Chubby Czech-er, Steppin' on the Mountain

Clear to the other side of Northern Vietnam, I went, on a night train with two Czechs who said that they were drunk. I was to arrive in Lao Cai, then take a bus to Sapa, my final destination. The chubbier of the two Czechs talked to me of his recent girlfriends. One of them was American. Then he said he didn't like America--whether for reasons of foreign, economic or break-up policy, I was not able to find out.

After getting off the train in a different town, getting another bus to Lao Cai, and then another bus to Sapa, I took a nap. I dreamt that I was trying to get to Sapa, that no one seemed to have any idea what was going on, and that they all kept pointing me in different directions. It was eerily real.

Sapa can make up for things like that. Mountains rise above you, and valleys settle in peacefully below you. The whole scene reeks of serenity; every turn of your head is a new postcard. It reminds me of many other mountain towns, except for the staircases.

This is rice farming country, and rice paddies are all over the valley. But they also make their way up the mountains, where alot of the tribes here live. The terraced paddies look like steps leading up the mountain... light-green, carpeted steps half the width of a football field--yet another thing at which to gratefully gawk.