this week i

slept on the train.  okay, i can make this work.

woke up in sa pa.  home to terraced rice fields.  that's about it.  slept on train, saw terraced rice fields, eom.  but they're nice terraced rice fields.








dunno if they're edible.

prefer darjeeling.  why?  well here's one reason..

locals always in costume

not to toot our own horn, but

..while we're comparing cities and nations: ever-present ho chi minh reminiscent of ataturk.

rented a bicycle.





discovered my favorite kind of turret.

recall yogi berra saying something about forks.

surely see scenes like this all the time back home.  oh all the time.

racked up a wicked farmer's tan.  no demilitarized zone or nothing.

figured out why men in tropical countries walk with their hands behind their backs: a comfortable way to avoid sunburn.

rank northwestern vietnam in the top decile of places, perhaps even the top vigintile.




 

remember the train.  the faces of other passengers vanish quickly, but that great machine stays with you.

6/12