Bike Tour

Four days, three nights. What an adventure. I am biking through the central highlands with a group called the EasyRiders. We started in Nha Trang, are now in Da Lat, and tomorrow end in Mui Ne. The jungle is amazing. It is like every movie you see, but better. I have pictures, but while it can tell a thousand words, I will never be able to describe the sound of millions of black crickets in a jackfruit tree. I can't explain the sweet sour tase of a slightly unripe passion fruit picked off the tree. The smell of the jungle and the feel of the cold damp breeze. It is more than magical. Today sitting in a restaurant a parade passed us getting ready to celebrate a Buddha holiday. There are beautiful colored flags and monks galore! Monks are in fact like regular people. They joke and wrestle and have a good time like everybody else. I have seen monkeys and lizards and elephants and everytime I jump up and down and squeal, the boys laugh at me. They are used to these amazing creatures and would be awed by things we find commonplace - deer, moose, gophers. (Gophers are apparently a BIG DEAL something about a British cartoon in the 80s) This tiny country is full of the most amzing things you can imagine - even the bugs are sometimes cute. At the waterfalls I saw one that looked like it had a pink blazer on with a bow tie and everything. And I finally found the food I was looking for! If you go down a street and up the next, down the steep alley and then down a flight of staris, you will find the most rowdy group of 'football' wannabes in the world. Everyone is a Man U fan of course. That is one thing that can bring any culture together. One that tears it apart? The war. We stopped at the place where the Americans used Agent Orange, and the devestation is still obvious. But as the locals say: Vietnam is shaped like a chili pepper because it is spicy. Nobody can win. Nearly every house has a flag in a united stand against any country that wants to pick a fight. These people are very happy the way they are and need nobody (US....) to tell them to change.