Sapa Day 1: Thursday

Wednesday night I took a xe om to Finnigan's with Leah. I met up with Cathy, Dale, Tica, and Tony and drank a Coke before getting really tired and xe oming back to the dorm with Cathy at 10:30 pm. I ate a huge grapefuit-like fruit with DiDi and Cathy and then I cuddled with DiDi until midnight, when she kicked me out.

On Thursday morning I woke up at 5:00 am in order to pack and get ready for our big trip to Sapa. It's in the mountains of northern Viet Nam and is the home to many of the 52 ethnic minorities of this country. Two of the prevalent tribes moved there from China hundreds of years ago-the H'Mong and the Dao peoples. Anyways, I packed and moved my stuff out in front of the dorm while I ate my first ever peanut butter and banana sandwich (made by DiDi for all of us) and some french bread I ran down to road to buy. By 6:45, I was on the van (as opposed to the bigger bus) with the professor and his wife Donna, Jackie, Oliver, Graham, and Natalie. I listened to music, talked, and slept from 7:00-9:00. From 9-9:30 our group stopped for a gas and bathroom break in the middle of nowhere.

We then continued on until 11:00, where we stopped for an hour to get lunch in a small town. I was offered and accepted a small shot of rice wine from some local boys before my lunch of egg, rice, and greens. Back on the bus at noon, I slept until 1:45 pm. It was such slow going on the horrible roads because they weren't only windy and carved out of the sides of the mountains, but they were also eroding away. I chilled in the van while it jostled along these crazy bumpy roads alongside steep cliffs and valleys filled with tiered rice paddies until 3:00. At that point the other bus stopped to take a bathroom break but we stayed in the van and my fellow travelers didn't let me get out and touch a close water buffalo. At 3:30, however, our van stopped by the side of the road and I got out, popped a squat in a thicket, and then got really close to a water buffalo before it started to move towards me instead. That was the end of that.

I listened to some Pat Metheny on my MP3 player while our van chased a bright pink sun as we sent it off to rise in America. I then slept until 6:00, when our van stopped to wait for our bus. Jackie gave me a great head massage and after ten minutes we continued on and traveled right next to China's mountains. They were just a shadow against a gray sky and a full moon by then, though. Our journey continued until 7:30 pm, when we finally arrived at the Darling Hotel. We were slated to arrive there at 4 pm, but the bad roads led to less speed and delays.

When we got out of the vans we could barely see the beautiful mountains that lay outside of our room's balcony, but we could sense them. It was also gloriously chilly and it almost seemed like we had traveled so far that we had hit autumn! I immediately moved into room 309 with Jill and DiDi where we left our bags and met the rest of the group in the lobby for dinner. We all walked a couple of blocks downtown to the one main street in Sapa and followed our usual guide, Long, into a good restaurant. I had fried rice while the waiter professed his love to me. After eating dinner and talking with friends from 8-9:30, I paid, left, and walked back to the hotel. I conditioned and shampooed because my hair was wild and the hot shower felt great. I fell asleep early at 10:30 because tomorrow was going to be so exciting.