-= Duong, Thao & Diep Anh =- » Trips

Our marriage videos

bố Béo — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:18:55 +0000

After a couple of days wondering around Premiere Pro I have finally managed to compact our marriage video into something smaller that can be uploaded to YouTube. The original goal was to make a single video but it turned out to be quite awkward to achieve since there are quite a number of events included. Thus, the optimal solution is to turn it to 2 parts and here they are.

Part 1: start from the groom family, marching to the bride family to formally ask them to accept me as their son-in-law and heading back to the groom family for my family to have Thao as the daughter-in-law.

Part 2: start from the groom family, going to the hotel where the major of the ceremony is held. This is the place where all of our family relatives and friends are welcomed and they went here to congratulate us.

Our trip to Da Lat (part 2)

bố Béo — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:58:58 +0000

On Wednesday, we set off to exploring a couple of famous waterfalls around the city. Da Lat was located on the top of a hill in a central highland of Vietnam so it was not unusual to have a lot of falls around. I have not been to any fall for a long long time (probably around 10 years). Our destination was Prenn fall but we first stopped at Datanla. It was funny because on the way to Prenn, we found a sign on the road requested that we all have to wear the protection helmet if we want to continue. Being a safety conscious person, I decided to go back and borrow twos from my hotel but I was quite surprised to be told that well you really do not need the helmets for that road That was good I thought and we went back to the way we initally went for. Datanla was a strange name because it is not really Vietnamese but it could be from a local minority language. I never found out . Here we tried a different method of entering the destination, an user controlled rollercoaster ride. It was fun but it could be more thrilled if the car before us did not stop too frequent. I could understand why they did though (the driver was a girl :D The fall was nice but there were lots of people at the base so we took off to climb to the top. The view was secluded with forest around us and a clear blue sky. Next was the Prenn fall but this time, we were less impressive with the fall. It was not as beautiful as Datanla and the cable car ride was not good as well. However, there are one thing that no other place had so far, a real elephant and we could ride on it. Without doubt, we set off on a trip on the top of the elephant and take a hike through the small surrounding forest. The elephant was still small I think and she is really like eating, during our hiking, she stopped for a couple of time just to grabed the leaves and ate it. We both enjoyed the ride but later on Thao was afraid of going close to the elephant and she did not dare to give food to her at the end We then changed to a minority group costume and took pictures around the scene. It was interesting but the costume was very dirty It was after mid day when we get out of Prenn so we decided to have lunch there as well, we stopped in a restaurant and there we tried some delicacy including porcupine and some strange bird. To be honest, they taste like crap After lunch, we off to hotel to have a rest then we headed to the love valley (Thung Lung Tinh Yeu). It was beautiful, the best place we have seen so far. It was so beautiful that we have decided we will surely go back here one more time the day after to ride on a water bike. The view was fantastic and the deeper you entered the valley, the more beautiful it presented to you. Most of the time we were alone to enjoy the secludeness and the natural scenery. The final day in Da Lat, we went to LiangBiang. The highest area in Da Lat and consisted of three mountains. If we have time, we could spend an entire day just to climb up one of this. Nonetheless, time was a constraint so we hitched a hike up the top of one mountain. Again, we were impressed with the view from the top. We could spread our view far from the top and one guest had told us, on a clear day you could see the beach hundreds kilometres away. We tried but we failed. One thing interesting from this trip was that we meet two more families, one from the south and one local. So combined we formed the whole of Vietnam. It was very nice talking to them. In the afternoon we came back to the love valley to take a water bike ride on the lake. It was quite an idea and interesting experience since it was a heavy rain on that day we got all wet. I bet you never had an experience of being totally alone in the middle of a big lake and surrounding you was a heavy rain. At the end, the rain keeps getting heavier and heavier and we decided it was better to get off the lake This marked the end of our stay in Da Lat. It was the most romantic city that I have ever been to. We went here during a wet season so a heavy rain every afternoon was something not so strange here. The scene around was nice with lots of lakes and trees. The hilly landscape was also added to the beauty of the area. The days we have will be the days to remember.

Our trip to Da Lat

bố Béo — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:19:50 +0000

Thao and me set off on a sunny sunday in Hanoi to catch an 11.30 flight to Da Lat. She suggested that we should use the public bus service instead of a taxi and I listended to her. To my impress, it was very good: a nice and comfortable ride. Plus, it only cost us 10,000VND instead of a 200,000VND taxi fare The flight itself was not bad eventhough the plane in use was a Fokker 70. Upon arriving at Lien Khuong airport, we used an airport bus to get to Da Lat city center, which took about 1 hour to get there. As we have not planned a hotel beforehand, we took the advice of the taxi driver to let him to recommend us to a good hotel that he knows of. It was a good place 2 minute walk from city center. The price was also ok but it was the result of the negotiation between Thao and the owner. The only minor issue was that we have to walk up and down 4 storeys to get to your room

After a short rest, we stepped out to have a dinner with vermicelli in the same street as our hotel then we walked to the city main market and towards Xuan Huong lake. The air and surrounding was completely different from hanoi. The temperature was around 15-17 celcius and it made us feel that we were in a very big air conditioned room. Upon entering the market, we was quite surprised to discover that no much fruits were selling there, not anywhere close to what Hanoi could offer. Xuan Huong Lake was a beautiful scenery with calm and the water was very clean. We took a ride on a horse cab for about 30 minute and it was quite comfortable. The next day we rented a motorbike and we started our day with a visit to Da Lat city flower garden. To our disappointment, it was not as good as we had expected, perhaps we did not arrive at the right time! Nonetheless, it was still beautiful and the view was terrific. We heading to Than Tho lake, the one that Thao really forced me to go there to wash my hand for some reason that she insisted on It was beautiful and not that far from city center. We took our first ever ride on a real horse and it was an experience. In this matter, Thao was probably better than me but for only a little The scenery is really great with a central lake cover a pine forest in a hill. I dont know how to express the beauty of it but to us, we were very impressed. And last but not least, I did washed my hand in the lake, just as Thao insisted

We then set off to Truc Lam Thien Vien, a temple situated on a high hill. The objective was not to visit the temple but to ride using the cable car as Thao really fond off even before we planned our trip. For me it was also the first time I went on a cable car and to be honest I was a little bit concerned with the safety but it turned out just great. The view was fantastic and we were able to see the city center from far distance and we could see down below us the cabbage field as well. The temple was an ordinary one with no impressive feature. However, the surrounding garden is totally different. The tree, the landscape and the view was very good. Upon going back to our hotel we catched a big big rain and we all get caught. Only with a nice shower that we got back to normal (to be continued …)