Vietnam “Foodie (and Train) Tour” Proposal - for March 2016

Vietnam “Foodie (and Train) Tour” Proposal
© Elisse & Dan Clark 2015
For information and to book, call the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, Tel: 304-862-2031 or email elisse@elkhorninnwv.com

Note: This is a proposal, and can be altered to suit the group. It was designed as a 28-day tour that shows you a great portion of Vietnam, from Hanoi, down the coast, through the Central Highlands, and then to Saigon & the Mekong Delta, but we can cut it to 2 weeks or less- obviously eliminating many things, however. Once we have 10 people committed to the trip and agreed on the basic itinerary, we will arrange it and provide the final itinerary and final cost. Our estimate, based on current prices, is that the basic land portion of this 28 day trip should be approximately $6000 per couple (rooms being based on double occupancy), but it may be higher- or lower! Only some tours and meals are included; we have added (and will add more) suggestions for dining and additional activities, and money should be allocated for those things. Air fares can fluctuate wildly, and we will negotiate that, as well as the rest of the itinerary, once we have at least 10 people committed to the tour. The intention is to get everyone the best prices possible, and we can do that if we have a group of at least 10 people. (Yes, you can do Vietnam a lot cheaper- if you want to do the backpacking thing, stay in $9/night hostels, and be an old hippie! LOL!) We are looking at doing this trip in March 2016, when the weather is good, and before the rainy season starts and it gets incredibly hot. We do not want to take more than 12 people on this tour. 

We want to keep it small and manageable, intimate, and fun! As this is a proposal, the times listed are subject to change. Depending on plane, train, tour, and bus schedules, it may be necessary to add a day or two. The itinerary was designed to be leisurely, and allow for free time to enjoy the places visited without being rushed, and it is based on things we have personally experienced, both in 2015 and 2008, and the people we know, have worked with, and trust. At this time (April 2015) 4-star hotels are approx. $50/night. The 4-star Indochine Hotel in Kon Tum is $35-$40 night. The fabulous and historic Hotel Majestic in Saigon on the river is currently $104/night. (Marriott hotels and such, in Saigon, are currently $230/night and up; fancy resorts at Hoi An, such as the Nam Hai, can run $800/night and up. Nice, small hotels throughout the country can be as low as $24 a night, and many are even less. We have stayed at a variety of accommodations throughout Vietnam, and chose mostly 4-star hotels for this tour because they usually have an English-speaking concierge and a helpful staff, elevators that work, hotel amenities, a/c, comfortable beds and bedding, often a pool, and good, safe, and central locations, all things which we have found make a trip a lot more enjoyable! Day tours are approx. $60 per person, with some higher, depending on what is included, and we always add a tip. ATMs and free WiFi are available throughout Vietnam, even in remote areas! Food, including street food, coffee, wine, beer, spirits, water, and ice, are all truly excellent! We felt safe- and were safe- all over Vietnam. We were only advised about the possibility of pickpockets, motorbike bag-snatchers, etc. in Saigon, but we had no problems. The people we work with are multilingual, and language is not a problem. At this time the exchange rate is 21,000 VND to the US dollar, meaning that when you change $100 you instantly become a millionaire! Why are we doing this? Because we love Vietnam and would love to share the amazing fun we’ve had there, and because going back with a group of fun, adventurous friends would be a blast! I (Elisse) have been to Vietnam twice for a total of two months, and planned both trips; Dan has been there 10 times, literally for years. He did 3.5 tours in Vietnam in the US Army, and worked in Vietnam in aviation after the war, as well. We had our month-long Honeymoon in Vietnam in 2008, and just returned from our month-long Second Honeymoon there last week!

Day 1: Arrive in Hanoi, go to hotel and relax! (This is an overnight flight from the USA, approx. 15 hours direct from NYC). If you have the energy, explore the city a bit, on foot or cyclo, having a fine meal, and maybe going to a trendy club! When we were last there, Bobby Chinn's was the hot place; we will update you on the trendy clubs right before we go! :-)
Hanoi: 3 nights – 4-star hotel
            Day 2: Tour of the city and market and a Street Food Tour. Evening suggestion: dine at one of Hanoi’s great restaurants and enjoy a hot  music club!
           Day 3: Free to enjoy the city, museums, etc. PM: Traditional Hanoi Puppet Theatre. Dinner with Hanoi Vodka tasting. (Tip for Jews: there is a Chabad House in Hanoi!)
Day 4: Halong Bay Junk Cruise (one night on board). This is a “must-do” if you are going to Hanoi! It is Gorgeous! There is often an opportunity to kayak, and explore the incredible caves that dot the Bay.
Day 5: After return from the cruise, take the train to Hue. Night at hotel.
Hue:    3 nights – 4 star hotel
            Day 6: Tour several of the fabulous Royal Tomb “estates”, for which Hue is famed. Evening Street Food Tour by Cyclo, sampling a variety of Hue specialties around town.
             Day 7: Free to enjoy The Royal City of Hue. You can take a boat down the Perfume River and visit the Citadel, or go to the Pagodas… PM: Royal Cuisine Dinner (with costumes and traditional music if desired), and Emperor Minh Mang’s Royal Liqueur tasting.
Day 8: Train to Hoi An, night at hotel.         
Hoi An: 3 nights - 4 star hotel
             Day 9: Cooking Class with a trip through the incredible veggie and fish market. (The class is at a GREAT restaurant where you can sample and learn about Vietnamese Street Food, and try things that you might be afraid to try on your own. You have the rest of the day to enjoy walking through this UNESCO Heritage Site old city and perusing the museums, having clothes made at the speedy and great tailors Hoi An is famous for (Men: get shirts or a suit made. Women, get a fab dress or a gorgeous silk ao dai! There are also luscious cashmere shawls to be had here for $40...), and sampling fabulous Hoi An street food! Suggested dinner: Vy’s “Morning Glory” Restaurant. Tip: Get Vy's cookbook- she is seriously the "Mario Batali of Hoi An"! And if you buy the Hoi An Chili Sauce- a specialty of this city- in the market, double wrap it in plastic before you pack it- the bottles leak. LOL 
            Day 10: Rice Farming with Water Buffalo excursion, or Fishing/Palm Paradise Excursion (both are excellent, and both include truly great lunches). On the Wet Rice Tour you will ride a water buffalo, and “surf” and plow with a water buffalo, as you learn by doing how rice is planted and harvested, followed by a delish lunch on the rice farm! On the fishing tour you will swing fishing nets with fishermen, bring in the nets with your feet, have fun in a basket fishing boat, and enjoy a cruise though “Palm Paradise” and a seafood lunch on board! Or you can opt to take a tour of Marble Mountain, or of the ancient Cham site.  PM: pick up the clothes you had made in Hoi An, enjoy the old town, and hang out at the cafes and pubs on the river! (Note: as there is a lot to do in this area, we can add a day here to do additional tours, if the group wishes to do that).
Day 11: Train to Nha Trang in a “soft sleeper berth” (4 berth cabin) with a/c. It’s a 12 hour train trip down the beautiful coast, and you can watch the gorgeous and fascinating scenery from the dining car on the train, with food, coffee, and beer- and then have a snooze in your berth! There are Western toilets on the train, too! Yay! :-) Night at hotel in Nha Trang.
Nha Trang: 3 nights – 4 star hotel
            Day 12: Enjoy a Mud/Thermal Bath Spa Day, a Snorkeling excursion, or just relax on the gorgeous beach, sipping great Vietnamese coffee or a drink as you watch the Russian tourists! LOL (There is also the possibility of an evening squid fishing excursion if we have enough people). Evening Tip: At this time, “BBQ and More” is a fun & trendy (and cheap) street-side restaurant in town, that is popular with young people, and serves great small plates of marinated BBQ meats, fish, and veggies, and a green dipping sauce that is Seriously To Die For! And “Fantasy” is THE hot and trendy bar for $12 G&Ts!
            Day 13: Brewery Tour and Beer Sampler at a great brewery on Nha Trang beach, which has a lovely restaurant, and a pool, too! PM: BBQ Dinner at an old and famous local (and very informal) restaurant a bit off the beaten path. Tip: get a bottle of Dalat Wine to have with your selection of deliciously marinated BBQ meats, fish, seafood and/or veggies, which you grill yourself at your table. We had to try Lots of stuff, of course, and everything we ordered was excellent- it’s been a fave of both locals and ‘in the know’ tourists for over 40 years!
Day 14: “Tourist Bus” to Dalat (4 hrs). Night at hotel.
Dalat: 3 nights – Train Café lodging (if available) or 4-star hotel
           Day 15: Train Excursion to the Pagoda from the beautifully restored historic Dalat Train Station, which has a cute café in an old steam train where you can enjoy a coffee prior to the excursion! Afternoon free to enjoy Dalat. Suggestion: Tour the Palace, and let them dress you up as Emperor and Empress and photograph you sitting on the throne! The Dalat Train Station Restaurant in a restored RR car is a delight for lunch or dinner! There are also lovely cafes and restaurants on the lake. Evening tip: live music and drinks in a Dalat music club!
           Day 16: Enjoy Dalat! Take a tour of the city, or to one of the many area waterfall/amusement parks where Vietnamese honeymooners go to enjoy the famously kitschy side of Dalat, or take a horse and carriage ride around the lake, or (if you want some exercise) a “Swan” pedal boat! PM: enjoy dinner at a local restaurant, after which we will have a Dalat Wine & Local Liqueur tasting, and enjoy live music at a local club- the talented and multi-lingual US-born band leader is the man who got the group together to restore the Train Station and the train running again- the only excursion train in Vietnam!
Day 17: Bus or Taxi/Van to Lak Lake, night in a traditional stilted “Long House”.
Lak Lake & Buon Ma Thout: 3 nights (one night at a “Long House” at Lak Lake, and two nights at 4-star hotel in Buon Ma Thout)
            Day 18: Morning Elephant Ride on Lak Lake, (which is totally wonderful), followed by a fascinating and fun walking tour of the area's market and Minority Villages. Drive to Buon Ma Thout, through the home area of the famed elephant tamers of the Highlands, the last of whom died just a few years ago, at over 100 years old. Night at hotel in Buon Ma Thout.
            Day 19: Trung Nguyen Coffee Museum/Café & coffee tastings of the world-renowned Highlands Coffees. Tip: try them all, and don’t forget to try the famous weasel coffee! Night at hotel in Buon Ma Thout. Tip: Buy coffee, and pepper, too- it's a specialty of the area, as well, and Vietnam pepper is THE best! Cinnamon, too! Driving though this area you will see the coffee and rubber plantations that keep the lights on in Vietnam...
Day 20: Bus or Taxi/Van to Kon Tum (5 hours), night at hotel.
Kon Tum: 4 nights – Indochine 4-star hotel for three nights; one night in a traditional raised “Rong House” or Homestay
            Day 21: Central Highlands excursion to Minority Villages, such as a Jarai Village, with stilt-houses, and extraordinary cemetery sculptures. Our guide speaks English, French, and many of the Highlands dialects, making him an AMAZING guide in the Central Highlands, and, since 2008, he has become our very good friend. PM: Gong Music/Jar Wine village excursion by motorbike, with the opportunity to dress in Highlands clothing (vest and loincloth for the guys, top and skirt for the gals), and learn to play the gongs and do the Highland dances, as well as play Highlands Drinking Games over Jar Wine! Night at hotel. (Tip: the Indochine hotel has an FAB view of Kon Tum and the River from the glass walls of their breakfast dining room!)
            Day 22: Visit to Sim Wine factory. A sweet desert wine made from local Highlands fruit, Sim Wine is a unique specialty of this region. Dinner at DakBla Restaurant in Kon Tum, with a tasting of several local Wines and Liqueurs. Night at hotel.
            Day 23: Central Highlands excursion:  A gentle trek (3km) in the Central Highlands, a dugout canoe ride down the DakBla (Black) River, and dinner and a homestay or Rong House accommodation. This is a wonderful day and a great introduction (or re-introduction…) to the Highlands…
            Day 24: Day at leisure in Kon Tum. Walk around, have coffee, go to the DakBla for lunch and shop their amazing collection of Highlands embroidery & the nearby shops for Highlands baskets and wood carvings... Take the 5:30pm Night Bus to Saigon (with reclining seats, a/c, and a fun and yummy communal dinner), arriving in Saigon in the morning. (Or take a taxi to Pleiku, and fly from Pleiku to Saigon, if you wish).
Saigon: 3 nights at the Hotel Majestic (or equivalent) in District 1, Saigon.
            Day 25: After you arrive in Saigon in the morning (approx. 6 am), drop off your luggage at the hotel. You are then free to explore Saigon on foot, cyclo, or motorbike taxi, or take a tour of the city. Don't eat lunch, however, because at 5 PM we will have an Evening Foodie Tour around Saigon by motorbike! The food is AMAZING, their drivers are GREAT, and the all-night neon, markets, and life all over the city will blow your mind! If you only have one night in Saigon and you're an adventurous foodie, this is a MUST!
            Day 26: Day Cruise on the Mekong Delta, with lunch and a Snake Wine tasting. (Snake Wine is not only weird and cool (so sayeth Andrew Zimmern...), it’s yummy- AND a health tonic that Dan utilized with his unit Back In The Day to keep everyone healthy!) This is a wonderful introduction to the beautiful Mekong Delta area, and the incredible floating markets.
           Day 27: Your last day in Vietnam is free, so you can enjoy Saigon at your leisure. Tip: Take a Cooking Class with a market visit, or a "Pho Trail" Street Food & Market Tour in the morning (we can arrange both), and then shop at the Ben Thanh Market or the many fancy stores, visit the excellent zoo or some of the many museums, see the puppet theatre, drink glorious Highlands coffee at one of the many Phuk Long or Trung Nguyen cafes, take a cyclo ride around the city, get a great massage or a “Dr. Fish” pedicure at a great day spa, etc. Suggested evening: We all meet for drinks at the roof-top bar at the Rex Hotel (home of the “Five O’Clock Follies”), watching the color-changing Rex crown spin around and the neon of Saigon, followed by excellent jazz at “Sax & Art” Jazz Club. Drinks will run you about $12 each at these places. (Tip for Jews: there is a Chabad House in Saigon! Tip for Catholics: Notre Dame Cathedral is in the center of Saigon, and has a standing-room-only mass on Sundays! There are also gorgeous Hindu temples, and tons of beautiful pagodas to visit, too! And craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy shopping!!!)
Day 28: Fly home from Saigon, tired but happy, full of wonderful food and drink, and suitcases bursting with lots of really cool stuff! 
For information and to book, call the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, Tel: 304-862-2031 or email elisse@elkhorninnwv.com

Honeymoon Blog, 3rd Installment: Good Morning Central Highlands, Vietnam!

This is the 3rd (& Penultimate) Installment of "Dan & Elisse's Honeymoon Adventure": Water puppets & trendy Hanoi; northern Vietnamese Villages, and a romantic Junk Cruise on Halong Bay... a trek into the Central Highlands: a dugout canoe down the Black River and my 49th Birthday Dinner Party in KonTum; and frolicking on the beach in Quin Yan...

We arrived in Hanoi by train at 5 in the morning; couldn't check into to the Hilton (on our HH Points! Thank you, FEMA!), and as it is in a lovely French Colonial building right in the middle of town, we left our luggage at the hotel and walked around Hanoi, finding a cute cafe on the lake for morning coffee & people-watching, and then walking 'round the lake to watch the art students sketch, and visit a lovely shrine with a red bridge (Exactly the bridge we both agreed we need to go across Elkhorn Creek to the Theatre!). Dan bought me a pack of incense, so I could climb up the rocks and make a good-luck prayer... Found a lucky coin at the shrine, & got to see the Lucky Turtle, too!

Art students sketching... & the Louis Vuitton Moped Seat...

We walked up and down the market streets, getting to know the city- again, for Dan... I loved the mix of old and new that we saw throughout Vietnam: the conical hats of the ladies delivering flowers by cyclo and the Louis Vuitton motorcycle seat covers! We ran into a bunch of American skateboarders poppin' wheelies around the statue of a scholar in one of Hanoi's historic plazas, and they were so amazed to meet Dan (A real, live Vietnam War Veteran! In Vietnam! How Cool!) that they took photos of us! (Observation: This made me feel 104. We are still too #$%&!! young to be quite that "amazing"...)

Checking into the Hilton Hanoi Opera was a Trip! We were ensconced in a lovely room on the Exec. Floor, and checked in by an Executive Floor Concierge who asked us if this was our first trip to Hanoi, obviously 100% certain that it was. He was wrong. It was Not Dan's first time in Hanoi, and he said so. To which Mr. Concierge asked us- TWICE- if we had previously "stayed at our other Hilton Property- the Hanoi Hilton?"! Apparently my saying "no" once was insufficient! Dan's got Thick skin, thank goodness, but I was pretty darn stunned by that one...

One of Dan's Many Amazing 5-star Hotel Shower-Stall Clothes Dryers...

The hotel was lovely, however, decorated with beautiful Vietnamese watercolor landscapes, and we had great Exec Floor breakfasts, hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and service- and one of the all-time great bar snacks: Vietnamese shredded beef jerky! This delicate, finely shredded, spicy, and utterly addictive stuff is to what we know as "jerky", as hard boiled eggs are to Beluga caviar!

I fell in love with a necklace of bright red Vietnamese coral in the Hilton's gift shop, but stoically walked away from it...

Dan snagged us a cyclo for our ride to the Water Puppets that evening, which was fabulous fun, and the show was wonderful... a lovely, archaic, fantasy-world of music and puppets, water, and pagodas, all green and gold and red... and the two, delicate little water puppets I bought even made it home perfect, and now grace our mantle at the Inn!

We had drinks at a cute cafe overlooking the lake, and then walked back to the Hilton in the moonlight...

The next day we took what wound up being an excellent private tour with Exotissimo Travel to two villages in the north, and got to see a great deal of the northern countryside, which was new to us both. We had a great, young guide, and as it was "just us", he gave us a wonderful, in-depth tour. The first village was accessible only by boat, after which we climbed many dozens of steps up a mountain-side into the village. Corny as it may sound, we were wearing the "Bride" and "Groom" tee-shirts that I had made for this trip 2 years ago, & finally wheedled Dan into wearing! (Observation: When I'm 95, and Dan is 108, I hope I'm still trying to wheedle him into wearing Bride & Groom tee shirts...)

Our guide took us to the home of a village family, where we sipped tea and the local corn liquor (yup, same as ours- only smoother!) Even in this most rural of villages, where the family we visited lived in a traditional stilted house with a rush floor and cooked on a wood fire, they had electricity- for basically one thing: the flat-screen TV! This family farmed corn up on the mountain, and had fresh fish, as well; the kids were well fed and everyone seemed to have good teeth...

Dan playing with the village puppies...

Pushing off for the boat-trip back... We got to see the rather amazing women who row their fishing boats with their feet... Dan has tried it, and Still can't figure out how they do it...

Between villages our guide took us for a tour of the Great Big Hydroelectric Dam- one of those wonderful, quintessentially "Communist" tourist stops I thought went out with Go-Go Boots & Hot Pants! It was great fun, in a wierd "time-warp" way, to trek thru the seemingly endless tunnel along with goups of Vietnamese workers on a company outing, especially because the busloads of school children, many wearing Boonie Hats, and all l flashing the "V for Victory/Peace" sign that is the "new hip thing" (!), all wanted to have their picture taken with Dan!

We had a great lunch in a cute thatched-roof restaurant in the countryside- lots of delicious little dishes and springrolls & such, augnmented with spicy chilis & washed down with great Vietnamese beer! (And yes, as a result of all this wonderful wining & dining, I look like an orange beach ball in my "Bride" t-shirt... )

The second village was surrounded by rice paddies, and the hand-planting of rice seedlings was in progress, so we got to see a totally different geography as well as different way of village life, but the traditional stilted houses with the canoe-like wooden coffins underneath, and thatched rooves were similar, as was the friendliness and hospitality of the people. We bought some lovely fabric at the home of one lady weaver, and as we left, Dan met with two elderly Montaignyard women selling hand-embroidered coasters with the traditional Montaignyard star that he recognized, and "Shopper Dan" bought 5 from each lady...

On our return to Hanoi, at our request, our guide took us to one of the workshops where disabled children hand embroider the gorgeous silk paintings that one sees all over Vietnam. These rather amazing silk & cotton embroideries, several of which now grace the Elkhorn Inn (I bought most at a stall in Saigon's "Chinatown" market for $15 each!), perfectly illustrate the Vietnamese landscapes: the rice paddies glisten in the sun, and when the sunlight changes, everything shimmers, just like in a silk painting... There are obviously hundreds of talented artists designing silk paintings, for as we traveled around the country we saw everything from landscapes to abstracts to stil-lifes rendered in intricate embroidery, and tables of children at several "tourist stops" busily creating them... Driving back to Hanoi, we passed the endless construction of brightly-painted new townhouses, cheek-by-jowl with cattle grazing and water lilly farms on the highway medians... and 4 billion motorcyclists!

The next day we (happily) left our bags at the Hilton, and went off on our 2 day Halong Bay Junk Cruise with Buffalo Tours, which was truly one of the romantic highlights of our trip. The first afternoon, after a leisurely sail from the bustling port out into the serene & peaceful bay, we got to kayak through an absolutely gorgeous bay-scape of mountains and mist, mirror-still water, and colorful junks... Landing our kayaks in the sand, we did the 1000-step climb up the mountain to look out over the fabulous view of the bay... and then paddled our way back to our dragon-headed junk... Dan even went swimming, cannonballing off the deck!

At night, after dining, we sipped our wine out on deck, chatting with John Trolan, the author of "Slow Punctures" and "Any Other Time", and his wife, and the other guests, watching the tiny lights of the junks twinkling in the darkness... readily imagining ourselves in the 19th century...

Our stateroom was adorable and romantic, and it was a Wonderful night... After breakfast the next day, the Junk docked so we could hike up & down through one of the huge caves filled with stalagmites & stalagtites... AND we got to rub the head of another "lucky turtle"! We were told that this had been a "party cave" where vilagers held special events, and I could easily imagine what fun it would be to have a wild party there...

We then slowly (and too soon for me!) sailed back to "civilzation", spending the night again at the Hanoi Opera Hilton. Our last night in Hanoi we took a cab to to Bobby Chinn's, "the" Hanoi hot spot, and I finally got to wear my red-&-silver 5" heels... We had a late supper of yummy Vietnamese appetizers amidst the divinely sexy, silky red draperies...

The next morning, we flew Vietnam Airlines from Hanoi to Danang (Business Class! With linen and china and real silversware!), and then on to Pleiku... for the start of our REAL adventure! The primary goal of our trip to Vietnam was to go to the Central Highlands, where Dan had spent much of his time in Vietnam in the 1960s. The Central Highlands has only recently opened up to tourism, and when I first started planning this trip there was little in the way of information on the 'net; we had decided to just 'wing it' once we got to Vietnam. Shortly before we left, I read an article about Mr. Nguyen do Huynh and his tours to some of the hundreds of villages of the Central Highlands on http://www.travelfish.org/feature/86, a website specializing in Southeast Asian tourism, and we corresponded via email. I called him from Hanoi and he told us to take a $20 taxi from the Pleiku airport to his office at the Dakbla Hotel in Kontum, and so we did! We stayed right there at the Dakbla Hotel, (simple, clean, and $23/night- no points needed!), and had most of our meals at the Dakbla Restaurant around the corner, which not only had our fave Dalat Wines & great food (including an amazing chili-salt that would make Anything taste great!), but was decorated with a wonderful collection of Montaignyard village artifacts and wall mosaics of the Montaignyard star... The next day we embarked on a gentle "trek" with Mr. Huynh into the highlands, joined by Marie, a young Belgian tourist. We started out riding to the Bahnar Village by motorcycle, which was wonderful fun, with me shooting all sorts of lopsided pictures as we whizzed over bridges and thru villages! Begining at one of the village "Community Huts", we walked through the mountainous countryside of rubber plantations and tapioca fields. We had a picnic lunch by the Dakbla (Black) River, and a bit of a swim, and then took a dugout canoe back down the river. I thus got to see the ridgeline Dan had walked... and Dan got to see again a place he is deeply tied to. He loved seeing the children joyously playing at the water's edge along the river... The one thing that most amazed (and saddened) him, however, was that the jungle he remembered so well- and thus the tigers and monkeys and other animals- is no more. What remains of the jungle is now many, many miles away, and Mr. Huynh does treks into the jungle- which we both Badly want to return for...






At one village we met the elderly musician- over 100 years old- who is truly a national treasue, and a friend of Mr. Huyns father...

























Downtown Kontum...

We took our breakfast each morning at the "fancy" hotel (internet in the lobby- yay!) around the corner overlooking Kontum & the river...

Ox carts crossing the river at dusk...

Trying the4 local drink...












One of the most extraordinary and touching things we experienced was how Dan was greeted in the villages we visited- with hugs and thanks, in both English and French, and great, very real, affection... And yes, we got to taste all sorts of wonderful new drinks, too!

One of my wobbly "motorcycle photos"...


The next day Mr. Huyn took us to visit several villages, starting with a fascinating Jarai cemetary in Plei Ro Lay, where he explained the customs of the people and the wonderful carvings which decorate the tombs, and how the tombs are created, kept, maintained, and then abandoned after 7 years...

















































We asked Mr. Huyn about the unique, hand-loomed mountain fabrics that Dan remembered from his time serving in this area, and Mr. Huyn took us to the studio of a lovely lady weaver who is exactly Dan's age (61), and from her we bought a beautiful piece of her hand-loomed fabric... This waqs the most special birthday present I could imagine...

We got to climb up into and sit in one of the traditional Community Huts that is the center of each village, me for the first time...

Then we went to the home of Mr. Huynh's brother, who now works as an evironmental activist to try to stop the destruction of the last of Vietnam's jungle and the illegal logging and poaching. We sat around his kitchen table and drank beer, and then made toasts over shots of Mystery Liquor... and then a giant jar of liquor was proffered that even I couldn't stomach (it had something floating in it that I recognized...), & Marie demurred as well... But Dan, who knew it well & is put off by naught, shared a drink of it with The Guys, & our honor was saved! To sit around that table, eating fruit and drinking, toasting (with Mr. Huyn playfully demanding of me "look at my eyes when you make a toast!"), and talking about all our lives- past, present and future- was extraordinary and wonderful, and something we will Never forget...


Each afternoon Mr. Huynh managed to get us back to Kon Tum just before the sky opened up with the daily, 4p.m. torential downpour!

The rubber plantations...

On our first "trek": Lunch, by the Dakbla (Black) River... a bit of a swim... and then going down the Dakbla River in a dugout canoe...

Our fave Kon Tum restaurant- the Dakbla Restaurant:

The afternoon of the second day, Mr. Huynh took us to Plei Ro Ghia, a Bahnar Village, and then Konhngor, a village of the Rongao people, where we saw the ox carts crossing the river at the end of a working day...

Mr. Huynh is an extraordinary and truly Young man, who, at the age of 51 (only 2 years older than I), has led a rather amazing life already... as has his family... He has an exceptional knowledge of the Highland's 400+ villages, and not only speaks English and French, but village dialects, as well, making him an excellent tour guide. We are SO fortunate to know him, and to have had him for our guide! If anyone deserves to be the Top Guy of Vietnam's burgeoning Central Highlands tourism, it is Mr. Huynh. He is truly a poet, as well, and when I asked him to write for me the names of the villages that we had vistied, this is what he wrote:

Where you were, for Elisse and Daniel:

Where you were the breeze whispers with grass, Birds singing in the thick jungle, River moving to ocean with the old saga, Sunshine reflects to the surface of stream, Where you were the nature hears you whisopering to each other, That is where your soul will never forget, A part of your heart would be here, The country of mysterious love.

Nguyen do Huynh

This last afternoon, being March 31 and the Night Before My Birthday, Mr. Huynh had asked if we'd like to have a special roasted lemongrass-chicken dish for dinner. We thought that a Fine idea, and I went up to change into a Festive Birthday Party Dress... We all met for dinner and rode (by motorcycle, in the rain!) to a small restaurant down a sidestreet that I could never find again in a million years, and seated around a table laden with the special lemongrass chicken, and thin-sliced beef and pork on the grill, dipping sauces, flatbreads, and bottles of (woo-hoo!) Hanoi Vodka (a nice, gentle saki-type drink, as it turned out), had THE most Totally Amazing Birthday Dinner I could ever have dreamed of! Mr. Huyn arrived with Marie, and presented me with a stunning bouquet of 49 red roses that made me feel like Miss Kontum 1959! That the dinner then became a Chinook Helicopter Reunion made it unbelievably wonderful... I will say only that this dinner party was truly the highluight of our 5 weeks in Asia- it was that extraordinary!
























We returned to the Dakbla Hotel via motorcycle, me clutching my bouquet of roses and a souvenier bottle of Hanoi Vodka...

The next day, after refueling ourselves with great Highlands coffee, we decided to forgo the 4-hour bus ride (one experiece we both felt we could live without), and took a taxi to Quy Nhon on the sea... Our driver was charming, stopping to get us cans of warm root beer, and for me to take

photos of some of the beautiful green valleys between the mountains. The road was Very Route 52-ish (a narrow, winding, 2-lane mountain highway), and Dan regaled me with his experiences on this road in a deuce-&-a-half, which must have been totally terrifying... Our driver, obviously trying to please us, played his one tape of Celine Dion over and over and over... He kindly chose our hotel for us, too, which turned out to be great, taking us to the Hoang Yen, a high-rise hotel on the sea. The neon sign looked to me from afar to read "Hang Ten", and that is what I will ever refer to it as! For $45/night we got a Honeymoon Room on the top floor with a small balcony overlooking the sea, as romantic a spot as one could ever want! Quy Nhon is a still-sleepy Vietnamese seaside resort, as well as a University town, and hasn't (yet) been discovered by western tourists, and it was fun to be the only tourists walking along the water past all the colorful fishing boats, watching the fishermen in small round dish-like woven basket-boats... and see the 40-year-old US Army trucks, still hauling stuff up and down the beach!

The view fropm our room...

We walked for miles, all over town, stopping periodically for Gin & Tonics at the rooftop bar of the "fancy" hotel overlooking the city and sea...

We found the city museum- complete with a "tank cafe"... and spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out where the US military runway was, until finally finding out it was now the 4-lane highway!

Quy Nhon's Hot Disco, however, turned out to be at our very own "Hang Ten", and we spent our last night in Quin Yan enjoying drinks, tropical fruit, and karoke, while watching the university students and off-duty soldiers dance up a storm to a thunderously pulsating techno beat that I can still feel! Dan even spun me around the dance floor in a Lindy Hop to the cheers of the karaoke-rs! As I noted before, the motorcycle helmet has become The Fashion Statement, and several of the disco kings were dancing in military-style steel-pot helmets, one even emblazoned with "M.P."! We had some excellent meals in Quin Yan, including one of local crab, and I just Had to try the local booze (the cheapest thing on our hotel's liquor menu, by the by...) Ruou Bau Da Nhu Tram, the specialty liquor of Binh Dihn. Deceptively, it came to us in a gift box, a tender, pale green porcelain "teapot", covered with delicate, violet relief flowers (which now decorates the Elkhorn Inn), complete with an adorable little footed ceramic shot glass... and turned out to be THE most stunningly powerful evil whisky either of us had ever drank! As in "Elisse had to drink it, because Dan wouldn't touch it" powerful! Truly Wicked stuff! :-)
Tune in again shortly for the Final Installment of "Dan & Elisse's Excellent Adventure!