In Sapa

Had a great all-night train ride last night - felt like I was on the Oriental Express . . . This first pic shows our cabin where us four guys on the team slept - pretty tight quarters. But I slept awesome with the rocking of the train all night . . . and I was told that it was probably good that it was dark and we couldn't watch the bridges and narrow passages that the train navigates through the mountains.

We arrived in Lao Cai at 5:30am and then took an hour bus ride to Sapa - this is where we are staying for the rest of the week. Very small town in the mountains.

The ethnic majority is the Hmong people (they originated and migrated from China) . . . they cater to the tourists in this village but are rural, poor. This is a Hmong man driving his water buffalo through the streets.

Later in the day we saw some of the beautiful countryside - this last pic shows some of the terraced farming on a mountainside - if you click on it and enlarge it you can see the people (probably a family) working the terraces.

I think I'm pretty caught up on sleep and ready to roll -- tomorrow morning we leave about 6:30 to the remote villages where the team will be doing a conference for teachers and admnistrators as well as some physical work on the schools . . .

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done!