Exhilarating,Day,near,Lat,Fren travel,insurance An Exhilarating Day near Da Lat

Like any American, traveling occasionally is just what I love doing and I bet you share the same stuff with me. But traveling does not mean that you would be safe. Escaping from our job and other stressful activities is just something that w Torres del Paine is among the biggest of Chile’s national parks, occupying almost 600,000 acres (242,000 ha) of land in the south on the border with Argentina. It is also among the most important, receiving a significant proportion of domes

(A French tourist told his wonderful trip in Da Lat and gave useful suggestion to others) I climbed a mountain today. Probably the oldest, fattest American everto climb it, and I can hardly believe I did, but I did. We havepictures to prove it. We signed up for the "easy" trek withGroovy Gekko, an outdoor tour company right next to our hotel here inDa Lat. Mercy. We went straight up the side of a mountain. No steps, nowalkway, just tree roots and dead pine needles to give you traction.Our ever cheerful and encouraging guide Thanh and my companion Josephboth supplied a helping hand or shoulder for balance at times, but Iactually made it all the way up on my own legs. Paradise Lake from mountainOn the way up, a local Vietnamese mountain climber passed us as if hedid the climb every day (I suspect he just about does). Later he cameback down holding a bright yellow yard-long poisonous snake over hishead. He let us "pet it" all the while Thanh was explaining to us howdeadly it was. At the top we took in the view, had our picturetaken by one of the Buddhist monks camping at the top of the mountainwho graciously broke from his meditation to come take pictures of thethree of us at the summit, and then we each ate a couple of bananas.Okay, time to go down the other side. I was hoping for a more leisurelyway down. After all, this was the "easy" trek. But, alas, no. Ifanything, the way down was steeper than the way up. After timidlyprogressing 20 yards or so down, I was ready to accept that I may justhae to stay there, and depend on passing Vietnamese to give mesomething to eat and drink now and then, and perhaps bring me a changeof clothes now and then. Luckily, our guide had a better idea.He was carrying a plastic tarp for us to sit on for our lunch later inthe day. Instead, I used the tarp as a sled, and SLID on my butt DOWNTHE MOUNTAIN. Thanh said he thinks he may have hit on a new sport–buttmountain sledding–for his company to promote. Needless to say, once wehit on the trick, going down was much faster than going up, and my rearend is only a little sore from the couple of times I completely lostcontrol and shot out into mid air for a few seconds before coming downto earth again. A bit about our guide: Thanh is a recentcollege graduate. He's been leading these tours for about two years. Hetold me he's lived in Da Lat all his life, and went to college there,but that his parents are from the north. Other than English, he alsospeaks Russian, which he said he studied in college primarily becausehis grandfather, who studied in Moscow, told him not to take it becauseit was too hard. I suspect grandfather was perhaps applying a littlereverse psychology there. Fishing in Paradise LakeThe whole trip today was truly incredible. Before the real mountainbegan, we went through a small family-run pineapple and coffee farmwhere I had my first taste of berries from a coffee tree. And after ourdescent we had lunch next to Paradise Lake in a lovely park filled withan amazing collection of flowering trees and shrubs, and with hundredsof butterflies, with seemingly no two butterflies alike. Afterlunch, we shared a boat with a passel of drunken fishermen to crossParadise Lake. They kept trying to convince us to share their wine, andtwo of them couldn't resist the urge to rub the fat foreigner's belly.I told Joseph my tummy should be pretty shiny by the time we get backif people keep rubbing it at this rate. One drunken fishermen stumbledand almost overturned the boat at one point, my reaction to which theyall found very amusing. Once across the lake, I faced the lastchallenge of the day, a 222-step climb to the largest Buddhist templein the southern part of Vietnam (another way of saying it's the secondlargest Buddhist temple in Vietnam). The place was just crawling withmonks and nuns. If I remember right, about 250 live there. We got tolisten in on a class taught by the head monk, an 84-year-old wholectured with a very VERY tranquil voice, which was nice to hear afterour challenging day. It was only after our climb up the steps, and atour of the place, that I discovered the aerial tram that takes mosttourists from Da Lat on an easy ride right up to the temple - no stepsrequired. Sigh. The Crazy House in Da LatAfter the temple, we jumped in the tourist company van and headed backto the hotel for a shower and to drop off my dirty clothes at the frontdesk for the evening laundry service. Then a stop at the bakery, andthen finally here for beverages and a little Internet time. Today was a truly amazing day. The last time I did a rough mountainclimbs like this was in northern China, again a long climb up amountain to visit a temple. I have friends who actually do things likerock climbing on purpose, but for me, walking up a mountain is almostalways something I find myself surprised to be doing, not something Ido by choice.) For that mountain in China, I was much younger, lighter,and more vigorous then - maybe 18 years ago or so. I'm not sure howlong it will be before I try this again. Right now, though, I feelGREAT. We'll see how I feel in the morning. Tomorrow's outingis sightseeing - mostly by car. I understand that a couple of the stopsfeature a lot of steps, like the temple today, but after today'smountain, that will be like a cakewalk. The Chicken VillageIn general, I'd not recommend heading to Da Lat for these "sights." Butthe surrounding countryside is beautiful, and if you're into hiking,biking, or motorcycling, this is really a great place to visit, and theweather's a real break from the sweltering humidity of most of Vietnam.A number of outfits here will rent you motorcycles or bikes so you cango exploring the surrounding mountainous terrain or your own, or evencycle or motorbike all the way back to Saigon. I have searched oninternet and found an attractive website about adventure Activetravelvietnam. So cool! I like Kayaking tour, I should come to Ha Long bay soon, I can't wait anymore. If we have time tomorrow, we'll head for a southern district of Saigonthat's supposedly just crawling with monkeys. Who can pass up hangingout a few hours with a bunch of monkeys? Not me! More information about Adventure tours, please view at: www.activetravelvietnam.com www.bikedalat.com