Vietnam OEP 2006 Part III: Strawberries and Stripes

[Quote of the post] "When you are labouring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself."
[Song of the post] I Love Rocky Road - Weird Al Yankovich

14 January 2006
In the morning we visited the Vien Sinh Hoc Biological Research Institute. I couldn't really understand what the guides were saying in their thick accents, but the exhibits just had a lot of models of endangered animals in Vietnam. I didn't bring my camera, but I got some of my friends to take pics of me in various poses with the animals. They were quite funny, but oh wells.

And that's where I bought Stripes! He's a cute plush tiger which only cost 60,000 VND which is about SGD $6. Whee! He's like my new pet. Darrell bought one too, but his was only 30,000 VND and was half the size. Ha! KW named him and gave him a ribbon, but that was later on, after...

The trek up LangBiang mountain was such the funnest thing. It's one of those activities which you will remember for years and years to come. First there was a 4X4 van to bring us halfway there, then we had to trek up the smaller hill and down again before climbing up the bigger one. I was helping Boey both up and down the steeper slopes. He's not a very good climber; I think he slipped twice on the way down. I did too. It was lucky that we were helping each other, or we would have both slid downhill all the way.

And here's something I wrote in my reflections. When we were climbing up and down the hill, I noticed that when Boey was helping me up, he didn't have to pull very hard. It was like, just the knowledge that someone's there to help you if you fall is enough to keep you from falling.

We overshot our schedule by about 2 hours. We were supposed to have lunch at 1230; it was 1430 when we arrived at the foot of the hill, and we were the last group. And we got cold lunch and they ran out of drinks and I had to try soda water. What a reward for the people who stayed behind to help, huh?

After that it was a rush throught the Strawberry farm and the Valley of Love. At the farm I couldn't like see the strawberries when I looked across the field on the account of my colour blindness and stuff. But when I went to pick them, it was actually because there weren't many red strawberries; most of them were unripe and white.

And the Valley of Love was rushed too. We were only there for 15 mins to take some pictures and that was it. It was a wonder we were able to do our descriptive writings at all. And I got attacked by the bronze eagle. Ask Shaun for a picture.

After dinner that night was our only night-event, where we went to Dream Hill and attended a Gong & Cheing Special Performance. It was performed by one of the Vietnamese ethnic minorty groups, and they danced and sang around a bonfire. And I participated too! It was fun, dancing with the people there. And the Jarrel Seah nonchalant walk! That was super funny! XD

End day 3!