wow, that looks great. We are so high. Wow, that view down the valley. Jordan, how are you feeling? Actually okay, like I don't feel like this is like the one in Malaysia, this in Langkawi, this feels a lot more structured, I don't feel as scared. I think the Langkawi one was so small, we felt like we were just getting like battered by the wind and swinging around and swaying, whereas here it does actually feel very secure, doesn't it? They have you covered if you don't like heights and feel a bit sick. Hopefully we won't be needing that. So we've just got the cable car to the first bit and the cable car is 736,000 dong. So if you wanted to do that all together, that would be maths man. 836,000 dong each. There you go, I don't do mental maths. But yeah, so you could just do, like we said before, you could just go to the gardens and have a look on the viewpoint there. But if you do want to do the mountain, that would be it together. And then you can get a cable car all the way up to the top, but we're going to do the stairs. Do you remember how many stairs? 600 stairs. Yeah, so there's a separate train that's another 100,000 dong or there's the stairs. We just fancied the stairs. We thought a bit of exercise, we've eaten loads this holiday, might be fun. Sort of regretting it now, we've got here and the air, we're about 300 meters, 3,000 meters above sea level at the minute and you can tell the air is like quite thin. I'm out of breath just talking, let alone climbing. So we're going to get this done. The thin air up here is really getting to me. Like Jordan is just doing the exact same stairs as me and he's fine and I'm so out of breath, I don't understand. Like I know I'm from a long line of people who haven't really left Leeds in the north of England. We're not, the Sanderson's aren't really explorers, but I didn't think I'd be this bad. We definitely recommend taking little short, little short rests because the air is a lot thinner up here. So yeah, nearly there. It's been just amazing. Like I'm so, so glad we did this. It took a lot of convincing to get Grant up here, just because it is a lot of money and as a backpacker, I understand people don't want to pay that. But in my eyes, I thought it was completely worth it. Like how many people can say they've been on top of the biggest mountain in Indochina? Like the views, I've never been up in the clouds, like unless I've been on a plane or something like this is insane and like you always worry about, oh, is it going to be just too foggy? But we've had such a good mixture of like fog and clouds and then scenery and it's kind of just made it look really magical. Like it's just been such a good experience. I agree. Honestly, it's been incredible. I thought it was, you get to the top, it's cloudy as hell and you can't really see anything. But actually the way up takes probably about 30 minutes and the views are amazing. So you have all the amazing views of the valley and the mountains on the way up. Then you get to the top and it looks a bit magical because the clouds and the mist. And yeah, like it was a bit pricey, but it was well worth it, in my opinion. And I mean, wait up for yourselves, but I would definitely recommend at least doing the train if you can't afford coming up the mountain, because you still get some incredible views. But yeah, from us, this is one of like up there. We've loved it. Yeah, so good. We've just jumped into a buggy on the way to Cat Cat Village, which has cost us $50,000. We're in a bit of a rush. We would have actually walked, but we've got some work to do tonight. So we need to kind of get that quickly. Everyone said that Cat Cat Village is amazing. So yeah, we'll just see what, I'm not really sure what to expect. So it'll be nice to have a little look around. I would probably call it a traditional village. And so far, all we've seen is people selling tarts to tourists. Cat Cat Village was beautiful to explore. It cost 90,000 dong per person to enter. There were a lot of cafes and restaurants and places you can stop for a drink. And there are a lot of gift shops. Cat Cat Village is quite touristy. So if you're not into that sort of thing, maybe give it a miss. But we enjoyed taking all the amazing scenery in and watching the Vietnamese tourists dress up in traditional clothing. Sadly, our time in Sapa has ended. We both absolutely loved it. Like, I think it exceeded expectations. So we definitely recommend it. If you've got time in Vietnam, head up to Sapa. I think the train up towards Mount Phan Thiphan and then the cable car right to the top were both amazing. And the trek that we went on in the Muong Hoa Valley was possibly the most scenic walk I've ever done. It was fantastic. We definitely recommend that if you're going to Sapa. We're sad to be leaving. We've had an amazing time. If you like this video, please like and subscribe. And we'll see you in the next video when we explore Ninh Binh.