DA LAT BACK TO THE HCM, BABY BABY!

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!
I awoke the next morning and peeled off my itchy plastic/styrofoam floral printed sheets (singular) to greet the day. I hopped into the bathroom shower, steadied myself against the nearby toilet & turned the strange shower motor contraption all the way to HOT. The space-age looking and stone-age functioning apparatus had a better idea. "How about this", it mocked "let's make a deal. I'll give you freezing cold water imported direct from the Arctic circle and you can just stand there turning my myriad of purposeless knob, questioning where the hot water reservoir could be, until you give up and stand there shivering and accept that you've booked an $8 hotel room." Defeated, I agreed.

As much as I wanted to hang out in my hotel room, it was time for me to do some of my own adventurin' around Da Lat. I wandered the streets amidst glances, stares, and the occasional Vietnamese shout out- apparently a 6'-4" tall lanky white guy gets alot of attention in Vietnam- actually, based on my travel experience, make that anywhere besides Western Europe. But especially in Da Lat.

CENTRAL MARKET: DELICACIES ABOUND
This white boy wandered his way to the central market, the more "local" or "ghetto" of the two markets. Descending the staircase into the market, I was immediately greeted with various large steel bowls holding nearly every Vietnamese delicacy: live toads, mounds of water snakes, thick eels, huge slimy catfish, and of course, Vietnamese dog- skinned and broiled. As a good American, I of course did my democratic duty by purchasing one of each of these animals, took them down to the lake, and set them free as a "freedom ritual". Each animal thanked me and happily swam off- except the dog- he just sank.

I continued through the market and found some great fresh apple-pear tasting fruits. I didn't ask, I just ate. And they were good. Real good. I left the market to book my bus back to Ho Chi Min, leaving Da Lat at 2pm, so that I could get back in time to go clubbin' up in da HCM. No- not by myslef- as if I desired a repeat of my CLUB RAIN experience- because I had met a kid named Ahn who worked at a restaurant in HCM who said a group of his friends were going out dancing on Saturday night at the "best clubs in the city", and that I could crash at his place for the night for free. At least that's what I was led to believe. So I hopped on the bus and got awesome time to read, write, and pray- all amidst frequent & sporadic horn-blowing from the bus driver.

Good news about not having anyone to talk with- you get time. It was incredible- I got to pray all the way through the alphabet for different people by first letter of first name. This method works out well for people with names with less common letter- let's just say Ingrid and Zald have gotten alot of prayers.

AHN: NOT WHAT I EXPECTED
I arrived back in Ho Chi Min and met Anh at his restaurant. Then he took me to find a hotel for myself- ok, not what I was thinking, but that's cool. After I checked in to literally the worst hotel I had been in yet, we were off. Off to some club that definitely really wanted to be uber swanky. Kind of like CLUB RAIN, but not as crappy. They definitely had the fruit platters. This is when things got strange.

Ahn took us to the bar, inquired about the price of a bottle of Jack Daniel's- 1 million dong ($57 U.S.). I told him I didn't want a half bottle of Jack Daniels. So Ahn proceeded to order 2 beers for us, and then looked me to pay. Reluctantly I did.

I kept asking Ahn where his friends were- he kept telling me that his friends would meet us soon. They never came. Ahn also kept telling me that I was "handsome man". I didn't think it possible, but he situation was actually getting weirder. After some awkward amount of time, Ahn informed me that it was time to leave. We went on our way- apparently to another club. But first we had to stop at his restaurant. I told him I was going to another bar. That's when I made my get-away. Luckily, I escaped and made it to my hotel room- alone. Thank God!