Dalat

Well I'm writing belately about this adventure but I'm going to attempt to keep the writing in order of my appearance in these places!

The sleeper bus bounced into the beaches of Natrang early in the morning. This was apparently the site of one of the bigger and early beach invasions that the US took part in. There are definately no remnants of that as the curling waves and beachside resturants produced mellow hawaii like vibes. I do believe that exiting a sleeper bus is a prime example of the lowest functioning brainwaves possible. Most people are looking around dazed as the sleep you hopefully snatched in fitful spurts has been interrupted by bumps on the road and honking that never ends. Watching myself and the students wake up as we stumbled into a courtyard to begin bathroom breaks and breakfast. This organizing takes all mental abilities I have and I soon realize that I will have to treat myself to a strong local coffee...

As the sugar and caffiene surges into my body I eat a omlet and look at the beach. We shuffle along to another bus which takes us past huge hills covered with granite boulders and cliffs. Then the travel gets vertical as we begin the ascent to Dalat, a mountain town of about 5000 ft in elevation, resting in a beautiful valley. This town is also the local honeymoon capital of Vietnam and there is a lake in the middle of the city where we were told numerous times that lovers walk around.
A hotel is procured by a task force of students and we settle in for a few hours. A run around the lake by Nate and I begins and much to our surprise the lake has been drained and is now a pile of mud where locals were pulling clams from as they walked up to there waist in muck. So there went the romantic run but the rest of the city was full of restaurants and hotels but it felt different because so many of the tourists were not Western but Asian or Vietnamese.
We dined at the chocolate cafe that night which was the best presentation/meal combo we have had yet. All for the cost of 10 us $ for 3 people!
Up the next few days were some adventure activities. Day one was Canyoning. We walked down a paved path to a waterfall. There was a roller coaster above our heads, rock music playing and vendors lining the path to this scenic wonder! It seems many of the waterfalls are like this in Vietnam. Once we passed this waterfall however we entered a canyon were lush pine trees mixed with jungle vines which curled and were strung from rock precipices along the walls above us. We quickly learned that we would be rappelling down waterfalls and into pools!
This was enough of a scare for the students to cause them to bond together and form a supportive team for all the folks who were pushed to their limit. Being scared and lowering yourself down a rushing waterfall was adreniline pumping and as we watched them going down with bulging eyeballs and looks of shear delight/fear we called out and encouraged as a cohesive group! The final water fall was aptly called the washing machine and as you lower yourself into a chimmney of rock with water knocking you around you experience a disorienting feeling where you have to trust in the process and know it will be okay!
Mountain biking and more good meals followed the next few day!