Welcome to the City of Romantic Paradise

I have arrived in Da Lat, and it is indeed a beautiful, lovely, romantic city. My students have all been telling me that "Da Lat is the City of Love! You will meet your darling there!" Although I have not yet met my darling, I have had some lovely time with my Fulbright friends back in Western-ville, USA.

Da Lat is gorgeous, and we started our exploration of the region with an invigorating hike up to Tiger Falls, a somewhat anti-climactic yet still beautiful waterfall. 15 kilometers, 400 vertical feet, and 6.5 hours later, I felt like I had conquered the world. I was proud of all of us for making it to the top and bonding together. Here are some epic photos from the journey:

Any trip that starts with a legal waiver is bound to be an adventure...

The trailhead took us downhill for a while.

We walked through some coffee farms, which was cool. I had never seen raw coffee beans before! We even got to taste them.

Violet, Adelina, Emily, and Lam.

I told MJ to look excited about the coffee. I think she did a pretty good job in her performance.

This is the first waterfall that we arrived at. Jenna, I wore this shirt for you!

Luckily, the weather was perfect for the entire hike! No rain at all!

Kelly and MJ at the waterfall.

Hopefully Quyen, Sasha, and Lam don't fall off the cliff!

We kept hiking for a while and made it into a passion fruit orchard. DELICIOUS and sour.

Still blue skies ahead.

This is the first of two suspension bridges that we crossed. Here is our first intrepid traveller, MJ, about to cross the bridge.

Fulbrighters on the bridge.

Apparently motorbikes use this bridge to cross in order to deliver huge sacks of coffee. You may want to watch this video....

Making it up the hill

We made it halfway (and to the top of a very tall hill, at that!) and felt victorious

View from the top

Luckily you can't see that I was drenched in sweat... or can you?

It sure felt great!

And we were rewarded with a delicious lunch of fresh fruits and veggies and sandwich fixings. We were all famished!

Look how giddy we are!

Successful Fulbrighters

If Heidi lived in Vietnam, this would be her and Grandfather's house, and that would be their motorbike. Just saying...

Sun-drying green coffee beans and getting ready to ship them to Pie in the Sky, perhaps!

Come, Mister Tally Man, tally me bananas. Daylight come and me wanna go home!

Luckily we did NOT try to cross this dilapidated suspension bridge. Good thing, huh?

We climbed one last hill, and there was the van, waiting for us. I have never felt so excited to see a vehicle before.

We were all a bit sweaty...

That night, I relaxed with Kelly and MJ in the hotel's not-quite-hot tub, and met some other travellers who recommended a good restaurant with reasonably-priced western food including an eggplant parmesan special. We went, and it was just as amazing as we had hoped. Kelly got a Jameson-and-Coke, I got a chocolate milkshake, and MJ got artichoke tea. I have never seen such a strange assortment of beverages.

And home-made tortilla chips.

And unexpected complimentary salads. YES PLEASE.

And the creamiest, spiciest lasagna I have EVER had.

 Today I slept in, found a cafe with MJ, and worked on my blog while she applied to grad school. This afternoon we will meet Taylor and Kelly to explore and to check in to what looks like a sumptuous hotel that Fulbright is putting us up in. [Yes, we opted to stay elsewhere for our pre-conference mini-vacation, so we will be moving into what looks like a lovely Frenchy-French hotel. I am crossing my fingers for an in-room bath tub.]

 Da Lat is just so nice!