*Caution this is a really long post.* Sorry!
Last year in July 2012 I was going crazy in Korea. I was close to finishing my first year here, I found out I had to switch schools and I also didn't have enough time to go home and see my family. I had been planning to go home in August for 2 weeks, but because of my Summer Camp I only had one week off in August. That is not enough time for me to go home and see everyone so I had to put that off until Christmas. At this time everything about Korea was driving me crazy as well. I go through different feelings here, most of the time I LOVE living here, then there are times it's ok and I feel like whatever works. During July though I didn't like being here at all.
Too many things where changing, some of my favorite people where leaving and I didn't know how my life would be come September. Basically I needed some time away from Korea. The problem was at the time I had my break no one else could travel with me. Moving to Korea was the first time I left the USA so going to another country all alone was also scary. When I went to Taiwan I meet up with my friend and she took care of me. So I was thinking where can I go when I had a friend invite me to her house.
This wonderful friend her English name is Jojo. I had never met Jojo in real life. We met on a website about k-pop music. We both love the group SS501 and one of them has a radio show that is on at 2 a.m. here in Korea. For me in the USA that was 10 or 11 a.m. so I listened to it all the time. I found a website that streamed the show and they had a chat at the bottom of it. That is where Jojo, Erika, Hikari and I became friends. Erika and I are from the USA, Hikari is from Algeria and Jojo is from Vietnam. It was always so much fun to listen to the show (even though NONE of us spoke Korean) and chat about other things happening in k-pop, the radio show or just life.
I know this is a long explanation but I just want you to understand why my mom was a little worried about me hopping on a plane and heading to somewhere I don't know and to see someone I have never met. Nevertheless on the plane I went and off to Vietnam I went for a week. I left August 7, 2012 and got back August 15th at 6:45 a.m. and made it to work by 9:00 (only 20 minutes late) and I even stopped home to drop all my stuff off.
My first stop was a flight to Ho Chi Min in the south of Vietnam. From there we got on this small airplane and headed to where Jojo lives in Da Lat.
The airport in Da Lat was so small. This is the only baggage place in the airport, so now I know why the airplane was so small.
As I left the baggage claim area I was very relieved when I saw a girl who looked like Jojo from her pictures. At that moment I was like, I don't even know if she speaks good English, what am I doing? Lucky for me she speaks English so good so that wasn't a worry. She and her dad where there and they asked if I was hungry, and I was so we went and had chicken and rice in town before going to their house.
Jojo's family has a farm. They grow a lot of fruit, so much of the fruit was things I have never seen before. When she handed me this I thought it was an artichoke, boy was I wrong. You peel off the out side and there is this amazing white fruit on the inside.
Here is an example of the fruit they have there. The top left fruit I hear smells really bad. It was too expensive I didn't try it (but from what I hear that is ok.) The purple fruit below it though was amazing! In the middle is a white ball and you eat it and it tastes so good. I tried so much new fruit and I was a bad tourist I didn't learn the names of any of them. So you will have to make due with the pictures.
The first day in Da Lat Jojo wanted me to see all the sights. The way they travel is on scooters. I don't have a scooter and I didn't have a drivers license so I hired a driver to drive me everywhere. It equaled about $12 for the whole day. It was worth every penny too.
The first stop we went to was Prenn Falls. It cost 20.000 VND to get in (about $1) and it was worth it to see all the green trees. The falls where so beautiful. If only I was better at taking pictures.
We walked around to go behind the falls and along the way we found this rock with a dragon on it. I thought it looked awesome.
Jojo and I stopped to take a picture with the falls behind us.
We crossed a bridge to get to the other side of the river. I was a little worried at first because I wasn't sure if the bridge was safe, but it was.
I loved how beautiful everything was there. The flowers where so vibrant. Da Lat is known for their fruit and flowers, now I can see why.
As we where walking around the park we found a place that would let you drink fresh coconut milk. I have always wanted to try this so I was excited to drink it.
It was good and after we drank it they cut it open so we could eat the meat on the inside.
As we where walking around we found a place that let you ride animals for an additional fee. The first one we saw was an ostrich. There was no way I was going to ride an ostrich so I just watched the group of Russian tourist ride them.
Then we saw you can ride elephants. This is something I did want to do. How often do you get to say you rode an elephant. It was about $15 to ride the elephant but I thought why not, I'm on vacation.
Unfortunately we couldn't get a picture of us on the elephant unless we wanted to pay $20 for the picture. So I took this picture while on the elephant. The elephant went down some steep parts and at times had me worried. I forget they know how to keep their balance and they do this all the time so really we were safe the whole time.
The gardens all around where so green and beautiful. It was exactly what I needed to help me relax.
Now one with Jojo and me.
Next we went to one of the summer palaces of the last emperor of Vietnam. His name was Bao Dai. I was so surprised when I saw it. I wasn't sure what to expect because in Europe a palace is huge and has many rooms and is very decorative. In Korea it is made up of a lot of smaller buildings with a wall around it. So when I saw this I realized it is pretty modern compared to what I was thinking. This one was built and finished in 1922. I am sure that at the time this was very swanky.
This was one of the sitting rooms for the emperor. He used this area to entertain people, mostly foreign visitors.
The gardens where beautiful of course.
Another stop we made was at Da Lat train station. I loved how colorful the windows where. It was so funny because I don't think they get a lot of blond westerners visiting there so I had a few groups of people ask if they could take their picture with me here while we waited for our train ride.
Checking out the old trains they had on display.
I think my grandpa Williams would love these pictures.
Sorry dad I am still in Asia so I had to do the two finger pose.
It was beautiful to see the country side as we went along on the train. I love all the different colors they make their houses. I also loved the mix of western and Asian style architecture. This area had a lot of influence from the French because for many years it was ruled by France. You can see a lot of their influence was left in culture and even their food. The bread I ate there was amazing!
The train dropped us off here and told us to come back in 20 minutes for our train ride back. We decided to follow the tour group of Korean students to see what there was to see in the area.
This is what we found. They are temples and they where beautiful.
They are decorated all by hand. They take glass and break it and piece it together to make the coloring. It was amazing to see. Jojo and I hiked to the top of this one and there was a golden Buddha at the top.
This one was amazing to see. I couldn't believe the detail they put into it.
This is from the top of the one we hiked to the top of.
If you look in the background you can see they are adding on to the building. There where many people working hard breaking glass and adding it to the building.
It was awesome to see the farms. They have so many mountains so they can't farm like we do on flat land. They make levels along the mountain and grow their food that way.
Here I am at the end of the day with my driver. He was so nice and when we would get somewhere he would either look around or lay on the scooter and take a nap.
To end the day I got to hold Jojo's nephew Yoni. He was only a few weeks old and he was so adorable.
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