A whirlwind of days

The past few days have been WONDERFUL, and I am thoroughly enjoying this business-trip-turned-vacation that I have allowed myself.

I am several days' worth of blog posts behind, so I will start with my time in Da Lat and probably won't get to my thoughts and feelings on being in Saigon (the long story short is that I LOVE IT HERE) for a few more posts, when I finally get a chance to catch up with writing and pictures.

Da Lat is a lovely, lovely, peaceful, and romantic city. While the purpose of our trip there was mostly business-oriented (it was the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Mid-year Conference), we still had plenty of time for exploring and having fun with one another. For some of my fellow-Fulbrighters, this was my first time seeing them since we left Hanoi back in August! It was wonderful to have a reunion, share common struggles and collaborate on solutions, and commiserate with one another over various frustrations, cravings for western food, etc.

Yes, every official event in Vietnam comes with a one-time-use banner

We were all required to give a 45-minute presentation on our experiences over the past four months.  Here is my friend, Taylor, during his presentation, touting his mantra, "Flexibility now," which might as well sum up all of our experiences in Vietnam.

Here is Mr. Dave Moyer, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer who is responsible for overseeing the Fulbright Program, and who has come to my aid more than once when I felt completely without allies. He is a good person to know, and a good person to have advocating for you!

We also received the letters that we had written to ourselves at the end of orientation. My letter reminded me to continue to challenge my pre-conceived notions and to cultivate a loving relationship with myself. Coming at the 5-month mark when I am beginning to feel disenchanted with the Vietnamese political and administrative system as well as a great sense of loneliness, this was good advice (from myself) to receive.

Da Lat is one of the most famous cities in Vietnam for fresh produce, and one of the few cities that produces strawberries! Naturally, I consumed SEVERAL strawberry smoothies over the course of the few days that I was there.

We stayed at a lovely, classy, Frenchy hotel with a lovely, classy Christmas tree in the lobby.

And I spent one of the days walking around the city with MJ and exploring some of Da Lat's stranger attractions. This is Crazy House, one of the "10 Strangest Houses in the World" and a very odd site to see, indeed.

A cross between an Alice in Wonderland tree-trunk, funhouse, and jungle-gym.

MJ on one of the many turrets of the Crazy House. Yes, I had to climb all the way up that narrow walkway just to take that picture! Yikes!

Strange, right?

Never have I felt so lucky to not be able to sleep. I woke up very early and caught a glimpse of the sunrise over the mountains in Da Lat.

The Fulbrighters also did a Yankee Swap/White Elephant/Secret Santa/Gift Exchange. Some strange and quirky presents were exchanged. I ended up with a map of southeast Asia that my friend Taylor so generously gave up because I wasn't as thrilled with my present of two Snickers bars. People from home may recognize my colorful pillowcase being used to wrap and disguise the conical hat that I offered as my gift, and that MJ was lucky to win. (Oh, and hey Brittanye and Quyen.)

Of course, a reunion with my Fulbright friends is not complete without gorging ourselves on western food and exclaiming that it is the best meal we've had since we've been in Vietnam. This trip to Da Lat was no different, and I shared a meal of cheeseburgers, French fries, and hot-chocolate-and-kahlua with MJ and Taylor in the hotel restaurant. So the meal cost about the equivalent of 15 meals in Ha Tinh. IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY (and calorie). 

After the conference, all of the Fulbrighters departed for various mini-vacations. (Hey, the conference ended on a Wednesday, so I used the opportunity to just take the rest of the week off and play around in Vietnam for a bit) I set off with my friend Kelly on what may have been the coolest (and most painful) adventure I've done in Vietnam. We decided to bike about 50 miles from Da Lat to Mui Ne, a lovely beach resort town north of Saigon, through Phat Tire Ventures, an outdoor adventure company based in central Vietnam.

Here is Kelly with our two bikes before the trip began. She looks excited; obviously she does not realize yet how difficult the bike ride is about to be.

Who says that "hardcore" mountain bikers can't wear chic bronze nail polish?

Still smiling and not yet sweaty... unaware of the 50 miles of pain to come!

View from the beginning of the ride

Drenched in sweat after the first 5 km that were entirely uphill. I will confess to you, my loyal readers, that I walked my bike up the mountain for most of these 5 km. I simply don't know how it would be physically possible to ride entirely uphill for that long without any reprieve. Oh well, something to aspire to, I suppose.

While there was some beautiful mountain scenery on the bike ride, we also went through ethnic minority villages which, naturally, meant lots of animal photo ops!!

We stopped for lunch at a cafe that was "guarded" by two skittish fluffer dogs. After several minutes of coaxing them with little pieces of food that they ultimately rejected, they warmed to us, and Kelly and I lovingly dubbed the one in the back "Underbite."

A pretty rainbow bird on a telephone wire during the ride

Puppy goat [readers who have followed me since Senegal, I hope by now you are able to tell the difference between a sheep and a goat! If not, I will redirect you to a previous blog post]

As you can see, the weather was spectacular for a bike ride, minus a few miniature rain showers. Otherwise, the skies were blue and lovely.

One thing that I never thought I would see in Vietnam: a railroad crossing!

I will always know that there are approximately 5 kilometers to every 3 miles because a cross country race is 3.1 miles and also 5k. Thus, on an intellectual level, I know that kilometers should pass by more quickly than miles since they are smaller than miles, BUT I was watching the mile markers on the roads that we were biking on, and it felt like FOREVER until I saw each sign. But, when I saw this sign advertising just 1 more kilometer until the highway (our destination before the van would pick us up and carry us the rest of the way), I wanted to cry with tears of joy.

And when I saw this sign, advertising that I had in fact finished the 50-mile bike ride and had made it to the highway and could finally STOP RIDING MY BIKE, I just started laughing with excitement.

Shockingly and despite my little legs, I finished a few minutes before the other four members of our bike group, which meant that I could snap a picture of Kelly as she zoomed to the finish line. Her face sums up exactly how I felt.

We made it to our hotel, found that the room would cost us only $25 between the two of us, but was still an ocean-front villa with a 10-foot walk to sand. Not bad! We jumped into the ocean, showered off, split a much-deserved chocolate bar, and took a wonderful, well-earned nap. After napping, we went to a quick and cheap restaurant down the street. The food was decent, but the company of a little fluffer puppy was the cherry on top of the sundae!

I will note that the following day, we went back to that same restaurant for breakfast and played with the fluffer again, but this time he had a friend, another equally small puppy with less fluff. The owner let me hold both of them at once, so I was able to accomplish my dream of holding an armful of puppies. 

I will let you sit with that image as I head off to sleep so that I can wake up for my early-morning flight out of Saigon back to real-life in Ha Tinh. I will write more about my lovely western weekend later!