The Young Man Odyssey

There is no larger mountain in all Indochina than Fansipan. (Indochina: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam.) The Three Caballeros(Three Gentleman), was a term that our group used to define itself. The Three Caballeros climbed Fansipan to the top.

From left to right: Myself (the rugged American), Sebastian, the sly Frenchman, and Huong, Vietnamese-American, returning to his birth country after 30 years. He will celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife on Dec 19, although he will be in Saigon and she in Boston.

The evening before the climb, our guides informed us that we would be eating one of the chickens we had passed on the trail. I had never eaten a wild chicken before, and it took me a while to get used to the idea that something alive in the afternoon would be in my stomach by nightfall. When they cut its throat I was horrified, and I vowed to be a vegetarian. However, once they plucked all its feathers, and started roasting it on an open flame, my disposition turned to thoughts of: ‘That looks good.’

And it was, best chicken I’ve ever had.

The next morning we woke at 6:30, and began hiking at 7. The whole mountain was covered in a thick sheet of fog, and the entire day we did not see a view past 10 feet ahead of us, somewhat disappointing considering it must have been spectacular at 10,000 feet.

It had rained a lot in the morning, and in the open air we were dry. Under the cover of trees, the rain that had been there since morning consistently dripped on us. We made it to the top, freezing, at 11:30, faster than most groups according to our guide. We were so overjoyed to have conquered the mountain, we did not care about the lack of a view, we were all in incredibly high spirits at the summit.

And so it was.

I am now back in town, in Sapa, with a ticket to Hanoi on the night train at 8:30. I feel exhausted and accomplished. I shall be in Halong Bay tomorrow.