Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

Here I am in Luang Pragang for the End of the rain festival. All weekend there have been Dragon Boat Races, boat parades, fireworks, parties… celebrating the end of the rainy season. The funny part is that its been bucketing down for the last 3 days and today has been raining non-stop ever since this morning. I’m sitting in an internet cafe whiling away the day and escaping the rain. The festival has been a riot tho. It was a special treat to be able to watch the boat races for me. I came here specifically to watch the races, but missed them by a few hours. Fortunately, the large annual all village boat race was only about 40mins away on Saturday. There were thousands of people all gathered along the banks of the river and in the river watching some really good competition. These boats are a little different than the ones we race back home. Our boats only have 20 or 22 people in them if u count the drummer and steersman. These boats have about 30+ and I’ve seen some with 50+ in them in the Capital. They have 3-4 steersman and no drummer. The winning teams also were amazing in their unison. I’m not positive on the distance they raced, but the winning time was in the low 1:40s and it looked like a sprint. If that’s for 500M, that’s pretty quick. I remember for the events that I was at, the winning times were in the 1:50s for 500M. Last night was the best part of the festival. Thousands of people were out regardless of the rain celebrating with thousands of boats and floating flower bouquets lit up with candles and sent down the river. Some boats caught on fire before getting into the river other’s would have made a Viking funeral proud while most just sailed down the Mekong with twinkling lights for all to see. I was a bit naughty and sorta lanunched whistling bottle rockets in the general direction of several of the boats. I personally was not responsible for any of the viking ships. It was sorta like Venetian night in Chicago with fireworks and lit up boats, but on a model boat scale (seeing as no one seems to own sail boats around here). Well, that and the food vendors had a slightly different menu than burgers, hotdogs… as well. Thank God there were no giant Crayola blow up crayons here either.

OK, a little bit of catching up now that I’ve left the slow internet hell of Bali and am back in Malaysia.  I know it’s out of order, but hopefully u’ll all be able to follow without too much trouble.  

I decided to rent a motorcycle to cruise around the city and the rest of the area.  I loved cruising around Vietnam on a motorcycle!  it was a great freedom to be able to go anywhere whenever you felt like it and perfect to get around this city.  There’s something just not quite right about Dalat, especially in Vietnam.  In this otherwise normal little town in the middle of the Vietnam Highlands, there exists a couple places that just stray a little bit ouside the let’s say…. Sane (and coming from me, u know that’s saying something)  This outside the box architecture is definately not the norm here or in any country much less a communist one  .  There were a dozen or so rooms in this guesthouse that apparently are available for rent if you would like to sleep here.  I for one thought about it for a second and decided against it.  Especially when I walked into the Evil Kangaroo room  .  Look at his beady little glowing red eyes and tell me u’d like to sleep here.  Besides this very interesting house the locals just call the “Crazy House”, there is another restaurant in town that is sure to freak you out.  The restaurant of a 1000 roofs or something like that is really kewl, but also equally bizarre.  There are staircases that lead to nowhere and rooms that make you feel like you’re in the jungle.  One of the staircases goes into this dark room where there appeared to be someone sitting completely still no matter what you threw at him.  Another lead down to the dungeon where only god knows what goes on.  Very creepy, but the ice cream sundaes were great.  I wish I had a picture of this place for you.  On to Saigon.

Well after the bus ride from Hell.  I arrived in the beach party haven of Vietnam.  I got a place on the beach across from the Sailing Club for my $4 limit.  The Sailing Club is the nightlife of Nha ... [Continue reading this entry]

I've found a little slice of heaven!  I only wish I had arrived when Hoa first opened his doors in 1994. Vietnam's backpacker trail is so set and easy to travel with buses picking u up from you hotel and ... [Continue reading this entry]