More on Sapa

via Bruno flickr

Sapa's green hills and cold mornings offered me the short respite I craved from my chaotic schedule, one that appears to keep growing with tasks and responsibilities I did not expect when I signed my contract: Establish a community-based legal clinic? Sure. Manage law students and international lawyer volunteers? Sure. Lead a research team and publish? Sure.

I'm certainly not complaining about these opportunities -- they are more than I could have asked for when the idea of moving to Cambodia to pursue international human rights lawyering entered my head -- but it's amusing how this project keeps mushrooming into more and more. Most days, I am frankly too busy tending to daily tasks to appreciate the work that lands on my desk. But somedays, someone like Anna, the Russian lawyer volunteering with our organization, stops me after I've been for rambling five minutes about a meeting or the findings of a field visit and blurts out, "That is amazing!" And then I stop for a minute, mull over her words, and remember that it is. It really is.

365 days, week #15.

Not very good at capturing my week. Very few pictures.

1. Sapa, Vietnam. North of Hanoi, accessible via an overnight train to Lao Cai, a town near the Chinese border, and then a winding bus ride up, up, up the hills. Misty mornings, green rice terraces, and colder climates.

2. My daily drink: Sapa tea, a mix of ginger, cinnamon, and honey.

Vietnam

one-fat-shot flickr (via Clear North)

Last week threw me for a loop, and I'm starting to recover, after a haircut, massage and two days of doing absolutely nothing, except narrowly avoiding pickpocketing (a story for later).

This week is Khmer New Year, and most Khmer take the week off and travel to see family. I will be working from home for a few days, and by "home," I mean some place in Vietnam where I can plug into an internet connection for a few hours. Because I don't yet know, with certainty, where I want to go and, more importantly, if I will have time to go there.

What I do know is that I want to work my way north, probably to Hoi An, probably to Hanoi, and ideally to Sapa, though Sapa is unlikely. I also know that I prefer overland journeys, so it will be slow travel and lots of time staring out windows of trains and buses -- unless, of course, I run out of time, in which case I'll hop back on a plane to Phnom Penh.

I have Zadie Smith's White Teeth packed and a list of beauty products I want to track down.

I will write from the road.