I know we're not very good at keeping this blog up to date, sorry. We will try to do better this year.
Here is a little taste of the good parts of the last 2 months.
Dalat
Dalat is a beautiful mountain town we visited over a 3-day weekend on halloween. It was actually cold! We took a motorbike tour around and saw many things: how they grow massive fields of flowers for export, how they grow many types of coffee, and how little weasel-like civets eat the coffee, poop it out and create some of the most expensive coffee in the world.
We also saw some beautiful hilltop temples and giant waterfalls.
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| a hilltop temple |
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| on our motorcycle tour in the mountains |
This is where the story gets ugly. As we were climbing out of the
canyon of Elephant Falls, Julia slipped on her wet flip-flops and
tumbled off of a boulder, falling about 15 feet onto her back. The
bottom was made of mud and rocks, so it could have been very
serious. She hobbled around the rest of the day, saying that there
was some pain in her knee. We took a bus back early, so she
could go to a proper hospital in town. It turned out she had ripped
a tendon, but not completely. The remedy is to wear a giant brace
for 8 weeks. The good news is that next week is the last week and
her leg is doing much better, but it hasn't been too much fun.
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| at the bottom of the falls |
Vung Tao
A short weekend getaway to the closest beach town. This is us at the dog racing park. We mostly just hung around the hotel pool.
Christmas in Vietnam
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Julia trying to fit in here at a friend's christmas
party. There was a white elephant gift exchange. |
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| all in blue at the zoo, hanging out with a shrimp |
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| We went to a rooftop bar at a downtown restaurant. |
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| Our friends Robin and Taylor came for 10 days |
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This is Julia getting the shake down from a monkey.
The guide was yelling at her to give it all her peanuts
and show it your empty hands, lest it attack.
This is on Can Gio, a nearby island with hundreds of monkeys. |
Hoi An
We flew half way up Vietnam to Hoi An, an old colonial town on the river. It's famous for being a trading port dating back centuries and still has a lot of the old buildings, probably because it's a Unesco world heritage site. Every other building is a tailor shop and our friends got quite a few things made.
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They make a lot of lanterns here too and they all light up at
night
along the river. |
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| A famous covered bridge built by Japanese traders. |
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| a woman on the Japanese covered bridge |
