This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. -Winston Churchill At long last I've returned to Hanoi, not happily might I add. The past few days in Sapa and its surrounding villages have been unmatched in my days. I've come to find I love train rides but despise depots, at least in Vietnam. Aboard our locomotive in coach nineteen we meet some truly wonderful people, an Indian brother and sister from France who were visiting some relatives in Vietnam. We talked for over two hours about anything ranging from family to travel to literature, even a brief yak on the conditions of football (soccer) in the global scale. The man let me in on the secret of couch surfing, a global
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