Vietnamese Mountain Butt Sledding
by Steve McAdoo in Asia , Vietnam
|
Looking down on Paradise Lake from the mountain
Poinsettias and fishermen at Paradise Lake |
An Exhilarating Day near Da Lat
I climbed a mountain today. Probably the oldest, fattest American ever to climb it, and I can hardly believe I did, but I did. We have pictures and videos to prove it.
We signed up for the "easy" trek with Groovy Gekko, an outdoor tour company right next to our hotel here in Da Lat. Mercy. We went straight up the side of a mountain. No steps, no walkway, just tree roots and dead pine needles to give you traction. Our ever cheerful and encouraging guide Thanh and my companion Joseph both supplied a helping hand or shoulder for balance at times, but I actually made it all the way up on my own legs.
On the way up, a local Vietnamese mountain climber passed us as if he did the climb every day (I suspect he just about does). Later he came back down holding a bright yellow yard-long poisonous snake over his head. He let us "pet it" all the while Thanh was explaining to us how deadly it was.
At the top we took in the view, had our picture taken by one of the Buddhist monks camping at the top of the mountain who graciously broke from his meditation to come take pictures of the three of us at the summit, and then we each ate a couple of bananas. Okay, time to go down the other side. I was hoping for a more leisurely way down. After all, this was the "easy" trek. But, alas, no. If anything, the way down was steeper than the way up. After timidly progressing 20 yards or so down, I was ready to accept that I may just hae to stay there, and depend on passing Vietnamese to give me something to eat and drink now and then, and perhaps bring me a change of clothes now and then. Luckily, our guide had a better idea. He was carrying a plastic tarp for us to sit on for our lunch later in the day. Instead, I used the tarp as a sled, and SLID on my butt DOWN THE MOUNTAIN. Thanh said he thinks he may have hit on a new sport--butt mountain sledding--for his company to promote. Needless to say, once we hit on the trick, going down was much faster than going up, and my rear end is only a little sore from the couple of times I completely lost control and shot out into mid air for a few seconds before coming down to earth again.
A bit about our guide: Thanh is a recent college graduate. He's been leading these tours for about two years. He told me he's lived in Da Lat all his life, and went to college there, but that his parents are from the north. Other than English, he also speaks Russian, which he said he studied in college primarily because his grandfather, who studied in Moscow, told him not to take it because it was too hard. I suspect grandfather was perhaps applying a little reverse psychology there.
The whole trip today was truly incredible. Before the real mountain began, we went through a small family-run pineapple and coffee farm where I had my first taste of berries from a coffee tree. And after our descent we had lunch next to Paradise Lake in a lovely park filled with an amazing collection of flowering trees and shrubs, and with hundreds of butterflies, with seemingly no two butterflies alike.
After lunch, we shared a boat with a passel of drunken fishermen to cross Paradise Lake. They kept trying to convince us to share their wine, and two of them couldn't resist the urge to rub the fat foreigner's belly. I told Joseph my tummy should be pretty shiny by the time we get back if people keep rubbing it at this rate. One drunken fishermen stumbled and almost overturned the boat at one point, my reaction to which they all found very amusing.
Once across the lake, I faced the last challenge of the day, a 222-step climb to the largest Buddhist temple in the southern part of Vietnam (another way of saying it's the second largest Buddhist temple in Vietnam). The place was just crawling with monks and nuns. If I remember right, about 250 live there. We got to listen in on a class taught by the head monk, an 84-year-old who lectured with a very VERY tranquil voice, which was nice to hear after our challenging day. It was only after our climb up the steps, and a tour of the place, that I discovered the aerial tram that takes most tourists from Da Lat on an easy ride right up to the temple - no steps required. Sigh.
After the temple, we jumped in the tourist company van and headed back to the hotel for a shower and to drop off my dirty clothes at the front desk for the evening laundry service. Then a stop at the bakery, and then finally here for beverages and a little Internet time.
|
Above the main market in Da Lat. Don't miss the congealed pigs blood for breakfast!
The Crazy House in Da Lat
The Chicken Village
The "Crazy Monk" in his studio |
Today was a truly amazing day. The last time I did a rough mountain climbs like this was in northern China, again a long climb up a mountain to visit a temple. I have friends who actually do things like rock climbing on purpose, but for me, walking up a mountain is almost always something I find myself surprised to be doing, not something I do by choice.) For that mountain in China, I was much younger, lighter, and more vigorous then - maybe 18 years ago or so. I'm not sure how long it will be before I try this again. Right now, though, I feel GREAT. We'll see how I feel in the morning.
Tomorrow's outing is sightseeing - mostly by car. I understand that a couple of the stops feature a lot of steps, like the temple today, but after today's mountain, that will be like a cakewalk.
The Crazy House and the Chicken Village
Today we started out with breakfast in the market. My breakfast gave me a chance to get reacquainted with the taste of congealed pig's blood, something I've missed out on since my days in Taiwan back in '79 and '80. Afterwards, a half-day whirlwind tour of the tourist sites of Da Lat, including:
- A couple of nearby waterfalls that involved a lot more steps and a lot less water than most of the waterfalls you can see in Washington or Oregon.
- The "crazy house", a bizarre attempt at a guest house built by the daughter of the second president of Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh. She was an architecture student in Moscow, now in her 60s, she built this crazy place. It's hard to describe. I'll just say that "crazy house" is no misnomer.
- The Da Lat train station, a rather non-descript train station built in the 20s.
- The summer home of the last king of Vietnam, Bao Dai. A very nice villa, but not much there. Looks like someone already made off with most of the silverware.
- The "Chicken Village" - a wide spot in the road with a few minority families peddling hand-woven fabrics and living in the shadow of a two-story tall concrete chicken that was erected some decades ago to memorialize a woman who went into the hills in search of a special chicken for her dowry...and never returned. (Moral of the story: If your fiance's parents demand a chicken with a total of nine spurs on its feet, find a new fiance.)
- The "crazy monk", a Vietnamese-despising, foreigner-loving monk who lives alone in an old temple here in town. (He was pretty cold toward Joseph at first because he thought he was Vietnamese. When Joseph revealed that he's Chinese, the monk said "OH, well that's VERY different!" and warmed up a bit.) He's also a self-described artist and musician who speaks several foreign languages. The building behind his temple is filled with stacks of hundreds of his artworks. Quite a character. I picked up a couple of his pieces for a few bucks. Now to figure out where to put them when we get back home.
In general, I'd not recommend heading to Da Lat for these "sights." But the surrounding countryside is beautiful, and if you're into hiking, biking, or motorcycling, this is really a great place to visit, and the weather's a real break from the sweltering humidity of most of Vietnam. A number of outfits here will rent you motorcycles or bikes so you can go exploring the surrounding mountainous terrain or your own, or even cycle or motorbike all the way back to Saigon.
We had dinner at Le Cafe de la...whatever the French words for 'post office' are. It's right across the street from the post office, at the foot of "Le Petite Eiffel". We really felt like decadent foreigners, splurging $30 for a big spread of local delicacies like BBQ wild boar and venison, grilled fish, soft-shelled crab, shrimp fried rice, an assortment of local vegetables, a bottle of Vang Dalat, the local red wine, plus dessert and coffee.
Walking back to the hotel, we were hailed by the staff of the tour company that had taken us on our two outings, and convinced to sit down with them for awhile to share some steamed clams and a few glasses of very strong rice "wine" (actually liquor). We promised them we'd put in a good word for them with any of our American friends who might be heading toward Da Lat, so if you're headed this way, don't forget their name: Groovy Gecko.
This is actually the off-season here in Da Lat (i.e., the rainy season), but we got very lucky the last three days, with no rain, frequently blue skies, and perfect temperatures. Last night it started raining heavily, and continued into this morning - until just about the time we headed out for breakfast. Not bad. We'll see how long this kind of weather luck holds.
If we have time tomorrow, we'll head for a southern district of Saigon that's supposedly just crawling with monkeys. Who can pass up hanging out a few hours with a bunch of monkeys? Not me!
January 5, 2005
