Too tired to do anything more than download some pictures last night. It is now 5 AM on September 17th. I had no real concept of what “going north of Sapa” as we had spent an hour getting to Sapa and we were told we had 5 more hours to go. The road took us on steep winding roads with steep drop offs plunging deep into valleys. Definitely a vomit experience for those prone to car sickness.

With steep terrain, plunging valleys, mist covering the soaring mountains, one has time to really take in the country side and reflect. Here were the rice fields and tea plantations of so many images of my youth during the Vietnam war. We were in an area that was next to the Chinese border and not really where Americans were stationed. But still, looking into the moist, rainy landscape of the jungle and the hot humidity, I wondered how any of the men who fought in Vietnam could cope with these conditions. Carrying all the heavy equipment, the terror of this dense growth, with danger threatening at any moment, it seems impossible to believe we sent any troops into that kind of experience. Humans do horrible atrocities to one another and once again there are bombings, and the killing of people who just want to live and take care of their families. I feel deep pain when I think of what we did to the environment and people here.

Now Vietnam seems to have prospered with the help of many countries. But the people we talk to feel the government is solid and have enforced strict rules making drugs illegal with very severe consequences. They also provide housing for the homeless, helping them to be able to survive on their own. Children have grown up with no memory of a time of war, but those of us that are old enough still bare witness to what happened in the past because we can still remember how many men died in our youth. It touched everyone, the draft loomed over every male we knew. What was your draft number, how to get a deferment, who was leaving for Canada and where was your next protest? This was all a part of our daily life.

We arrived in a beautiful Hmong village where the different families have built cabins for home stay experiences. The steep road to the first set of cabins brought us to a landing area where the views down the valley were breath taking. They divided us up, with four people on the flat area, two one steep level up and the oldest people in the group, Dorothy, Shap and me got the longest, steepest, hill to climb up to our cabins. We have to traverse the road to go up, stop, breathe, then repeat going down, knees screaming the entire way. Meanwhile the youngest get the nice flat lawn. Day four will bring a new experience. We are having a fabulous time.