"Always ripped or always stoned, I made it a year, I'm going home."

That is what the inscription on my new zippo lighter says. It's a poem(haha) written by an American soldier describing his time in Vietnam, and I love it.

I'd like to make this very clear:
VIETNAM IS AWESOME.

For the last 3 days, Kfir, Joanna and myself have been zooting around the hill city of Dalat and having a really good time.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, Dalat is about 1500 meters above sea level, and the temperature ranges from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius(Ok, maybe I didn't say in those exact words but you know what I mean.). It is very chilly for the south-east, and a big shock for us as well. Dalat itself reminded me a lot of Canada, only with the insane traffic and zillions of scooters everywhere. The sunlight shone like at home, and the air was crisp like home as well.

The Vietnamese people continue to amaze me with their kindness and hospitality. It's nice to go to a restaurant and not have any of the workers speak any english and have to kind of point at things and hope for the best. It keeps day to day activities fresh, and there's also a lot of laughs involved for both sides.

A few days ago Kfir and I woke up early-ish and took our bike to Lat village, a little farm town twelve Kilometers outside of Dalat. Lat village is home to Lang Biang, one of Vietnam's highest mountains, and one hell of a hike for me and Kfir. We paid 7000 dong(45 cents) to get into the park, and were not allowed to drive up to the first peak, because the park has drivers that charge you 150 000 dong to do the driving for you. "Pffffffff" we said, "it's only a few Kilometers", so we started walking the 2 Kilometer paved road uphill towards the first peak. About 5 minutes later, we both agreed that it would take too long to get there, and decided to hail one of the passing farmers who get in for free, and ask them to give us a lift for far less than the park charges. So we hailed a woman down, and through a series of awkward gestures and showing her different amounts of money, we agreed on a price of 50 000 dong(about 3 dollars between us) for her to take us as far uphill as her bike would take us. I should mention that Kfir started his trip in Bangkok, where in was getting his Muay Thai boxing training certificate, and was so good he finished months earlier than he expected. He is by no means a small guy. The woman started to drive us and after about a kilometer and a half, the bike started to sputter and choke at our girth, so I hopped off and started to push us just to get to the top of one of the hills. Eventually, the bike wouldn't go any more, so we got off and thanked her. We had saved our selves 6 dollars, right owwwn. When we got to the first peak there was a sign that said we had another three kilometers to trek before we got to the top, but we were ready.

It was really hard work, and through the thickest jungle I've seen yet. I could imagine how futile it must have been for the poor U.S. soldiers to have to fight an enemy in those kind of conditions. One thing that I thought was funny is that the Jungle actually smelled like the Rain Forest cafe and the Butterfly Gardens, or the humid reptile section at the back of pet stores at home. Giant tree roots grow under and over the trail, and the jungle is so think that you can barely see anything other than the trail you're walking on. The mountain actually has three peaks, and the third is the highest, and also the most grueling. The trail started to go almost vertical on the way up the third peak, and the dirt turned into mud, and we had to hang on to trees, branches and roots to go further up. It really was a lot of fun to climb up, and definitely a test of my endurance and will power to keep on going. Even Kfir, who is a professional boxer and ex-Israeli army soldier, was getting worn out. Albeit, he was doing it all barefoot because he had crappy flip-flops on, and also because someone we met along the way told him he wouldn't be able to get to the top without better shoes. Never tell Kfir he can't do something, because he won't accept he can't do something, and he'll do it whatever it is, to prove to himself he can.
I think there's a lot I can learn from my new friend Kfir.
Anyways, as I was saying...

After 3 hours of trekking, we made it to the top, and the view from the peak(2400 meters) was spectacular. We could see Dalat and it's surrounding communities, and the amazing jungles and valleys that surround it. We took a few pictures of us triumphantly standing on the top, although Kfir hates getting his picture taken(the source of much amusement to Joanna and I), so I took one of him with his camera, not mine. We had bought a few baguettes and cheese at the base of the mountain, and had lunch on top of Vietnam.

The way down was much more difficult than the way up. This was because the way down was the almost vertical mudslide we had had such a fun time climbing. It was a bit sketchy, but at least I was wearing shoes, unlike Kfir. I slipped and slided my way down the steepest part, and after that, my legs turned to jelly. My legs have never been very muscular, maybe that has something to do with how little I exercise, but I've been trying, I swear. Anyway, point is, the mountain turned my legs into jam, and after two more hours, they had jiggled me down to the bottom of the mountain.

All in all it was an incredible experience, and I hope I'll have more chances to do some more hiking while I'm here. Not that there isn't enough hiking to do at home or anything.
That's that,
I'm out.

-Ben