HCMC to Da Lat, with the sunburn to prove it

we have had a very eventful first few days in vietnam. we arrived in ho chi minh city after a long haul from seattle to seoul, and then a shorter - but no less painful - haul from seoul to ho chi minh city. we arrived at the riverside hotel to discover a room that bore little resemblance to what i had reserved online. there was peeling paint, a dirty bathroom, and construction in the lobby. but the fact that our beds -- we each had one that was a little bigger than a twin, but smaller than a full -- were adorned with tiger print bedspreads allowed me to see past its flaws. and it proved to be dead silent in a bustling city of 7 million, so it provided the space for the good night's sleep we so desperately needed.

we spent just one full day in ho chi minh, but managed to see quite a bit. we traipsed all around district one - which was where we stayed, and was also home to the backpacker district, a lovely park, as well as the pho spot that was graced with a visit by bill clinton a few years ago, and our motto is, "if it's OK with bill, it's OK with us" so of course we had to try it - until our legs were ready to fall off. we then pushed it a little further with a walk to the war remnants museum, which was as uplifting as it sounds. i had decided that i couldn't feel OK about visiting vietnam without some attention to the war, so this was at least a decent start. after our visit, we decided to bite the bullet and hop on a tourist-trap cyclo. this is essentially a three-wheeled bicycle that has a big seat for the passenger - or passengers, since in our case we squished into one together - and rides around in scooter/truck/car traffic as though it is a motorized vehicle itself. it was a novel experience, though a little more hair-raising than is my general preference.

it was also a good warm-up for the 7 hour bus ride into the central highlands which we did yesterday. GOOD LORD. i thought mexico city would have prepared me for this. it didn't. we were driving on two-lane roads for probably 3/4 of the entire drive. and let me tell you, a two lane road does not mean there are two lanes of traffic. brendan and i avoided looking out the front window of the bus, but we did catch the occaisional glimpse of three scooters on the right side of the road, another one or two on the left side of the opposite lane, a distantly oncoming bus, and a truck that our driver DECIDES TO PASS. all in two lanes. perhaps it is my american appreciation for order, but something just wasn't right with that picture. we somehow made it to da lat in one piece, with nothing more than a slightly bruised psyche. we were then dropped at our first choice hotel to find that it was full for the night, but were directed by the madame to her brother's hotel down the street to have a look at the room he had available. before i know it, brendan and i are being whisked away on the back of two mopeds, sans helmets. it was a 600 meter ride, and i never knew 600 meters could feel so long. i got the sense that my driver knew zero english, but i gave a clearly enunciated "SLOOOOOOOOW" into his left ear just the same. i then clung to his slim waist for the entirity of the 2 minute ride, which probably made him blush but i was doing a whole lot more than blushing so i couldn't have cared less.

we saw the room, and snatched it up for a bargain $15... much nicer than our dear riverside which ran us $50/night. we are just warming up to the haggling and haven't quite gotten our communication down yet. brendan was going to try to get it for $10 (he's no softie anymore!) but i volunteered a higher price. we settled in a bit and then went out to the town square to have dinner and a drink. we got ourselves a spot at a nice outdoor cafe overlooking da lat's own eiffel tower. it's known in vietnam as the "petit paris" but i am sorry to report that its eiffel tower is nothing more than an electrical tower with some christmas lights on it. it's the thought that counts, i suppose. anyway, we continued to play it safe with our diet, and i ordered the sauteed noodles with vegetables and brendan ordered the pork and cabbage soup. no sooner had brendan remarked on how you have to wonder about restaurants that have such a comprehensive menu than he was being served a dish identical to mine with some beef added on for good measure. maybe you don't actually have to wonder about those kinds of restaurants. they list the possibilities, which may or may not be the realities.

we ended our dinner with a nice chat with a local family out for ice cream sundaes at the table next to us. the dad was clearly a bit of a ham, and wanted his older daughter to practice her english with us. she was sufficiently embarrassed, and then it became clear that it was perhaps pops who wanted to show off his english chops. there was limited potential, but we swapped where we were from, etc. and then headed out on our way. we are certainly more of a novelty here than we were expecting...

today we set out to take a short train to our first pagoda. we were up at 6 (still figuring out the jet lag thing) so we made it to the train station for a 9am train that didn't actually exist, or was full -- we're still not sure. we bought tickets for the 2pm train, and found ourselves with 5 hours to kill since we had probably walked close to 4 miles to get to the train station. we strolled a bit more, and stumbled upon a bunch of school kids out at recess. we got the usual celebrity treatment, with one outgoing girl practically running us over with an enthusiastic "hey, good morning, hello!" we chatted with her for a minute with the entire playground (euphemism -- actually an open field) watching in admiration. with the end of the exchange, they all burst into cheers. pretty cute.

we finally made it out to the pagoda, which was incredible. i am considering converting to taoism just because i liked it so much. it had a certain willy wonka and the chocolate factory appeal. brendan and i scaled this huge tower to tempt my mild vertigo in the name of an incredible view of the rolling hills around da lat. we unfortunately didn't have much time because we had to catch the train back, but i took tons of photos to try to burn the whole scene in my memory. taoist nathalie. i think it has a certain cache.

back in da lat, we stopped for a coffee break -- this is the coffee growing region -- in a little spot recommended by our guidebook. as we sipped the milky and delicious concoction, we were amazed to see another of our countrymen -- not clinton this time -- gracing the wall. on one wall was some sort of religious shrine, and on the otherwise blank wall adjacent, a single headshot of bill gates. i tried to take a photo to share with the foundation folks, but in the process of getting out my camera the lens cap fell into a deep crevice next to where we were sitting, and the other customers immediately came to help us move the booth out from the wall to retrieve it, at which point i was too embarrassed to snap my photo of bill gates in the central highlands of vietnam. our last stop before coming back to the hotel was to book our little adventure that we have had in mind since leaving seattle thanks to a recommendation from my friend mary. we are biking tomorrow from the highlands down to the coast. it'll be about 70km, so i hope my bum cheeks are ready. we'll then be at the beach for an evening before heading further north.

a lovely trip so far, and we are looking forward to more. we've learned the painful lesson that you really can get sunburned when it's overcast, as da lat's cloudy skies and cool temperatures taught us today. and we are hanging in there with the communication, though it's taken us 3 days to learn how to say "thank you". we should have vietnamese fluency checked off of our list by the end of the trip, easy. actually, if i can get "hello" and "good-bye" down by next week, i will consider myself a linguistic prodigy. i had never really stopped to think about what a language with six different tonal inflections for each vowel means in reality. we can be as earnest as we'd like, but it sure ain't pretty.