2025 was a little special for me, I did my first ever international trip, and I did it with my two friends.
Honestly, I had been saving for this for the longest time, so when it finally happened, it felt surreal. The three of us wanted something budget-friendly, so we researched Bali, Vietnam, and Thailand. After a lot of googling (and a lot of late-night voice notes to each other), Vietnam felt like the safest pick, especially for girls travelling for the first time internationally.
We planned an 11-day trip for the end of August, starting from Northern Vietnam to the South, keeping the weather in mind. And speaking of weather, let me warn you right now, Vietnam's weather is very unpredictable. Even if you check the forecast a week ahead, don't trust it too much. It'll do whatever it wants.
We booked a night flight from Delhi to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. Vietnam is 1 hour 30 minutes ahead of India, so we landed at 4:30 AM feeling like zombies but very excited zombies. Our first stop wasn't Hanoi though, we were heading straight to Sapa.
We had already pre-booked all our intercity travel and stays before the trip (highly recommend doing this, saves so much stress). So we hopped onto our bus from Hanoi to Sapa and honestly? The buses in Vietnam are nothing like what you'd expect. Think massage chairs, headphones, reclining seats, it's a whole experience. We reached Sapa around 2 PM.
And guys, Sapa is a place you think about in your dreams. It's a mountain area, covered with rice fields on every side, hilly roads, cool breeze, and villagers who will greet you with the happiest faces. It's just very peaceful and pretty in the most simple way. No chaos, no rush. Just green everywhere. We checked into a beautiful homestay, rested for a bit, and then headed to our first stop, Cat Cat Village.
View from our homestay
For getting around within the city, we used the Grab app, it's basically Ola/Uber for Southeast Asia, very easy and affordable.
Cat Cat Village is a small village inside the valley of Sapa, with a river flowing through it, little shops, local people going about their day, and these tiny waterfalls along the way.
You just walk through it at your own pace and it's so calming. And the sunset there, I genuinely haven't seen a sunset like that before. The mountains, the river, the sky all orange and pink, it was just beautiful. Simple, but the kind of beautiful that stays with you.
A perfect start of our trip, in upcoming days, I'll be sharing my full trip. Stay tuned. :)