Halfway to Nowhere

I just took a left.  I was riding along one of the many roads that circle around the outside of the city and decided to go down a road I had passed by before.  An hour and a half later I was down out of the mountains and seeing signs for Ho Chi Minh City.  I had to decide between chancing the uncertain rumblings of the clouds ahead or to turn about and race the path home, potentially safe and dry.  I took a few pictures of the open grasslands surrounding me and sat alone on the bike and watched the clouds roll in.

One of the many joys of my time in Dalat was the weekly motorbike rides into the countryside, cruising along remote winding roads at 40mph.  I pass calmly through smalls towns and villages, pass by coffee fields, pass by flooded rice plots lined by banana trees.  I can feel the warm moist air rise up as I pass by the little family farms and then quickly the feeling subsides as I leave them behind.  Riding in the open air brings with it the aromas of the country.  Sometimes it's a pungent fish smell, sometimes it's wild mountain flowers and pine trees.  Up in the mountains here I feel as if the clouds are immediately atop of me.  They seem far closer than I've felt before, and appear far more detailed, and in being alone I feel as if they are only there for me.

There are so many roads that lead to so many places.  One of these days I'm going to just keep going, keep riding, follow the road and see what's around that last bend.  That time is not now.  I am going home and will be back in New York on the 3rd of June.

You Say It's Your Birthday, Well It's My Birthday Too, Yeah

I got flowers and toy motorcycle.  It was awesome.

Cam Ly Waterfall

Cam Ly waterfall is one of the many that are situated in and around Dalat.  Cam Ly happens to be right in the city.  It's not the most spectacular waterfall, it does have one good view.  Otherwise the grounds surrounding Cam Ly are filled with fake animals (such as a horse painted to look like a zebra) and various other kinds of kitsch.  I wouldn't spend too much time here, but I paid it a visit anyway.

Behold a Pale Horse

They show classic movies on the version of Cinemax I get in Vietnam.  The other day I watched a movie starring Gregory Peck called Behold a Pale Horse.  It was a black and white film starring Peck, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharrif.  I love watching these old films, because they have nothing but the story to them.  Most of the movie takes place in a small room in Pau where Peck, a Spanish rebel and bandit, debates whether to go back to Spain to see his dying mother. The movie relies heavily on the story and acting for entertainment.  That's why I like to watch these old black and white films, because I like the stories, it makes me feel like I'm reading Hemingway.

The types of movies I get on cable here fall into one of three categories.  They are either big-name new releases, old classics and b-movies, or straight to cable movies which no one has ever heard of.  One example of the latter could be a movie named Mall, where a group of people are trapped in a flooding mall with an escaped serial killer trying steal some huge amount of money hidden in a mall vault.  I've seen this movie more than once. Mostly, I wonder how movies like this get funding.  When I do watch tv, I watch the oldies or the Discovery channel.

Fish Hash

This had a really pungent smell.  It literally is a hash made from fish parts.  It tasted just fine.  I actually liked it once I got past the strong smell of ammonia when it was being prepared.  You mix it in with your rice and it adds a salty flavor to it.  Not even close to the strangest thing I've eaten here.

Something Smells

Durian is in season.  As you walk up and down the street the aroma wafts through the air from these little street side stands, and you know it must be late Spring in Southeast Asia.  Durian is the fruit most known for its smell, which many akin to rotting dead bodies.  It smells bad enough to be banned on most public transportation here.  I have tried it.  It's not horrible, but I'm not bringing a bag full of durian home anytime soon.

Baseball

Sunny days are made for baseball.  I watch baseball most mornings at 6am, if I'm not teaching.  This is not the first time I've watched baseball overseas.  I watched a couple games in Spain a few years ago.  I been teaching a few of the locals to play catch.  They look terrified most of the time.  I think wherever I go I'll have to bring the game with me.  I think we have to; this game more than any other defines us.

The picture is of my cousin Brendan playing little league down in Texas.  Good focus, but he needs to keep his back elbow up in his stance.

Lou Dog

Lou is a dog like most.  Except he has a gimpy leg from when he was hit by a motorbike as a puppy.  He's gonna miss me.  I'm gonna miss him.

This is part of what I originally intended to publish on the blog.  Lou unfortunately was hit by a motorbike and died yesterday.  Motorbike accidents are a fact of life in Vietnam.  Death is a fact of life everywhere, and I'm still going to miss him.

Rainy Season Has Returned

The seasonal rains of southeast Asia have returned.  In Dalat it usually rains sometime in the early afternoon and on occasion it begins again in the late afternoon or night.  In the early afternoon, when it rains, it rains hard.  The skies darken and the clouds come together and the torrential downpour begins.  The rain absolutely brings everything to a halt in the city.  The motorbikes clear, the cafes fill, and everything is covered and moved in indoors.  There's not much to do but sip coffee and watch the drops.  We'll get a full day's worth of rain in just over an hour.  It's an amazing tribute to seasonal winds of the Pacific.

Clam Bake Indoors on a Rainy Night

A friend brought back a load of clams and other mollusks from Phan Rang, the closest coastal city to Dalat.  We lit the grill and had a clam bake indoors away from the rain.  Clams and rice was fairly tasty.  The clams were cooked in their own juices and the flavored with peanuts and chives.  It's a little unusual eating seafood when you're a mile high into the mountains, but in Vietnam the ocean is never far away.

These Girls Are Good

A major badminton tournament has been taking place at the university. Apparently they are hosting players from most of the southern provinces, and a few of these competitors play for the national team. I've watched them play and these girls are good. The local Lam Dong team lost two heartbreaking gold medal matches on Wednesday night. They were playing the underdog all tournament and in the final match it came down to extra points, and mere inches along the back line. It was hard to watch.  Check out the video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4vIiDuZuho

Dinner

Since I will be leaving in a month and because all their daughters were home, I invited a local family to a farewell/thank you dinner.  We ate at a restaurant overlooking Xuan Huong lake (which happens to be completely drained for construction purposes).  The way Vietnamese dinners work is everything is shared, you start with several different types of fruits, meats, and vegetables, and you end with some type of soup or stew.  I have eaten several interesting meats, which I won't eat in America, and on this night I ate two new ones.  I ate fried frog legs and grilled wild boar.  The frog legs were actually very similar to chicken wings and tasted really good.  They were fried in butter and garlic and tasted mostly of those two things.  The wild boar was just delicious, as with most things here it was flavorful and spicy.  Other opening dishes included grilled squid, stir fried spinach, and crispy pork.  We ended the night with a stew of spicy coconut and curry base with beef, shrimp, and fish balls freshly added when ready to serve.  We had a few Saigon beers and a few laughs, and I'll miss this about Vietnam.

Golden Valley Revisited

I decided to return to the Golden Valley.  It takes awhile for me to get out there and back, but the ride is just about perfect.  The trick to finding these great back country roads is to go north.  If you go north out of Dalat, you then drive away from traffic and the majority of the population.  Some friends of mine were having a picnic along the reservoir we found a week earlier.  I wanted to join them.  After finishing some errands, I enjoyed what I think is the best part of Dalat, the mountain air.  I also wanted to see if I could find the same herd of water buffalo I saw there last week.  We found about twenty of them along the road wading in the mud and huddling together in the shade trying to be beat the midday heat.  It's hard to beat wading along the banks of mountain lake miles from nowhere.