Train to Sapa, Vietnam-Dream Sleeping

Vietnam, 2008

Sometimes, if I am not falling asleep, I travel into the past and imagine sleeping in a special place—a tent nestled high among the rocks in Erongo, Namibia; a cabin in a stationary train car in the wilderness of Hudson Bay with a window looking out at the white on white of an arctic fox, pausing before trotting off into the blowing snow. Trains rattling through the night create a special experience—rocked to sleep by clattering over the rails. Sleeping on the overnight train to Sapa has lingered in my mind and I like to slip back there now and then.

Vietnam Railways (Photo: MAS)

Our car - the Victoria Express

MAS enjoying herself in the top berth.

Wheeling our luggage along the platform, the lights of the Victoria Express welcomed us. Boarding the carriage, we found our cabin with its 4 berths—two up and two down. Each berth was covered with a white duvet and on each pillow, a hand-woven drawstring bag with small bottle of water, and other little amenities. The bathroom at the end of the car was small but elegant.

KESD lounging in her lower
 berth with a beer. (Photo: MAS)

JPD stowing his gear.

The porter provided nightcaps of our choice—Tiger beer for me and Royal Crown for the top bunk.

As the train pulled out of Hanoi, we enjoyed secretive, flashing views of the world—motorbikes lined up at intersections waiting for the train to pass, glimpses into small backyard gardens, views into living and bedrooms—gone instantly—but lingering in the mind as a prequel to sleep. Each berth a pool of light in the black; one by one the berth lights go out. Sleep is easy, the duvet light but warm and should you wake momentarily, the view and the motion lull you back to sleep for the next 8 hours.

Details: It is a 8.5 hour trip from Hanoi to Lao Cai, which is the jumping off point for Sapa. The train leaves at night and arrives in the early morning.

“The Victoria Express Train is exclusively reserved for Victoria Sapa Resort & Spa's in-house guests. To make a reservation for the Victoria Express Train, you need to complete a Victoria Express Train reservation form, that is part of the Victoria Sapa Resort & Spa’s rooms reservation form.” (http://www.victoriahotels-asia.com/eng/hotels-in-vietnam/sapa-resort-spa/victoria-express-train)

Erongo: (http://www.erongowilderness-namibia.com/index.php)

Hudson Bay: (http://www.churchillnaturetours.com/tours/bears.html)

http://www.greatwhitebeartours.com/tundra_lodge.php

Fish Fish Fish

Yellow Tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens)
Note the white "tang" or prong by caudal keel.

May 2011. Big Island of Hawaii.

Gills. I want gills, webbed fingers, and toes. I want to see the watery world with naked clear eyes.  I want to glide, dive, dart in pellucid waters and pulse with the surge.  I want to sleek through the water and ride a monster wave toward the rocks, peer out of the crystalline face of the wave, twirl out, avoiding the looming coral heads. Where is Merlin when you need him?

Wishful, fantasy thinking aside, I relax in the warm waters, enjoying the surge, spread-eagle on the surface, breathing through my snorkel and peering down through my mask into the wonder of the Big Island’s Two Step snorkeling site on Honaunau Bay. 

Schools, herds of Yellow Tangs snap into focus, 
grazing the wall of the underwater cliff and the coral prairies.

Orangespine unicornfish (Naso lituratus)

I float, a voyeur in a world of saltwater.  Only a membrane of skin separates me from the surrounding water – we share the same salinity – water and blood.

Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus)

Arc-eye hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcatus)

Whitebar surgeonfish (Acanthurus leucoparieus)

Redfin butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifasciatus)

A new underwater casing for J.P.’s Sony camera allowed him to take these images of fish.   Some disappeared in the flick of a tail.

Photos by Julian Donahue.

The White Squirrels of Brevard, North Carolina

White Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

May 23, 2011. The City of Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina

Eight pairs of eyes scanned the grassy grounds of Brevard College looking for an unlikely white squirrel; school was out and we seemed to have the campus to ourselves.  We thought we’d been punked, when Nancy yelled ”WHITE SQUIRREL—left —11:00—on the ground!” Sure enough there he/she was—nosing around in the grass, doing exactly what any squirrel does.

Earlier, we had whipped through downtown Brevard, zipping under a banner declaring “The White Squirrel Festival,” headed for Headwater Outfitters and our rendezvous with four of their canoes. The French Broad River awaited; we had our lunches, drinks, sunscreen, insect repellent, hats.  It rained. Unprepared for four hours on the water in a cold drizzle, we postponed.

White squirrels here we come!  The canoe people suggested we drop in at The White Squirrel Shoppe in Brevard for all things having to do with the festival; so we did.  Eight of us invaded the shop, wandered around looking at Appalachian memorabilia, fingering things we didn’t appreciate, ignoring things we thought too cute, and enjoying the genuine hospitality of the shop proprietors.

“Are there really white squirrels?” and “Where can we see them?”

Answer: “Of course there are white squirrels! Here is a flyer that describes them and how they got here in Brevard!”  “The easiest place to see them is just down the street on the campus of Brevard College.”

Snowy white except for a small patch of gray on the head and sometimes a thread of gray on the backbone, they stood out starkly against the spring green of the lawn.  After seeing the first one, we spotted several more squirreling around, romping and stomping. 

On the way home, one of us read the flyer we got from the Shoppe.  The source of the white squirrels—a carnival owner found the squirrels on a mysterious island off Hawaii and they escaped while touring Brevard. Well no—No way.

They are indeed rare; in fact a rare population, but it is due to genetics not exotic introductions. They are not albinos since they have dark eyes and those protean gray patchs and streaks.  Their whiteness is due (probably) to a regulator gene “effecting the distribution of color, not color itself.” So here we have a population of Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) who are white with a discrete touch of gray. It made our day.

For more info on the squirrels of Brevard: http://brevardnc.org/what-is-a-white-squirrel/

Thanks to Paul Secord for the white squirrel article. Photographs: J.P. Donahue