Not sure this deserves its own post, but it was such a unique and memorable experience that I feel I have to share. So during my south to north motorbike ride in Vietnam I had a short stopover in Kon Tum, an off-the-beaten-path small city in the Central Highlands known for its rich ethnic minority culture and French-colonial architecture. I think it was the hotel I stayed at that recommended this tour that took you around to different sites and offered a chance to visit one of the indigenous communities, the Bahnar people. Sounded great. The Bahnar are an ethnic group of about 300,000 and live in the provinces around central Vietnam. The name for themselves means ‘mountain people,’ and they speak their own Bahnar language. They live in village communities with the center of village life set up around a tall communal house used for meetings and festivals. Their villages are led by a council of elders. It just so happened that on this particular day they were having a huge celebration, typical during December once the rice harvest has been completed for the season. We bounced around to a couple communities where a lot of merriment was being enjoyed: eating, drinking rice wine through long bamboo straws, and karaoke. Now, I am not a big drinker. So what started out as ‘I’m just gonna have a few sips,’ tuned into getting pretty damn blasted. Along the way I met some cute French girls who were there for some kind of school thing, and interacted and attempted to communicate with all sorts of people in the community. It was a grand time. The day ended abruptly in the evening when a couple women started teasing me about the pimple I happened to have on my nose. Zits never have great timing. So with the combo of being drunk, tired, and probably at that point sorta over it all, I stormed off and (stupidly) rode my motorbike back to the hotel, leaving my tour guide in a state of confusion. I called him the next day and apologized. Regardless, it is a great memory and one I think about whenever I think of my time in Vietnam.
