Fansipan

We woke up Wednesday morning, looked out the window, and saw something we hadn’t seen in it seems like weeks – blue sky. Shocking as it was, we decided to seize the day and check out Fansipan.

Fansipan is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of years ago, monks built a series of pagodas at the peak. Recently, a world-record breaking cable car has made the job a bit easier. (It is the longest cable car with the length of 1,1410 meters and the highest with the height of 6,292.5 meters.

Our hotel hostess set us up with tickets and we headed out, a bit concerned as the fog kept creeping in as drips and drabs.

Step 1 – Tram

The tram starts a short walk from our hotel. It goes through several tunnels and at times goes up at a steep angle. At the other end, we departed and then had to walk up a fairly steep hill to get to the cable car station.

Step 2 – Cable Car

We passed through some replica ethnic villages to get to the cable car. There were only four of us in our car, the returning cars were all packed.

Our breaths were collectively taken away as soon as we started to see the valley below. It is stunning.

Step 3 – Funicular to the Summit Pagodas

It is possible to trek the entire mountain, or selectively go from any of the segment stops. We chose automation. The funicular took us as far as it could, then it was on us.

After another series of steps, often both down and up in the same section, we checked out the pagodas.

The cable car ride down was just as grand as up.

After we went back down the funicular and cable car, we checked out the replica village. We passed some interesting buddha kids and succulents on the way. In the village, there was dancing going on. For the last number, they did bamboo pole dancing and many of the visitors joined in. It was very fun.

And last but not least, we cannot forget the mastodon and horse and buggy topiaries.

Even though it was freezing at the top, it was a great day!