Weekend Get-Away #2: Da Lat

Da Lat is a beautiful city located in a mountainous area where the majority of the country's produce is grown. Coffee, wine, vegetables are the major exports as well as what it's most famously known for,  flowers.

View from just outside the city of Da Lat.

Da Lat is the popular honeymoon spot for vietnamese and is adorned with cheesy, lovey-dovey attractions and tourist traps. For example, they have a large lake in the middle of the city where you can rent swan looking paddle boats or you can walk through "The Valley of Love" park where they have giant hearts to pose next to for photos.

Sounds exactly like our type of scene, right? Maybe to some people's disappointment, Marshall and I were not there for a sweetheart trip or honeymoon... we were there to ride mountain bikes!

Our friends, Bob and his wife Tayna, have organized a multi-stage mountain bike race for the past two years called the "Vietnam Victory Challenge" hosted in Da Lat. Marshall and I both signed up to race even though we had no bikes (still being shipped from the USA), helmets, or other usual bike riding gear. Luckily we were able to arrange rental bikes and borrow helmets and such to make it work.

The week leading up to the trip, I was suffering with food poisoning so I decided that it probably wasn't wise to try and ride mountain bikes for ~130km. The last thing I wanted, was to destroy my only good pair of cycling shorts that I have here. Haha, yuck. Marshall was feeling not so good either but he mustered up the strength to go for it anyway.

Marshall at the staging area with his rental bike.

While Marshall was racing, I took a shuttle over to the finish area to hike around (there were bathrooms on site!). The finish line area was at a place that was somewhat like a restaurant and also like a park picnic shelter. There were six or so different huts with hammocks and tables that overlook a river. A beautiful spot to relax and enjoy the view. I walked down to the river where there were small waterfalls and rocks to hop across on. A little further down the river, I spotted people on an adventure tour that were repelling down a waterfall. Looks like fun!

  

After a few hours, Marshall finished the 50km stage of the race with no issues and was completely relived to have finished and be done for the day. Later he decided to not race the next day and instead we would go explore the area and relax. We rented a motorbike early in the morning and took it out into the country side. There are a ton of waterfalls in the area and we chose one called Elephant Falls that was about 30km away from the city and one of the less touristy ones.

The drive was amazing. We were on a newly paved road that twisted through the mountains. So much fun and great views!! Here's a little video that I put together of the day's adventure:

Back in Da Lat, we walked around the city exploring the large night markets and wondering around. We found a super unique and strange cafe/bar called 100 Roofs. A pet project of a famous architect/sculptor of Vietnam who designed a giant buddha with an oversized bellybutton big enough to sit in. The cafe was so bizarre. We ordered a couple of smoothies when we walked in and then took them down this garden gnome looking staircase to the basement. 

The whole cafe was a 4+ story maze of stairways, caves, crawl spaces and hang out zones. When you get to the top floor in the back of the building, there is a tunnel that you can go through that gets you to the next block where they had built a huge garden area with more caves and stairways going all the way to the top of a hill where you have a great view of the city. This place is completely insane - it's humungous and obviously hand made with a crazy amount of detail on every feature. We probably spent a good hour just wondering around inside. Much of it wasn't lit so it was a little creepy crawling through spaces in the dark. We were super glad we ventured in!!

Marshall and I were both feeling a little better the next day so Marshall decided to race the last stage of the mountain bike race. The stage was a circuit race at the Valley of Love, Marshall's category raced for 3 laps (about 30 min per lap) - an exciting finish w/ Marshall almost overtaking the rider ahead of him (short by only half a wheel!).

After the race we had a while until it was time to go to the airport so we just wondered around the city stopping by different cafe's and unfortunately having some of the worst pizza I've ever eaten. 

Da Lat is definitely more of my kind of town - a little smaller and more relaxed than Ho Chi Minh City and has tons of mountains, trees, lakes and rivers. I'm looking forward to making a trip back to explore the green hills and winding trails. 

First Weekend Get-Away: Vung Tau

This post has been delayed due to chronic food poisoning issues.... ugh, I'm not saying anymore than that... and also me devoting 4 hours a day to learning vietnamese. Flash cards, post-its, and audio recordings - it's like I'm back at the university! This weekend, we're going to do a little houseplant shopping at the local nurseries, hopefully I can put to use some of that knowledge! 

Marshall and I took our first weekend get-away to the coastal city of Vung Tau. It's about 1.5 hours from HCMC and we opted for the speedboat ferry instead of the charter bus, which commonly has people puking out the windows (people are used to riding scooters, not in cars or buses here). The ferry was a little bit more expensive but we thought it was worth it for the adventure and scenery. (A year ago or so, one of the boats caught fire and sunk... but never mind that, they've supposedly fixed them all!)

The ferry ride was pretty awesome. There were some great views of the city, bridges, country side, and HUGE ocean freighters. Here's our route that I recorded w/ Strava:

Vung Tau is a smaller city that's a common place for local HCMC residents go for a quick vacation - it's not really tailored for foreign tourists. There are some sights and attractions but it's really about swimming at the beach and eating a ton of delicious food.

We did see some nice sights - we went to a city park which we've named Rat TnA. It was a park filled with carved granite statues (all with obvious boobs and butts - except for the angry dolphins) and was infested with rats. It would have been a great place to lay under a palm tree with a book except for the fear of rabies and the plague.

On Sunday morning, once again, I felt like a crazy foreigner. Since we've been a little light on exercise since we've moved here, we decided to go on a hike to the top of the local 'mountain' to see the old lighthouse.

We got a bit of a late start, around 10:30 am and followed the curvy road near the ferry terminal to the mountain top. From the reviews I read on tripadvisor, it said it would be a nice shady 30 minute walk. Nope. The whole way was on narrow, uneven sidewalks and was completely exposed to the sun. It took us closer to an hour of walking... at least it felt like it!

At first, I was a little curious why no other people were taking advantage of this great little walk! Now I know why... it was super hot and the whole way we were being passed by teenagers on scooters who gave the occasional heckle. Luckily, there was a lovely restaurant about 2/3 the way up where we could enjoy a coconut drink and the beautiful view.

At the top, we were tired and the views were nice enough for a few pictures... but we had just passed another cafe that had hammocks, shade, and home made yogurt so we quickly made our way there to relax and call a taxi. I kind of felt like a wimp with getting a ride to the bottom but it just wasn't worth getting sun stroke. Plus the taxi fair was only $1.20 !!! SO worth it :)

Here are some pictures of our trip:

The ferry ride the way back home was a little more eventful. The sea was pretty choppy and the swell was pretty big. The hydrofoil boat was struggling in the waves, threatening to tip over or break in half - it was a pretty wild ride. The crew started handing out sick bags and bottles of water. People were running past us to the outdoor "look-out" areas... I was really nervous that it was going to turn into a puke-a-rama. Also, Marshall noticed a pretty sizable crack in the wall next to us that would get larger as the boat flexed - but no worries, the maintenance crew had obviously noticed it and applied some 'structural paint' to hold it together ;) Just before all hell broke loose, the captain eased back the throttle and we put-putted along until we got back to the calm river.

Vung Tau was a great place to visit for the weekend, we spent 2 days/1 night there and we would have been quickly bored with any more than 3 days there. There is still more to explore (there's an amusement park with alpine slides and a gondola) and tons more to eat (I still didn't get to try their pancakes that Vung Tau is famous for!) And it would be a great place to start a coastal motorcycle/bicycle tour - I can't wait until my bike gets here... if it ever does! I'm sure we'll be back!

Buying a Scooter

Meet my new scooter, Pippi.

Pippi (as in Pippi Longstocking) is a 2012 Suzuki Hayate SS 125cc automatic motorbike. I've had Pippi for about 48 hours and she's been back to the shop twice now. :/ The first time was 20 minutes after buying the bike, we went to put gas in it and the latch to open the seat trunk (to get at the gas tank) was jammed. I remember checking it out at the dealer and it was fine. Marshall drove it back and they fixed it in a few minutes. The second time, I brought it in because it runs way too lean on a cold start and dies anytime you touch the throttle. The only way to get it to run is to let it sit with the choke on for about 10 minutes until it put-puts its way to a warm engine. They spent an hour on it today so hopefully it starts right up tomorrow morning! 

With buying a used scooter, there are always kinks and pains to work through... at least I did some research and found a reputable motorbike dealer that gives the bikes a 1 month full warranty. And he's easy to talk to and doesn't seem to bullshit much. I really hope Pippi is just testing the waters with me and doesn't make this a long running game...

Marshall is still on the hunt for a more motorcycle style bike. With a bad back, the scooter position isn't great and also the auto transmissions kill the ride quality for him. Real motorcycles are a bit of a rare find here as anything over a 135cc engine is heavily taxed. There are some Honda 67's here which is like a scooter engine bolted onto a simple motorcycle style frame with a manual tranny that he's pursuing. There are a ton of cheap Chinese Honda knock-offs here that make it difficult to find an authentic bike. We'll see how that goes!

Another funny thing about Vietnam is that foreigners are not allowed to own anything like a car, scooter or a house. My scooter is technically owned by some local guy and the document proving this is a small blue laminated card that was issued by the government. How it works here is that there is no documentation of transfer of property. There is no standing in line at the DMV to transfer the title and pay tons of fees. What you do is just hand them your little blue card. The sale is done and who ever is holding the card, owns the motorbike. 

The learning curve to driving here is very fast, and it needs to be otherwise you'd probably kill yourself. I find the chaos and constant threat of impending doom to be almost... peaceful. Channeling your inner Zen Monk is the best way to make it through. If you start getting irritated, pissed off, or nervous it just makes everything worse and more dangerous. You just have to embrace it, love it and go with the flow.

I'm happy to say that my transformation into a local, seasoned scooter rider is almost complete. I've got a long sleeve jacket (even though its 90 degrees F), my backpack is hooked around my handlebars so thieves can't cut it off my back, and I've already carried two giant boxes that were held in place by my feet as I drove. I am one giant fabric face mask shy of being an authentic motorbike rider! 

Local style.

Also, for those who haven't seen the Top Gear Vietnam special - watch it here! It really is pretty accurate of how things are like here. I do appreciate how if you are in trouble or lost, people will come up to you and will try to help - and it's out of kindness and they never ask for anything in return.


** Posts are a little infrequent lately due to most likely the 'bamboo firewall'. Sometimes I can access the blog and sometimes it's blocked. If the blog disappears one day, just come back later and maybe the government has released the block.

Marshall's $1.79 Haircut

One of our goals while living here is to be courageous and venture into the local lifestyle. This means eating at the food carts or local style restaurants (we're easing into this one - trying to get the gut flora fully adjusted) shopping where local shop, etc...

While I've been scouting out the new neighborhood by bicycle, I noticed a sidewalk barber that always had a customer in his chair getting his hair cut, ear wax removed, or a shave. He was stationed a stone's throw away from a premium L'oreal salon. When Marshall mentioned that he wanted a haircut, I thought of this guy and Marshall was up for the adventure.

The barber's shop set up consisted of an old, reclining leather chair, a tarp, a cheap mirror, and a scooter w/ a basket that held his trimmers, scissors and other tools of the trade. Positioned in front of an empty lot on the sidewalk where scooters and cars were whizzing by.  The barber's friends were also hanging out - 5 older men were huddled around a little plastic table sitting on children's sized stools (to american standard) and were playing some sort of board game. The atmosphere and experience was pretty amazing. The haircut turned out great too! I think Marshall will be a repeat customer.

Apartment Hunting

You can find anything here - from ultra modern, furnished, fully 'serviced' (a maid comes in and does everything from scrub your apartment clean to washing and folding your laundry) apartment with a roof top pool and gym. Like this place, which is $1200/mo + utilities for a 2 bedroom:

To the other end of the spectrum, where you can find more of a 'local style' apartment that has a very strange lay-out and the curious bathroom style of simply having a shower wand in between the sink and toilet and you just take a shower in the middle of the bathroom, spraying water everywhere.... for about $450/month:

I visited about twelve different apartments on the back of a realtor's scooter over three days. Marshall and I carefully analyzed with the help of some awesome 'sell sheets' I made for the main contenders. The result?

Before I get to that, let me share a couple insights that I gained about the culture and lifestyle here:
1. A higher price doesn't necessarily mean that you get more or that it's better in some way from the lesser expensive apartments. Prices seemed to be pretty arbitrary and were not indicators to the style of apartment you were looking at. A $600 place could be really sweet and new where a $1000 place could look like it came out of a 2003 Asian JC Penny catalog. Logic has it's own style and rules here.

2. You may have to be a bit of an elitist or a tad soulless to live in a luxury apartment around here. To build that apartment building, the government probably showed up with bulldozers one day and forced families to move out of their tin roof shanties. One such apartment I looked at was pretty nice, it was brand new and had a modern european design and a cute little balcony that looked out onto a dusty, garbage filled lot with a couple huts that people called home. The stark disparity of living standards was a slap in the face.

So after working with three different realtors to try to find that perfect place... we decided to go with none of those options. Instead, I found a house share on Craigslist - a large 5 bedroom Villa, to be shared with people from around the globe - Vietnam, Germany, UK, Wisconsin!, and New Zealand. It is a fancy place and people were probably displaced to build it...but at least its being put to good use (and not a half-empty building). It made the most sense to us because it's pretty cheap ($525 including all utilities and services; to be split between us) and more importantly, gives us the chance to meet people, make some friends, and gain some tips that will help us ease into living in a new district/city/country.

Here are some pictures:

Finding Beach Paradise - Deserted to some, Chaos for others

Beach adventure time! Bob (Marshall's co-worker here) and his family invited me to join them to the beach. They had arranged a van and driver to take the family to the beach and Bob and a friend were going to ride mountain bikes there and meet us for lunch on the beach. It's still the Tet holiday and the normal 1.5 hour drive turned into three. Usually, that's not a big deal, but with 3 kids and a rambunctious puppy, it was a long 3 hours! Actually, Bob's kids are pretty easy - there wasn't a single temper tantrum and I only heard "are we there yet?" twice :) 

Finally at the beach, it was crowded beyond belief! I think this was the annual beach trip for most of the factory workers in the area. There were so many people, it was hard to see the ocean or even sand - standing room only. But the odd thing was that they were all scrunched into a small section of beach - maybe 200 meters of coast. There was plenty of room to spread out, but I thanked they enjoyed the crowded atmosphere. We did not and promptly cut through a restaurant and walked up the nearly deserted beach to a perfect strip of sand.

The water was warm and a lovely shade of jade. Absolutely perfect if you could ignore the plastic bags floating by every now and again. 

We spent hours making sand sculptures, digging for clams and shells and swimming. 

Every now and again, I would look down the beach at the staggering crowd of people and wonder how that could be enjoyable. Most of them probably drove their scooter here - 3 hours or more of crowded highways and country roads only to go to a beach where there is hardly enough room to lay a towel down. Seems so crazy to me! 

Perhaps where we were was technically private property. I know we crossed onto one resort where a security guard was giving us the stink eye and made sure we passed through. But there was just empty, deserted beach right next to them! I guess that's just the difference in culture. We americans like our space - big lawns, our own tables at restaurants, and 3.5 feet of breathing room. 

I made a little map to help explain the absurdity of it:

Viet Skillz - Video!

It's like learning how to walk all over again - at least learning how to walk across a street. I am completely amazed by the locals and how they will just start frogger-ing their way across a super busy street like it's ain't no thang. Seriously, they just start walking and it's like Moses parting the red sea of scooters. In contrast, I'm more akin to the lunatic squirrel that can't seem to make up its mind of which way to run. Ok, I'm not that bad... but I definitely am a tourist out there.

Did you know that you could row a boat with your feet? I didn't either but it sure makes a lot of sense now that I've seen how its done. 

Check out the moves of those kids! The boy at the end is just adorable, I want to pinch his chubby cheeks.

Who needs a Cuisinart mixer when you've got a tractor lawn-mower? That's right, diesel powered dough. Savory and smoky!

I've been told that I have now officially visited Taiwan - I went on my first scooter ride! Thanks Bob and Specialized for giving me a quick tour of the city! We even did a little off roading :) Tomorrow, I am planning on renting my own scooter and will try my best not to die out there. Wish me luck!