11 Sa Pa and Lao Cai

Vietnam Day 16

Today's Travel:

Funicular: 4 kms

Cable Car: 12 kms

Bus: 45 kms

Train: 290 kms overnight

Map: Today's trip

Today's big event was to get to Mt Fansi Pan. Mt Fansi Pan is the highest mountain in SE Asia at 3143m (10310'). As yesterday had been very cloudy (and wet), we hoped that the weather gods might smile on us, but it was still cloudy when we walked up to the Funicular station to catch the train to the cable car base station.

The top cable car station isn't actually at the top of the mountain. There are another 300 or so more steps to climb to reach the peak, but there was no way I was climbing another 200' or so at that altitude, so I went up the stairs behind Sue (above) until I got the reading on my phone's GPS.

An Austrian firm built the system which is the world's longest 3 rope cable car system. It opened in Feb, 2016. It scored two certificates from the Guinness Book of World Records : one to recognise the 6,282-meter cable car as the world's longest, and another for the biggest ascent by a cable car, rising 1,410 meters throughout its journey. The trip takes about 20 minutes.

Back in Sa Pa, we got back on the bus for the journey down the mountain to Lao Cai, and this time we drove through town to the bridge across a tributary of the Red River which is the border with the People's Republic of China. After noting that there is a huge TV screen on the Chinese side presumably showing how wonderful life is in China, we made our way back to the railway station for an al fresco meal in a small cafe, then got ready for our last night on the train back to Hanoi.

On to Hanoi and Halong Bay