Da Lat!!!!!!!

After promising to do better with my updates on my last post, I seem to have failed miserably. While I do blame my laziness most of all, I also must say that I've been going through a bit of a period of disillusionment with both my job and the city. Luckily, I've just come back from a glorious week off, having gone to Da Lat with my friend Rhona from work.

The trip was exactly what I needed to clear my head and get me back on my feet, excited about living in Vietnam. A mountain resort town established about a century ago by the occupying French who found Saigon to be INSUFFERABLE during the summer months, they all packed up and headed to lovely Da Lat, a beautiful little city surrounded by picturesque mountains and greenery,and much populated by hilltribe minorities,  most notably the Montagnard (I'm assuming the French gave them that name). While most of VN farms rice, Da Lat is the fruit capital of the country, and the markets abound with delectable farm-grown fruits, as well as gorgeous flowers that are farmed and shipped to HCMC and other places during the night.

One bizarre legacy of the French in Da Lat is the copious pine trees one finds across the scenery. Not kidding. They transplanted this Western foliage over to tropical Vietnam, and the result is the feeling that one is walking around North America or somewhere (not so much in the city, since it is populated with Vietnamese). Throughout our trip, Rhona (from England) and I kept declaring our confusion at being in Vietnam, yet feeling as though we were in our respective countries. It was weird, but kind of nice.

The area reminds me a bit of a Colorado mountain town (not that I have too much experience with towns in Colorado, but just let it happen), in that there are countless outdoorsy and adventure-toursy things to do if you have the mind. Our first day there we climbed one of the mountains (most people cheat and drive up in Jeeps to take pictures at the summit. We were very smug in our feat of exercise). When we reached the top, there was what appeared to be a kitschy-ish little park of some sort, with statues and people selling things. We had been told that Da Lat is a very kitschy town, so were prepared. It wasn't that bad, and to be honest, I kind of enjoyed it, and proceeded to swing on the swings and watch the horses (oh yes, there were horses. In fact, we spotted several horses that had been painted to look like zebras, and a few that were done up like cows. No reasons given, I think they just found it amusing to pretend that there are zebras in mountainous regions of Vietnam). At any rate, we had a great time hiking up the mountain, and though the rain began as we were in the midst of our descent, it was an overall good activity. The rain didn't let up all day, so being cold and wet we proceeded to eat and play scrabble at one of the bars for the rest of the day.

In addition to selling fruit at their markets, there was an abundance of hats, scarves, and coats for sale on the streets. I managed to get a real NorthFace for $25 (I have a feeling they overcharged, but what the hell, it was way cheaper than the US), and Rhona and I bought matching Christmas stocking caps for a dollar. Mine has reindeer, hers has penguins. Both have pompoms.

The next day we took an 'easy rider' tour of the area with two Vietnamese men on their motorbikes. It was a beautiful and very educational tour-besides being surrounded by lovely scenery, we saw 2 pagodas, farmland, flower farms, coffee farms, a silk factory, a rice wine factory, and the Elephant waterfall, which Rhona and I hiked down to see. We didn't know we'd be hiking over wet and slippery rocks, and had both worn flipflops. Not only were we ill-equipped for our trek, I am positive the path itself would have been illegal due to its being just very unsafe. I had a few scares, but we both came up in one piece. After our tour, we were dropped at Emperor Bao Dai's summer palace, where we took a tour of the art-deco building and had a blast dressing up in the traditional Vietnamese royal clothing and having our pictures taken. I, being unmistakably non-Asian, looked a complete fool, though the group of Buddhist nuns who were also dressing up thought it was hilarious and proceeded to take pictures with me. Rhona, coming from a Chinese background, looked great. I proceeded to lament the fact that Asian women can wear Western clothes and look good, but western women just look foolish in eastern clothing. I still had fun; any chance to dress up and you will find me with a big grin. Probably a large reason I love performing.

Our last full day in Da Lat was the craziest, as we went canyoning. I didn't know what it was either. I learned that it consists of abseiling (what?) down waterfalls. Abseiling is kind of like the opposite of rock climbing; you start at the top and go down. It was an amazing experience, especially because I was petrified at the beginning and ended up having a blast. We went with a friend of Rhona's from her CELTA program who was visiting with his friend. The four of us had 2 guides, and we proceeded to abseil down 3 cliffs, make use of natural water slides, jump from a 10 meter cliff, and abseil down 2 waterfalls. We also did a ton of hiking and trekking, and I found myself fearing for my life only during these times. The paths were narrow, wet and rocky, and I find it difficult to believe that there have been no casualties during the years of adventure sports tours. At any rate, I came out in one piece, and was quite proud of myself for not flipping out whilst walking horizontally and backwards down a slippery waterfall constantly spraying on my face and body. It was a good day.

We ate nice hearty meals the likes of chicken schnitzel (a bit dry, but it was SCHNITZEL in VN) and pumpkin  soup. It was so nice to be cool and wear a sweater and  crave something nice and hot to warm the cockels of my soul. I'd forgotten I had cockels to warm. It was amazing walking weather, which was an amazing change from the hot, gritty, dirty, crowded streets of Saigon, where it is virtually impossible to walk anywhere. We walked around the lovely lake in the middle of the town, around the night foodstalls, and through the markets. It was glorious.

Our leaving day was started with a trip to the Crazy House. A famous structure which opened in the early 90's, the Crazy House is a bizarre construction that resembles Alice's Wonderland. The architect, a woman now in her 70's, is the daughter of Ho Chi Minh's 2nd in command. Being a good communist, he sent his daughter away to Moscow to study architecture (people may be starving from the effects of the new regime, but dammit, his daughter was going to become one hell of a communist architect), and following her return she settled in Da Lat and proceeded to create this strange house that doubles as a hotel as well as her living quarters. At $1.50 American, you can explore the craziness. We tromped around the copious stairwells leading nowhere and everywhere, and viewed most of the 20 hotel rooms, each with a different animal theme. I took the opportunity to take irritating pictures starring myself, and the whole thing was strange and fun and very different from most of my experiences thus far in Vietnam. My horizons are ever-broadening.

We spent the last 2 days in Mui Ne, making my trips to the chilled out beach resort town now totaling 3, while I have yet to see the rest of the country (this will be remedied with the arrival of my parents, and our trek through northern and central VN. OH MAN am I excited). Though the bus ride from Da Lat to Mui Ne was small and cramped due to our driver stopping along the way to pick up hop-ons along the side of the road (this happens frequently with the cheaper buses, as the driver can pocket the money), it was a great way to end the trip, and I spent all of Sunday sitting by the beach and just reading. We stayed at a really nice place that was also cheap, beating out our Da Lat hotel, which refused to give us a discount after there was a drip in the ceiling that left my pillow with a large wet spot. We were not pleased. I also had bought a bunch of Da Lat treats for my students (they gave a performance last week at a meeting of headmasters and mistresses for the VN Board of Education, I'll tell about that next time), but forgot them on the bus and didn't realize until the next day. Ah well.

Home yesterday, feeling a bit better about my situation here and looking forward to my next trip in 2 months time, this time with the fam.

Did I mention that I drank snake wine? It was pretty good.

Pictures to follow (I still need to post my pics from Cambodia), and more info about the shelter kids, etc. I have made a resolution to manage the upkeep of this blog, and dammit I will do so.