Sapa is well-known for attractive destinations such as ancient stone church, Ham Rong mountain, Silver waterfall, O Quy Ho pass, Muong Hoa valley, Ta Van-Ta Phin village…. Today, I will introduce another must-visit spot in Sapa. That is Cat Cat village.
This is an old village, 3 km from Sapa’s center where still maintains traditional handicrafts such as cotton plant, textiles. Because of being close to Sapa, Cat Cat attracts a lot of tourists. At present, the village has been built to serve as a tourism destination.
Coming to Cat Cat, visitors not only see countryside living of ethnic family but also admire waterfalls or streams, listen to birds singing and immerse in harmonious melodies of forest. More than that, travelers could explore mysterious beauty of its which is really hard challenge for many people such as trekking through forests, conquering mountains, visiting villages or wandering along inclines, going upward the flow of water to explore fascinating deserted streams .
These streams are often unknown lying sparsely around living area and fringe of the villages and serving mainly for daily life of local ethnic people. To reach these streams, travelers have to take a 2-3 km trekking through forest. .
Because these streams stay alone and not being listed in guidebooks, they are still entirely wild and rarely visited by travelers. We ourselves also had to ask a friendly H’mong child for directions and trek a long road with a stream before reaching this stream.
The stream was truly our most interesting experience. Although we have visited Sapa many times before, this is the first time we have ever heard and seen this stream. It spreads as far as the eye can see and divides into many sections with different flows. The water surface is as quiet, clear as mirror and poetic, gentle like a teen girl.
The water is so clear that we could see clearly everything at the bottom of the stream with 4m below water surface, the surroundings are big and solid rocks- ideal place to lie down, listen to music, and admire natural scenery.
The stream gave us a surprise which is surely not nice for those who are chicken-hearted. That is the appearance of water snakes swimming with us. They may scare you but do not worry. They are totally harmless and this just makes your trips more memorable.
The stream is also the home of fish which were served at restaurants in Sapa’s center. A dish of fried fish is not cheap at all. It costs about VND 100,000/dish. You could borrow a net from the locals to catch. However, we advise you not to do so if you do not want to break peaceful moment of the stream.
The rocks are very large and flat which is very suitable for a short break. If you are a fan of yoga, no place more perfect than this in Sapa.
At the end of the trip, I and my friend came back to animated tourism town, returned to May bridge, Bac waterfall, Xuan Vien which are very familiar to travelers who love Sapa.