noodle quest 2006

Dalat was really cold. after boarding the bus in nah trang we arrived in dalat by about 1:30. some super know-it-all australians were on the minibus and we almost killed him although the man who was more annoying than the woman was redeemed by announcing to another australian couple that some australian gov’t official has aussie citizens “by the short and curlies…” as if this wasn’t gross enough he accompanied this statement with a really lewd hand gesture. he was not our friend. we stopped for lunch at some weird place off the highway with monkeys and giant porcupines in really small cages. we ate noodles and the monkey shreiked the whole time. a rich vietnamese dude at our table with blue eyes laughed everytime. the shreiking sent chills up my spine and pain in my ears- i don’t know what was so funny. we arrive in dalat and the bus was really nice and took us to a bunch of hotels. we settled on a hotel called thien binh (or something very similar) which was really cute. i felt like we were in the bedroom of pre-teen twins from northern new jersey in 1976 (read: red curtains, weird tile floor, faux wood beds, and an airbrushed poster of two kids on a bench with a shaggy dog in front of a photo-store background of a SUPER happy rainbow, also ultra modern mirrors and fake yellow flowers hanging from the wall… and two brown pleather club chairs! oh my!). we met peter at the hotel who was really nice. he and his super shy buddy Coy, showed us around Dalat for the day. We went to a weird trippy alice in wonderland hotel/gallery called Crazy House that was designed by the super tripped out daughter of the president after uncle ho. We also saw the lake in town and then had tacos for dinner! they were not that great but i was so glad anyway. the next morning at 8:30 we got back on the motos and saw a whole bunch of stuf. we saw a nice view of Dalat. then we hiked down and up a waterfall and it was pretty but i almost died- we have realy not done anything requiring stregnth in a while and my body was reminding me about it. then through the countryside to a flower farm. then we ate some lunch and treated our guides too. then we went to a “salad farm” and hung out with some of peter’s farmer friends who gave us some nice fruit and rice wine which was gross. they had never met western women before so it was quite a scene down at the salad farm with lots of hooting and hollering, blushing (them) and laughing (all). next we went and saw “the amazing table!” which is this table at some dude’s house that that moves when you put your hands on it- i am still deciding whether this is totally crazy or not. next we went to a cool temple and we were absolutely freezing because it is very cold in dalat as it was up in the mountains. brrrrrrr. then we came home, watched minority report (woah… we had both seen it before but were scared anyway) then we packed our bags and slept for a few hours until about 3:30am at which point we got dressed and boarded our bus to Mui ne where we are now! the bus was kind of horrible- we were exhausted and freezing and the bus was very bumpy. we kind of slept. 4 hours later we arrived in mui ne. we walked around a bit with a friend named Danny from New Zeland who we met on the bus and we are now all bunking together at some hotel which we thought was called Hua Din but actually Hua Din is next store so i don’t know the name. Danny was working at the orphanage in Hoi An for a few months and now she is heading to saigon to catch a flight to india where she will travel for a bit. we kept meeting people who had picked up travel buddies to roam with so it is fun that jess and i have our first. today we were dead tired from lack of sleep. we hung out all day on the beautiful beach, went for a walk, layed in some hammocks, ate lunch at a beach cafe overlooking the ocean and swam for a while. jess went back in at night and flopped around like the fish i realize now she must be. she kept laughing and throwing herself face first into the water. i think a vietnamese woman watching her thought she was drunk. it is nice to be warm again. no more cold weather- dalat was really too frigid. we will liekly be in mui ne for a while as it is really pretty and chill. next saigon, then either further south or cambodia! we watched kill bill the other night and now i am dying to se kill bill 2 again. does anyone know when the third one comes out?

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