Poodle and chips anyone?

We have spent the last week in Hoi An and Dalat. Hoi An is an amazing little city that is closed all day to traffic and only a short 20 minute bike ride to an awesome beach. At night the river is lit up by hundreds of lanterns and sipping a cold beer listening to live bands playing soothing music has made for some of the most enjoyable evenings we've had. We also took the liberty to have some suits custom made for us and, let me tell you, Tyler looked like he stepped out of of a 007 movie! SO HANDSOME! After a few days in Hoi An we headed to the central highlands of Dalat.

Our main purpose in visiting Dalat was to take a motorcycle tour through the country to see the "real Vietnam." Originally, Tyler and I both opted to ride on the back of a motorcycle since neither of us have ever driven a motorcycle of any description in our lives; not to mention the crazy traffic, monsoon rain, and variable road conditions. Tyler, however, decided he wanted to give it a shot. I was adamant that he should not ride the bike, especially after I went on a rather wobbly test ride with him on the back of the bike. He ignored my nagging and ended up spending the rest of the day on the bike and did an excellent job, way to go Ty!

The best part of the tour was interacting with some local tribes women and hearing them describe their lives in their native language. It was seriously a once in a lifetime opportunity and unfortunately describing it would take at least 20 more blog posts to give it justice. We also went to a local market where our guide explained how much a cat or dog would cost for dinner. He said people have them as family pets but sometimes when they get to be around four years old you just say (and I quote) "fuck it" and decide to make them into a meal. And sure enough, we have seen cages with dogs and cats for sale at the local markets (sorry animal lovers). We have a couple days in Saigon before we head to Malaysia where we will be wrapping up our trip and are very much looking forward to returning to the States!