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Published: March 12th 2009
Karaoke
Laurenne, Esteban and Andres singing happy birthday to me!Monday night after my canyoning adventure, we all met up for a great dinner and then went to a cafe for some icecream where my friends attempted to get candles for mine, however were not successful. The waitress showed them a candle and it was meant to be put in my icecream but somehow something was lost in translation and it never appeared. oh well...it was the thought that counts! Afterwards, we went out to find some karaoke and were sent to this street that was all karaoke places! it was crazy! the people looked at us like we were insane when we walked in and we had to try a few places before we found one that had English songs. We finally found one and the song choices were very strange. Instead of typing in the songs with the remote, each room had its very own karaoke guy who you gave a list of songs you wanted and he also made sure you had all the food and drinks you needed! We danced around and sang for awhile, "New York, New York" probably being our best number, and then we headed home to get some rest before the adventures of
Gerber daisies!
Just outside of Dalat the next day! Oh and I was given some fabulous hot pink earrings that are little people with dangling rhinestoned bodies.
I woke up on the morning of my 25 plus 4th birthday ready for my biking trip. We had some breakfast and then went down to the tour office where I tried out my bike and got everything ready. Laurenne, Wade (an Aussie school teacher) and I began our trip which was an insane downhill out of town where I was completely terrified of getting run over. I almost ran into a van which ironically held an American family who I had met the night before. They were so cool-the mom, dad and 2 kids (ages 9 and 13) were traveling for 10 months! The 9 year old boy was so well spoken it was amazing! He kept asking me many questions and when I told him that I will stay in NY for the summer and than decide if I want to move back to Cali or stay in NY, he said "well, that sounds rather fickle"! How funny for a 9 year old! I told him he is very lucky to be able to travel so
much at his age and he said "I know, my dad inspires me"! He was so cute! I never got a chance to say goodbye, but when they saw me flying down the mountain out of town, they were super excited and kept waving and yelling goodbye. We then had to go up many many giant hills and ofcourse I was not a pro at gear changing. I have to re-learn how to change gears and what they mean every time I get onto a bike. I also had my seat positioned way too low which made it even tougher. For some reason, I do not have a problem making sure the seat is properly positioned for patients and other people, but when it comes to myself, I have problems. I finally got things adjusted and figured out the gears and just realized it was so hard because I am not as fit as I thought I was and the journey was way tougher than I expected! Imagine the Big Sur Marathon, on a bike, in 100 degree weather, lots of potholes, trucks, chickens, motorbikes and cows for 2 whole days. It was crazy! The first day we biked around
Happy Buddha
a group of monks asked me to take their picture in front of this Buddha and then they kept giggling! 90 kilometers, but the second day ended up being a bit less. It was really completely insane. It was really beautiful and I had a great time, but some of the hills made me cry a little. Not in a sad way, but in a holy crap am I ever going to make it up this thing way. Especially the giant hill that was through a construction site so my eyes were burning, I couldnt see and then also couldnt breathe! The downhills were also very treacherous, especially with the giant potholes and the trucks going the other direction. I was a bit scared and the helmets weren't so great, but I survived. I held my breath during many of the hills. We stopped many times along the way and saw many cool things. We went to a silk factory which was so so so gross. Ew. I don't want to go into the way silk is made, but it is pretty gross. At least they didn't try to make me eat silk worms. yucko. We visited a place where they make rice wine and bricks. We stopped in one village for lunch where we had a bday celebration. Laurenne
My birthday Cake!
Happy birthday to me! found a bakery in Dalat and somehow managed to get the cake up there without me having a clue. I didn't even think about it when she was trying to find a lighter. It seemed strange since she doesn't smoke, but I am oblivious. She brought the cake with candles out and everyone came over to wish me a happy bday. We shared the cake with the workers and it was really tasty and fun. After lunch, we biked some more and then went to another village where we had dinner and slept in a long house. At dinner, we had some more birthday time, this time with some pastries, except 1/2 of them were missing because our tour guide and driver each thought the other one bought them for breakfast so they ate them. Oh well! The lady who worked in the restaurant in the village even gave me a little change purse as a gift! It was so nice! I really had a great bday! While riding around, all the little kids would run up and yell out 'hello' and they were all so cute! I loved their little school uniforms, especially the sweater vests even though it
Biking
so hard but so fun! was very hot out!
That night, Wade got super sick from something he had eaten. He was up all night barfing (or 'spewing' as he said which of course made me and Laurenne continuously quote Waynes World) and it was so not a good place for that. We did not have a bathroom inside our little house so he had to go to the one outside that was full of bugs. Poor thing. He said he was kneeling on the floor (leaning on the baby wipes I gave him) crying because he felt so horrible. It was so not good. In the morning, he still felt pretty horrible so he spent the day lying in the backseat of our support van while we finished up our biking. We stopped in one town for lunch and they were nice enough to hunt down a veggie restaurant for us (Laurenne is veggie too) and it was great. We had gone to some other stops along the way too, like for nauc mia (sugar cane juice) and coffee (which is delicious here...I never knew I liked coffee!) After our last stop at a waterfall (that barely had water) we went back to
Elephant Rock
the handstand picture was necessary town, showered at Wade's hotel and then wandered around until it was time for our bus to Ho Chi Minh City. We journeyed around town, found another veggie restaurant and then got picked up for the bus. It was cool to be in a town where there weren't many tourists. We waited to leave in a hotel and these random teachers came to chat and brought us some coffee (which we couldn't drink because we were hoping to sleep on the bus). They tried so hard to communicate but their English was about as good as my Vietnamese! We were bummed that there was not a sleeper bus, but had hoped that because we were so tired that maybe we would be able to sleep anyways. We were not able to, especially with the blasting Vietnamese comedy shows on the tv during the beginning of the trip.
We arrived in hot steamy Saigon at 5am and attempted to find a hotel. The one we had wanted to stay at was completely locked up, so we tried another which was locked but we were able to yell inside to have the guy give us a room. We found one open place initially, but when they showed us the room, there was a dead cockroach on the floor so we ran out of it. While wandering around, we were amazed at how many people were still out, and also at the prostitutes that were around. gross. We found our room and went to sleep and slept until noon.
We then journeyed around Saigon in cyclos where ofcourse they tried to extort more and more money from us every second. We ended up just getting off and going to the busy market. I tried jackfruit for the first time and liked it a lot, except learned that I am allergic to it like apples. sad. We had no idea where we were when we were dropped off, but somehow managed to find our way back to our street. We went to Indian food for dinner and it was so good and a nice break from having Vietnamese food!
I am now once again trying to figure out the next step. I could see staying in this city for awhile as I am sad to say goodbye to Vietnam, but I may leave shortly. Mekong Delta and then to Cambodia is what I am thinking, but I have not made any concrete decisions yet.
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roomie
non-member comment
more birthday wishes!
just wanted to say happy birthday on your blog, too! the chan family, plus shelly and charlie sang and celebrated for you! but charlie blew out the candles for you on the cupcakes! :) seriously! i have pictures! your vietnam adventures have inspired me so much! next time you leave the country? i'm totally going with... no more of this "i have to work" crap! :) love you! have a blast in cambodia, laos, thailand, and wherever else your travels take you!