“Adventure in life is good; consistency in coffee even better.”

Alright, time again for a little travel update. Lots of highs and lows over the past couple weeks. Erin and I both got sick for a couple days and had to lay low for a couple days to recoup. But we also made it to Vietnam! You'd think after a couple months I would have gotten over the whole culture shock thing, but each country has it's nuances that takes some figuring out. It's kept me on my toes even after I think I'm getting everything figured out. 

So, Erin and I had planned to head north of Phnom Penh for a couple stops along the Mekong, but our first day in Kampong Cham Erin spent the whole day in bed. I convinced her to come with me the following day touring the countryside with our driver Chai. I hadn't been drinking but I still felt hungover when I woke up the following day, my good-health streak had ended. By that time our room was feeling more like a cell, so we bought huge bottles of water, put on sunglasses and ventured out in the tuk-tuk. We drove around seeing village life and stopping at 5 different temples, one with over 200 steps that felt like a real summit push. 

We made it back to Phnom Penh for a couple more down days. By the time we made it to Saigon my sinuses and throat were clear. Saigon is no doubt crowded, but less claustrophobic than other large Asian cities. Wide sidewalks, parks and trees made it easy to just walk around. We were able to meet up with our old Boulder friends Rob and Ella, too. They have lived in Ho Chi Minh City for 2 years teaching. They travel home for the first time since they moved in three weeks, in fact they will be moving again and living in the states again. First they took us out for dinner, then a few nights later we met up to get a guided tour of the Ho Chi Minh nightlife. 

Our time in the city was close to a world tour. We had met a guy in Loas who told us about a number of huge, Czech style brewpubs filled with Vietnamese businessmen. So we got our beer fix stopping at 3 different breweries. Not only did we get a taste of Central Europe but we also went out for some legitimate Mexican food & margaritas. We also stopped at an Aussie bar a few times. Oh, and French too, baguettes and coffee are everywhere. Cafés sell 50¢ espresso and banh mi sandwiches are available on every corner for 75¢, it's an easy choice for lunch every day. Then on to Dalat.

Dalat is a 9 hour drive from Saigon. Rather than taking coastal route and hitting the beaches, we wanted to cool off in the central highlands. Dalat is a fairly popular tourist destination for the Vietnamese, they come for the cool weather and spend their time buying sweaters, fleece blankets and dried fruit. It'd be interesting to take some of those people to Colorado in winter since it was about 70 degrees and they were dressed like Harry and Lloyd going skiing in Aspen. 

We took a day tour by motorcycle one day, checking out coffee plantations, temples and waterfalls. I finally got a chance to try a cup of weasel coffee. While it's incredibly expensive in the states, here it comes at $2.50 a cup. The plantation owns weasels that eat coffee beans, then the digested beans are collected from their turds and roasted to mellow perfection! Then we spent a couple nights stopping at 2 other small mountain towns to the north on our way to the coast at Hoi An.

(Ate some silk worms too!)

We are stayin put for a couple days. Partially because we have been moving quick and riding in minivans packed full of puking kids for the past week. Also, it's Erin's 25th birthday. So we got ourselves a comfy spot here and we are gonna take in the sights and indochine architechture at a leisurely pace.