Hey all,
Conor here. So on day 7 of the trip we set out with our fearless driver, Hoang, and two guides, Rut and Bein, and went out to visit the villages of the central highlands in Kontum. Our guides both spoke the language of the tribes so they showed us around and helped us communicate with the villagers. We had some great moments trying to catch pigs, sitting down with a blind old war veterans for a chat, and playing games with the local children. After a few hours of touring the villages we set down for lunch in one of the villagers homes, where we enjoyed some rice, cucumbers and a fish head and frog casserole. It turns out that just after lunch the wedding ceremony of some local villagers was taking place. The whole village showed up to enjoy a band and copious amounts of local alcohol. Each family brews their own rice wine in a large clay jug. They call it Jesus wine because drink it out of the straw, then you poor water on the top, and drink some more wine out from the bottom. Thus turning your water into wine. Anyway, each jungle brew was different as some were sweet and others very very strong. Being the only foreigners in the village, everybody wanted us to try their homebrew, so it goes without saying that one or two of us got a little tipsy off the jungle brew. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that halfway through our time at the wedding, Trent was playing the guitar from the band, and Miaken was singing. So in front of the whole village the two Christiansens (backed by the vietnamese band) were singing Poison's 'Every Rose Has It's Thorns' and congratulating the couple on their wedding. It was hilarious.
Once our time at the wedding was over we headed up to another village for the night. We enjoyed a trek through the jungle, a swim in the river and a ride on a canoe before heading in for dinner at our longhouse. We had a more standard Vietnamese meal inside our hut: rice, various meat and vegetable dishes, and fruit. Hoang, however, brought his own little treat to dinner. He pulled out an old 2 liter water bottle full of cloudy liquid with some stone looking things in the bottom of it. Now, Hoang being a man who likes himself some whiskey, told us he spent 2 million Dong (about 160 bucks) for this strange beverage. That much money will go a long way in Vietnam so we were very intrigued. The guides told us that the brew is fermented for 100 days and the stone-like things in the bottle were deer antlers. So this beverage is made with deer antlers. If it was good enough for Hoang to spend that much money on, it was good enough for us. It was very strong and very strange. That is all there really is to it.
Anyway, after the meal the chief of the tribe came in with a bunch of gong players and dancers. We sat down with the chief and drank rice wine with him out of a clay jug to get the evening started. Once that small ritual was over, the gong performance started. We all enjoyed some tribal music and Jungle brews until we decided to set up our I-pod and put on an American performance for the chief and his tribe. We obviously decided on doing the Robot to The Safety Dance. To my great surprise, the chief was not offended. So we continued to dance and drink with the chief and the tribe until very late in the night. We eventually set up our mosquito nets and went to sleep in the longhouse. Thus ending the most epic day of the trip so far. Stay tuned for more adventures.
Cheers,
Conor
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