So, let me begin by saying that it was definitely a trip. Trip does not equal vacation. Buuuut - it was still really fun, and Lang Co was super beautiful, so it was kinda too. I think it didn't seem like a vacation because I was with my coworkers the whole time, and it's just soooooo muuuuuuch WORK to try and talk to Vietnamese people all the time. But alas... I think I'm just grumpy.
(Rule #1 about blogging - don't write when you're grumpy)
I suck at following rules. So yeah - we hung out the whole weekend with my Vietnamese friends from work which, for the most part, was really fun. Saturday morning we took the tour bus up through the Hai Van pass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hai_Van_Pass), which is a really amazing and beautiful drive. See da pix. We climbed around on the old war buildings, looked out over the glorious sprawling beaches and mountains below us, yadda, yadda.
Then we arrived in Lang Co and get set up with our hotels at the resort. The resorts were pretty nice! Ours had a pool (which had kinda green water, I wasn't sure whether to trust it, but my friends were swimming so I jumped off the cliff too), but unfortunately no chairs on the beach. That's okay, there wasn't a lot of time for beach-chillin' anyway, because the Gameloft Team-building Games started... Wait wait wait - I'm getting ahead of myself. FIRST we all went in a big extremely hot room with our teams and made our flags, decided on our team names, etc. THEN we went and played games. The games were really fun - and played on the beach, which was nice. Except it was raining for part of the time. Oh well. I didn't get to play much anyway. Risa was having kind of a hard day so I opted out of the majority of the games to be with her.
After the games we had potentially the BEST body-surfing I've ever had. It's weird - body surfing is my first natural reaction to waves in the ocean. But it seems that Vietnamese don't do it! I taught a few guys how while we were out that day, and now they like it, but everyone seemed confused at my magical "riding of the waves" that day. Strange. Regardless, the waves were PERFECT and it was a total blast. Then we swam a bit in the green pool water. Then I had a 3 hour-long hallucination... just kidding. The water was fine. Then - the Gala Dinner, which was CRAZY.
I think one thing that should be understood about Vietnamese people in general is that they get really hyper, especially when they are drunk, and DOUBLE ESPECIALLY when there is music involved. I went to a heavy metal concert to see one of my designers' bands play - it was the craziest bash of insane energy I've ever witnessed. The Gala dinner was similar.
The Gala Dinner is a special dinner in which all the teams perform special "talents" or musical numbers that they had prepared previously. I let it leak that I play the guitar and ended up roped into participating in 3 different musical numbers. It was really fun! But... insane. The first number was for our whole team. We did a parody of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song that was about gameloft. I played the part of the Captain, and now some of the people around the office call me Captain. Awesome! I've always dreamed of being a pirate. The second song I did was "More Than Words" - my friend Hoang sang it. It was good. The third song I was part of was "Have you Ever Seen the Rain" by CCR. You can tell the Vietnamese don't really know the words (or what they mean) because the video that was posted on Youtube was labeled "Have you Ever Sing the Rain"! Ha ha ha! Amazing. Regardless, everybody cheered and screamed and danced so much - I thought I was a super star. Great fun. Video Link: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3717606614371&set=vb.1101921120&type=2&theater
After the dinner the guys wanted me to stay up all night drinking with them but... I passed. Risa and I stayed in the hotel room and watched "Vampires Suck" instead - it's a good watch.
Sunday morning was the best part of the trip. We went to this amazing Pagoda. I can't remember it's name. I also can't find it on Google. Sorry. It was up in the middle of the mountains overlooking an incredible lake (reservoir). It was amazingly beautiful. Pictures included. After that, we felt good enough to call it a trip and head home. So we did. There were a few other things, like lunch and shopping for souvenirs, but... you don't need to hear about all that.
Peace out! I'm going to bed.
1 comment:
Love the video - those coworkers of yours sure looked like they were having a great time. The photos are AMAZING! I can't believe you guys are actually there in the middle of them, that's like stuff you only see in nature shows or cool coffee table picture books. You're a really great guy to have taken a bit of time to spend with Risa - it's got to be hard to not know the language and feel a bit shy and alone so lots of brownie points on that one ;)
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