Da-LOT

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After a 17 hour bus ride, Beka, Emily, and I arrived in Hoi An, Vietnam. We will spend a day here and continue our trek north. While we are happy to, finally, be in Hoi An, we were very sad to leave our last temporary home of Dalat.

Arriving in Dalat is what I imagine it is like to find a lake in the middle of a desert. When we stepped out of our bus, we could immediately tell something was off about this place.



We were cold.

I kind of forgot cold existed. (for reference, cold is 80 degrees). We made our way to our hostel which was back in this little alley. Our hostel owner's name was Joseph, and he is opened the first hostel in the area (it opened about a month ago). He is a great host, but the beds are not the most comfortable. The hostel is called Enjoy Dalat Hostel, and we would highly recommend it (if you're ever in the central highlands of Vietnam).



Our second day in Dalat brought another forgotten experience, exercise. With the encouragement from our new Italian friend, Eleanora (sp?), we rented some bikes and took on the countryside. We biked to a waterfall, lake, and a pagoda about 7km outside of the city (i know, the metric system...this shall pass too). Our trip there was quite beautiful, and I almost felt as if I were in Northern Minnesota in the summer except for all the hills (what a treat). What we failed to appreciate was the fact that we would have to make our way back up all the beautiful hills to get back to the city. Our return trip was a bit strenuous to say the least, and Emily and I made our way back primarily by towing our bikes back on foot. When we finally reached our summit, we were met by another shock....a quite infatuated Vietnamese man who's idea of courting was to throw out some disturbing tongue and hand gestures and see if it sparked your fancy. It did not, and, needless to say, we did not use the brakes on our bikes during our descent.

The best part of Dalat were the people. Whether it be Emily and my karaoke debut with some Vietnamese teens at the night market, or the women on the street selling delicious treats, we were welcomed with great enthusiasm and wordless humor. I was quite shocked by the reception because people warned us that the Vietnamese were quite annoyed by tourists which, in my experience, was far from the truth.

We have since moved on to Hoi An, another wonderful city about halfway up the coast of Vietnam, and we are again moving to Hue today. Hoi An and Dalat have also proven to be culinary Mecca's. We have enjoyed food that embarrasses me to have ever missed nachos, cheese, and brats.

One last thing about Hoi An, it is a tailoring city, so this morning Beka and I went and had some shoes made...naturally. If you have ever seen my feet, you understand. If you haven't, my mother endearingly calls them Hobbit Feet...thank you. But now I have my very own sandals that fit my feet beautifully.

Hope the weather's heating up for me back home.
Taylor Ann

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