May 27, 2008   Central Highlands, Vietnam
Ahhh, back to civilization after 2.5 days of jungle
hiking in the central highlands. The first 45 minutes
was a killer….hot and humid and steep-ish but it was
all downhill and flat after that. We’d paid close
attention to the leech advice….spray repellent
around the socks/feet/pants, tuck the cuffs into
the socks and keep the eyes peeled for eager looking
squirmers. We looked like real troopers. At the end,
I discovered that two sneaky leeches had wormed their
way under my clothing…one enjoying a lengthy snack
on my left thigh and the other filling beyond capacity
on the back of my neck. Grooossssssssss !!! It’s my
third experience with the little beasts and I have to
say that my heart has not developed any soft and
sentimental feelings in their direction. At least
they are painless and generally disease free. The
hilltribe visits were nice….we stayed in long stilt
houses on individual mattresses with mozzy
nets….unpleasantly awoken at 3 am the first night by
a mooing vs crowing competition between the cows and
roosters (“boy chickens”). Cows, as it turns out, can
be very, very loud….doesn’t help that they live
under the floorboards of the house. That went on for
ages…long before sunrise so I’m not sure what got
them going. After an extremely heavy rain and lightning storm and a filling dinner which included the best french fries any of us had ever eaten, the second night was much more restful,
A strong morning coffee, though,  is always a welcome
jumpstart to the day. Contact with the villagers was
minimal..the kids were pretty serious….not the usual
tribal visit but still a good experience. A couple of
the passengers took an elephant ride on the way out.
We were witness to a sick elephant tossing it’s
passengers (not our folks) off and laying down on the
ground. Now we are back in the city…famous coffee
region in Vietnam ….and SHOWERED !!!! Ahhhh, the
feeling of cool water all over the body…and clean
clothing…….so nice.