The beautiful descent

I hate Vietnam. It's so scary because all the Vietnamese people still have such hard feelings about the war. Americans are spit at on the street and treated lower and more hostile than any other nationality. Raffi and I never leave our hotel rooms because we're afraid of being attacked. I carry my knife always. The food is horrible, as predicted. The habitat is in disrepair. No one wants to ever be around us or listen to anything we have to say about our bicycle ride.

Oh yeah, that's all a complete and utter lie.

Contrary to what some people may believe, Vietnam is an absolutely wonderful country and I've never felt so safe nor have I seen an environment that's so beautiful. For starters, upon our arrival in Saigon we quickly found out, from both foreigners and Vietnamese people that no one cares about the war anymore. It's almost laughable to the Vietnamese to think that we Americans are so cautious about that subject. They've fought longer and more meaningful wars for centuries so the American skirmish doesn't even register to them. As a result, just as with Thailand and Cambodia, all that Raffi and I are receiving on the road are people yelling hello, smiling and waving. When we stop in the towns it gets even better.

Let's get Saigon out of the way. It's a big city. That's all. If you've seen a big city before then you've seen Saigon. So Raffi and I didn't stay there for too long at all before heading out to the city of Dalat. During Raffi's ride through the US a guy in Texas told him, "Don't pass up Dalat! You must go to Dalat!" It wasn't exactly part of our route, but it wasn't too far off of it so we decided to ride in and see what the big deal was about from our Texas contact. I now understand why this informant was so insistent about our previewing the city. It's amazing. After hundreds of miles of flat Thailand and Cambodia, Dalat was initially different because it is essentially a city built on mountaintops. This region of Vietnam is called the Central Highlands, for all those who need to know the exact terminology. Whatever the precise name, Dalat seemed like a city programmed in a mystical video game. I almost expected to run into Zelda and Link. The nearest city we could use to describe Dalat is San Francisco, but with more nature infused into it's ambience. Rushing creeks of fresh, not foamy, water run underneath ivy covered bridges that teeter on cliffsides. Digesting this first day was difficult. Saigon didn't register, but coming from the under-developed, poverty-stricken country of Cambodia, it was a shock to see it's neighbor doing so well in every way. The people dress fashionably. The streets are smooth. There were neon signs advertising expensive liquors, a man-made lake surrounded by cafes and bistros. Simple things that Raffi and I now call "luxuries" are returning to their normal state in our mind. Fast internet connections. Pipes that don't leak. A noticable lack of flies.

After taking in the main city portion of Dalat (which is very French in it's design if that helps) we lifted our jaws back up and biked to the Thac Hang Cop waterfall. Not an amazing piece of scenery, but combined with the overlooks we passed through while winding our way through the mountains it all accumulated into a great day visually and somatically. I've never seen earth so rich and practically begging to have seeds put into it so it could show you how fertile it is. It almosts boasts it's fecundity through it's bright maroon tint that the local farms have literally cultivated by cutting into the hills. Protruding from some of these tilled fields were some villages, one of which had a collection of Buddhist temples. What was supposed to be a nice photo-op turned into an inhalation of another faith. I actually got to step into their prayer sermon that reverberated with slow, deep, heavy, ominous yet empowering chanting. The incantations and subsequent kneeling flowed into a dance of the mind embracing the Buddha. Although it was probably just a normal afternoon mass- some little kid was passed out in the middle of the floor- it felt like the most important ceremony I've ever participated in. Don't worry, I'm not coming back with a shaved head and saffron robe, but it was certainly a priviledge to exercise the senses to deeply for even 10 minutes.

Enough of Dalat. Although we love the city it was time to move on so after a few days snaking around the multi-tiered province we headed out early for our next destination. The notable part is not our accomplishment of reaching our goal but that was actually the first time we had to ride through rain. Supposedly it's monsoon season but from the depths of my left rear bag I reached in and inaugurated my rain jacket and waterproof pants. This was not a bad thing at all. First off, it's so much different riding in a temperature that doesn't feel like the center of a bonfire. Secondly, because we were so high up in the mountains it was as if we weren't getting rained on but rather running into newly formed drops. The entire morning was a haze from cutting through the precipitous clounds. Then came the fall.

No no, no one is hurt. Don't worry. By fall, I mean, descent. Dalat rested on mountains and the place we were going is on the coast, near sea level. I'm not sure how far we had to descend in one day, but it was FUN! Oh Mom, you would've been so scared I'm almost ashamed of what I'm about to write. The highway that we had to use to get to the bottom of the mountain winded in some of the steepest angles and sharpest U-turns it looked like the backdrop to a BMW commercial. The bicycle felt fluid was did my mind as Raffi and I hit speeds of up to 50 km/hour. (ummmm, that's fast.) The view from the top of the mountain was a panaromic snapshot of unending Vietnamese soil that was so expansive I could see the start and end of entire mountains, like looking at a piece of earth that God pinched up and froze. By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain, a little shaken from the extreme speeds and angles that should never be combined in the way we did them, much to our amusement, the Vietnam we knew had been left behind. It was back to the hot land. The flat land. What was once nearly jungle settings became a distant memory as we looked back up at the elevation we used to be at just 2 hours prior. Pine trees to palm. Mud to dust. All in one day.

Later that day we got into Phan Rang after making a sidestop at a tourist attraction of ancient Cham towers. Besides that there really wasn't much special about this nearly coastal town except that it was one day away from our next stop, the REAL coastal city of Nha Rang, where I am currently writing from. It was a tough ride to get to such a nice spot. Raffi and I had a deep rift form between us due to a deep misunderstanding that I vow never to make again. It was all foolish and should never have been an issue, but because of his honesty at how enraged he was at me a potential atomic bomb of animosity was defused almost as quickly as it was conceived. It's interesting to realize undisputable flaws and I am now thankfully aware of some things I need to work on and some things I need to ease up on.

It's not a problem at all now and we're having a fine time in Nha Trang. Not to brag, but the South China Sea is beautiful, warm, clear, and calming. We're recovering from the tough ride before getting here and sitting around getting a lot of little things done that we've been putting off. Post office issues. Bike maintenance issues. Et cetera. One thing I don't like about Nha Trang. They make shitty keys. Last night, about at the point of passing out of exhaustion and extremely late at night our room key breaks off in the lock causing an obstacle that I guess I can laugh at now that it's been resolved. Never have I had a key break off before and I barely turned it too. So here we are in the dark, Raffi trying to jimmy open the lock with a credit card in pitch-blackness (the one lighter I thankfully had on me broke when I tried to flick it on.....you can't make up bad luck like this) while I'm trying to pry open a window. We get in and fall right to sleep. And that's where we are now.

I've left out a bunch, believe it or not, but that's basically what we've been up to. I ask for all of your apologies for taking so long to update this blog and also for the more straightforward style. There's just so much new happening on an hourly basis that it'd be impossible to relay it all. I hope you see how great of a problem this is. Tomorrow, one last day by the sea then really nothing but riding for days and days. Oh yeah, more pictures are up if you want to seee the smoking mountains of Dalat and the central highlands, a place where I'm positive ninjas used to be trained. Until next time.

-jacob