This day was awesome. Took Chuon and hopped on the motorbike to head to Tà Cú Mountain (height of 649 meters) for a hike and some great views. In hindsight, I felt bad taking Chuon because this was not an easy hike. The walk from the parking lot to the ticket booth to the entrance took at least 30 minutes. In dog years, that’s 3 and a half hours. I wouldn’t want to hike a mountain after a 3.5 hour walk either. I’m glad you came along though, cause the story is so much better with you there.

Most of the hike was either rock steps, or unmaintained dirt paths. I read somewhere that the park no longer cleaned the hike ever since cable cars were built. It’s a shame, really, because the hike is awesome. If the park could keep it litter free, the experience would be even better. I’ve never seen so much trash during a hike.

Well, 10 minutes into the hike, Chuon just gave up. He literally just laid down and refused to attempt to even move. Poor guy. Also, monkeys took a very scary interest in Chuon. One was eating chips out of a chip bag, and when s/he saw Chuon, his jaw literally dropped and then dropped the bag. I guess Chuon could be quite tasty to them? Unsure, but I went into protection mode and didn’t let Chuon out of my sight.

This hike took me 1.5 hours. Later on, I read that it should only take an hour. However, during the hike up, I thought it should have taken only 30 minutes because I was informed at the ticket booth that the hike was very, very easy and would only take 30 minutes. Vietnamese people must be great hikers, cause it was not as easy as she made it sound, nor could it have taken me 30 minutes! Maybe if I ran up, but there’s no way I could have done that. It was 100+ degrees that day and I ran out of water 3/4’s of the way up. So for about an hour of the hike, I thought I was lost because it should have only taken me 30 minutes! A little over an hour in, I’m a little worried (more likely a lot worried, but I want to sound tough here) because now I’m way over the time limit, and I hadn’t even seen a single other person yet.

Now my mind is thinking ridiculous things like “will I be devoured by mosquitos, am I seriously lost in a jungle, will I die of dehydration, no longer will I ever think I’d be a great contestant for Naked and Alone, how do I fight off monkeys from eating Chuon, will monkeys try to eat me?!” My mind is crazy. In the end, I ended up finally running into a group headed down, who told me that I was towards the end. Whew. I survived the wild (but not so wild) jungles (may not even be considered a jungle) of Vietnam.

Got to go surfing today! Overall, it was a success. I define success as “having made attempts to try to stand on board.” So, huge success. I think my Insta post sums it up pretty well (video of me falling into water while board flies into air).

Today’s going to be a short one. Another short one. I feel like I’m writing this just as a task more than anything. I’m not quite sure if I’m enjoying writing these, but I’ll keep going to find out. The interest is still there. I think…

So today was the first full day of CoderSchool’s getaway. I went for a run on the beach, ate often, and generally just chilled all day. Lunch and dinner was prepped by the entire team. Really delicious! I felt like I was eating with family. At night, we grilled outside and hung around on the street like hoodlums (not really). Someone even busted out a karaoke mic. Asian inventions are the best.

Read the title. I don’t think it should be cheating. Since this is my blog, I make the rules. Only pictures equals no cheat! But going to write something anyways.

Walking around Charlie’s office (again), I ended up strolling into an area where people were wearing traditional Vietnamese dresses and taking pictures. Instead of asking anyone what was going on, I just also took pictures of people taking pictures. I’m not sure why I like candid shots including the photographer, but I occasionally take them.

Below are a couple other shots I liked that day. Nothing special. The most important thing I actually did this day was to rent a motorbike. But there’s more to that tomorrow.