Dalat Trek

The board broke underneath me. My right leg dropped. 30 feet below was a shallow river. I had signed up for the “challenging” trek, and challenging was what I got.

It all happened so fast. I clenched the thin, steel cable railing with both hands. I lifted my right leg onto the previous board–where my left leg was. I took a ginger step forward to the next board, hoping for the best. It was sturdy. Thank God. I looked up to let everyone know I was ok.

I still had about 75% of the bridge to cross. And most of it sloped sideways at a sharp angle. I was optimistic though. I proceeded with caution, never letting go of the cables.

I made it across without falling. I had a scrape on my right shin, but other than that, I was ok! It was thrilling, yes, but no more bridges for me today, please. Thank you.

The trek environment was beautiful. It’s a few miles outside of Dalat, a small town in the central highlands of Vietnam. It’s eternally spring here, since its elevation is high, and its latitude is relatively close to the equator. It reminded me of Northern California–partly sunny, partly cloudy (the big bushy cumulus ones), temperature near 70, and a cool breeze–perfect hiking conditions.

This trek was the most demanding one so far. We probably hiked for six hours and ate lunch for one hour. Most of it was uphill (I don’t know how they manage to do that). We had mangos for lunch, and I devoured a few. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, had sore thighs, and felt a cold coming on. But it was an awesome workout. I’m glad I did it. And I would recommend it to anyone.