Today i taxied (grab ®️ ed) a ride to the airport and caught a flight ($50) to buon ma thuot... which I'm sure needs no intro haha. Followed by a driver taking us 30 mins into the mountains of dak lak. Really pretty area where mountains meet rice patties.

We were dropped off at the end of a lane way to a country farm house and as we approached i realized very quickly i was not the average bear here and perhaps i would not be able to fit in.
Everyone stopped what they were doing like the music abruptly stopped and stared directly at me. Yie, what had i decided on? It was this or a cool beach town that looked like cabarete. Everyone who knows me at all knows what a hard decision i had made.

People approached me with bewilderment in their eyes and warm smiles on their faces. I was like a rainbow unicorn haha. Kids giggled near me and wherever i walked, all eyes were on me.

Dinner time finally came and we were seated at a 10 person table, full of platters of food, a hotpot, and a case of beer at my feet under the table. I think there were maybe 150+ people? I was asked several times how much beer i could handle lol.. unaware of exactly where that was heading... BTW, this is at the bride's family house.

My newly acquired chopstick skills failed me badly. They weren't ready for this kind of public scrutiny. The woman next to me very quickly recognized my struggles and charitably transferred some food from table food platters to my bowl. Yie what a relief. Every eye was watching me struggle to tap my chopstick ends together while catherine whispered words of encourage to me like a teacher to her student. Embarrassing!

Then the parade of people showing up at the table, cheering me, started. Different males walked up, smiled at me, beaming with their bravado and tapped glasses with only me. They wanted me to drink beer with them but i didn't quite understand what was incomplete in their eyes each time. They wanted the whole glass drank in one go.

At first the groom expressed a lot of concern for where it was heading with me but then he sat me at his table with his best friends and egged me on to chug beers too. And by the end of the night he adamantly expressed how much it would mean to him if i could stay for the entire 3 day celebration of this union until sunday. Very touching.

Every male came by before leaving to shake my hand and every female waved with a warm smile.. i swear i am (much!) more popular than the wedding couple. Then i was given a place to sleep on the floor under a mosquito net in front of a buddhist shrine to finish my night. I was the only person in the shrine room.. no idea if that was by design. But was a nice way to end a really crazy night here.Read more