da lat

okay, i'm having a ball.

 

last night monica and i joined her parents for an amazing many-course vietnamese meal at a restaurant called mandarin. everything was wonderful about the place- the incredible food, the wine, the over-the-top attentive service. the ONLY thing i would change is i would stick to just a piano player and fire the violinist who played a very scratchy and off-key "killing me softly."

 

we slept like rocks. like boulders. except for one point in the middle of the night when i heard a WHUMP! and then a whimper. i turned on the lights and discovered that monica had fallen out of the bed! she's going to KILL me for blogging this. but seriously, it was hilarious, probably the cutest thing i've ever seen, and she was totally unscathed. it took me several minutes to go back to sleep, because i wondered if it was possible that dad was getting married at that very moment, and i imagined myself in santa fe for a while.

 

we got up at 4:25 AM, showered, packed, and went downstairs for breakfast. we met the rest of our group, which is 12 or so fun, happy-go-lucky people. we ate with victor, who coincidentally is friends with monica's make-up artist on the tv show, and he is a DP himself, operating the camera these days for the new 90210. the first movie he shot was 'lean on me,' and he told wonderful stories about morgan freeman.

 

we hopped in a bus, and plowed through the sea of motorbikes to the airport. we took an hour-long flight to da lat. the airport is tiny, and we congregated on the lawns in front to apply sunblock to each other and learn our bicycles.

 

then we rode. and seriously, it was amazing. we pumped our way up hills, and tore down them, sharing the road with motorbikes and vans (far less than in saigon!). we passed through villages and coffee plantations, jungly hills, and open fields. in most places the air was thick and fecund, with the smell of manure and cloying humidity. but once my body was warm and moving and sweaty and smelly, i surrendered to the heat and the aroma, and it was rather easy to get used to!

 

as we covered ground, we spread out in a major way. we have four guides, two vietnamese, one united statesian, and one italian. they took the head and the rear. we also have four vans at our service, carrying our luggage, and us if we ever feel like stopping, which is a dirty temptation! the vans race ahead and park at forks in the road, and the genial drivers stand in the middle of the path and, in a funny semaphore mime show, point the direction in which we should aim our helmets.

 

we stopped and saw an INCREDIBLE waterfall, a roaring 60 or so feet wide. monica and i were the bravest and clambered down the cliff and across slippery rocks to get a view from the bottom. then we hiked up a hill and sat on the steps of a beautiful buddhist dragon temple. we weren't allowed in, due to the highly scandalous nature of our outfits- i'm telling you, we are sex machines in our skin-tight bike shorts with diaper padding.

 

after another 9 kilometers or so of riding, we marched down a long driveway of packed red clay and found ourself at a silk factory. it was so neat to see the silk balls and the looms and the dyeing, and the awesome machines powered by generators that turned iron wheels and moved belts around. my backpack was in a van, and i had no cash on me, and i was devastated to lose the chance to buy some of the handmade silk scarves and clothes they had out front. they were dirt cheap.

 

we ate at an outdoor coffee shop- basically plastic patio furniture in the shade of a tree, in front of a one-room building. a woman from the village had been conscripted to prepare a feast for us, and it was phenomenal- sticky rice and spring rolls and green beans and cabbage and a sweet noodle soup with little vegetables in it that i couldn't recognize- they were a cross between white beans, small onions, and tiny potatoes. afterwards i had the best iced coffee i ever tasted. that's when the guide pointed out that we were sitting under a coffee tree.

 

we rode another 8 km and then took a van the final few km up a steep mountain. a few intrepid riders attempted the slope, which the guides said is the most challenging optional part of the entire trip. monica's dad tried, and he may still be out there as far as i know!

 

now we are in the sofitel da lat, and i just took an amazing bath. this has been an incredible experience, and it's only just beginning!