We took the bus from Saigon to Bao Loc on Thursday night – arrived in Bao Loc about 12:30am. Long bus ride. Thao was sick. We were glad to get to the hotel.

Out to breakfast Friday morning with our friend, Duy Anh, who was getting married in Da Lat on Saturday, and her parents:

Thao and my Vietnamese teacher, Co Phuc, at breakfast (Duy Anh works with Co Phuc at my Vietnamese language school, VLS, and they are good friends):

The countryside around Bao Loc – it’s always strange to me to see mountains in Vietnam because the area around Saigon is so flat:

At the Damb’Ri waterfalls outside of Bao Loc:

That pink dot in the center of the photo is Thao:

See?

Thao and Co Phuc make their way (slowly) down the hill:

Wifey:

Hubby (or as Thao says, “Husby”):

Don’t get jealous, ladies:

Thao takes a photo of me taking a photo of this Vietnamese family at the waterfalls (with their camera so they could all get into the photo together):

Thao and Co Phuc:

The cable car we took down to the lower falls:

Thao at the lower falls:

Thao was carrying a plastic bag around with a banana in it – the banana was for Thao, not for this monkey (we did not know that there even were monkeys at these waterfalls). Anyway, this monkey snuck up behind Thao and snatched the bag out of her hand and made short work of Thao’s banana:

He and about three of his family members also nearly made short work out of me. They were all sitting there on some rocks and I made what I like to describe as “polite vocalizations and gestures of greeting from one primate to another,” but which others might describe as “hooting and screeching while simultaneously making threatening movements toward a bunch of wild monkeys.” Whatever you want to call it, they didn’t like it, and there is really only one word to describe what they did to me next: bumrush. Four of those damn monkeys bumrushed me – baring their teeth, holding their little clawed hands up at me and making trachea-ripping-out motions at me while screeching at me at the top of their foul little lungs. I did what anyone would do in that situation – which was to haul ass out of there as quickly as possible. Thao and Co Phuc got a good laugh out of it, and Thao later imitated me running away in what, again, can really only be described as “high-stepping.” Although I wasn’t conscious of it, apparently I was running away and kicking my legs up as high in the air as I could. Again, I didn’t even know I was doing it, but I guess subconsciously I was trying to get my legs as far away from those little heathen bastards as I could. I wish we had that on film. Anyway . . .

The view from the top of the falls:

Thao at Damb’Ri:

Our three xe om drivers (motorcycle taxi drivers) and me:

On the way back from the waterfalls, we stopped at a Buddhist temple that was founded by the famous Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. It was in a beautiful location. Here’s the view from the back porch of one of the little houses there:

The big bell they used to call the monks to assembly:

Part of the main temple:

This nun was chillin’:

Tailless cat:

In most parts of the world, you see a tailless cat and probably assume that it is a Manx cat which is naturally tailless. In Vietnam I see a tailless cat and I assume that someone has eaten the tail.

Little stall at the market in Bao Loc:

Co Phuc bought a basket:

This old bitch will sell you a birdcage:

*I don’t know why I called that woman an old bitch. It just sounded funny when I typed it. Although it reminds me of this photo and caption from my trip to Myanmar back in 2008:

I like this photo for some reason – in my mind this woman is looking at that other woman coming down the street and saying to herself “Here comes this bitch again.” Why that is in my mind I have no idea:

Okay, back to Vietnam.

Big photo of Duy Anh and her husband at their wedding outside of Da Lat:

Under the tent at the wedding party:

It was a very hot day – not really sure why this woman was wearing this hat, but I liked it:

Thao, Dr. Ugly, Duy Anh, and her husband:

After the wedding on Saturday, we went on to Da Lat and checked into our hotel, which was right on Xuan Huong lake, the big lake in the center of Da Lat:

*Note that the lake has water in it.

But also note that, in this photo taken at the same time but from a different angle, the lake appears to be a little low. I remember noticing that at the time but – as I’ve never seen the lake before – really didn’t think anything of it:

Contrast the above photos with the following photos, which were taken about 12 hours later, on Sunday morning:

They drained the damn lake. The lake that we could see from our hotel room. They drained the damn thing the weekend we happened to be there. I asked someone “How often do they drain this lake?” and they replied “Once every twelve years.” ONCE EVERY TWELVE YEARS!!! So the weekend we pick for our weekend in trip to Da Lat, and for which we arranged a hotel room with a view of the lake, was the one weekend every twelve years they drain the damn thing dry. Co Phuc said we were lucky, because any other weekend it would have just been a normal weekend in Da Lat and the lake wouldn’t have been any more interesting than usual. I understand what she’s saying, but since I had never even seen the lake before, I feel like seeing it in its normal, actually quite attractive state would have probably been just fine for me.

This was our little “lakeview” chalet:

If you look carefully, behind the chalet you can catch a glimpse of the festering mud pit we paid extra to obtain a view of.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now – got to go to bed. I’ll put a bunch more photos and some videos up in the next couple of days. I’ll leave you with this teaser: