When I was originally planning this leg of the journey I had expressed interest in doing the tour on the back of a motorbike with my luggage strapped on the back . My husband Eric however pointed out three things; firstly I hadn't been on a motorbike (and that was actually only a trail bike) for 31 years, secondly - it is the rainy season in Vietnam and the traffic is known to follow the rules of 'anything goes' and 'lets play chicken', and thirdly - the fact that I am a shopaholic. So I revised this plan by email with Mr Kiet in DaLat and organised a 4WD instead . This was a great move as by this stage I had accumulated 30kg of luggage!
As I dragged my luggage ( luckily on wheels) to the arrival gates I saw a friendly smiling man holding up a sign with my name. I breathed a sigh of relief as it is always a bit worrying when you are in a foreign country and are not really sure of anything. Our guide took us to the vehicle and our bags were jammed into the boot and onto half of the back seat. We were also piled in, Liz in the back and Mirta and I in the second row. I didn't realise that I had also engaged the services of a driver. Our guide Huung had very proficient English and regaled us with the history of DaLat as well as giving us an itinerary for our day trip.
Huung explained to us in detail regarding each area that we would visit that day. As the car climbed higher up the mountain he explained that he would take us to see the one minority group that lived here, if I remember correctly they are the Lat people. ( I will gather more information regarding this at another time) Anyway there we were just enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden Huung burst into song. Although we couldn't understand what he was saying we could see that he was very emotionally welcoming us to DaLat. We were speechless! What more can I say? It is not everyday that a perfect stranger performs such a beautiful ballad for you at such close proximity. We applauded him in wonder and he told us that it was the minority people's welcoming song inviting us to join in with them in daily life forgetting all troubles and just enjoying the experience . We asked him if he was a minority person but he told us he was Vietnamese and had learnt this song at church in the choir.
Our hotel in DaNang had obviously not served breakfast at 4am so we asked Huung if we could stop somewhere for breakfast. After some negotiation (he wanted us to go to a 50 dish buffet) we settled on a local bakery where I could purchase a much longed for Bahn Mi Thiht ( baguette with pâté, roast pork, chilli, coriander and cucumber) and the others some French pastries. We dropped off our bags at the hotel - apparently if you are with a guide you can drop off your luggage. The hotel was incredible it was probably over 100 years old and had a phenomenal display of old cars, motor bikes and other memorabilia.
Next exciting per tour stop 'Lien Hoa Bakery' this jewel of a place had three levels. We were ushered into the first level and given trays, actually my travelling companions were given trays, I had made a bee line to the Bahn Mi with Huung in tow to ensure I was not given the bland Western version. My other choice was simple just a plain croissant to have with my Vietnamese drip filter coffee. We were directed up the stairs past the soup/ pho level to the drinks level which had a spacious seating area. We elected to sit on the balcony at benches facing out towards the street. What a superb spot to sit we soaked up the morning sun whilst observing the city springing to life. The buildings made us think of Europe but the honking of car horns and the hive of activity going on with the ladies selling food from their yokes was clearly Asia!
Huung and the driver were patiently waiting for us after a quick detour back to the hotel as one of our group had incorrect footwear we were finally of on our journey. Our first stop was a flower nursery where we marvelled at the lush expanse of gerberas, oriental lilies, carnations, roses, statice and gypsophila. Liz and I nearly came to blows over a yellow rose which I snatched off her for our Easter themed photograph!
The next stop was the Weasel Coffee plantation. Yes you read correctly this was a place where both coffee and weasels are farmed simultaneously. The coffee is grown in the normal way , arabica, mocca and robusta all flourish in neatly planted rows. Come harvest time the beans are picked by hand and now come the exciting part. Some of the beans are dried, flavoured and ground but some of the harvest is fed to the weasels who merrily excrete them after their bodies have digested the red pulp off the out side. These poops are very valuable and Liz bought some of these scats for $35 for 100grms. She bought them very lovingly for the love of my life, I do apologise Eric I did not buy you weasel poop I bought you a dragon kite instead .
Rice wine was next on the list, eww evil stuff, I had already had the experience of it burning the roof of my mouth at Yen Duc Village. I had a little sip to be polite it was 70% alcohol and I think the only person who would like it is someone who was using it to chloroform insects. At this venue they also had weasels in teeny cages, they stunk terribly and looked so stressed out that I was pleased that I had not been swayed by the sales person to buy some for my husband.
We then went to the place where I had a panic attack. Elephant Falls, admittedly a very beautiful venue but the walk with no railings over slippery rocks where one wrong foot would let me plummet to an untimely death was horrid. To tell you the truth I don't know how I made it back to the grassy area at the top. My legs felt like jelly and I had to stop myself from shaking. The minority women felt sorry for me and got me a stool and fanned me, they were so concerned about my stress that they didn't try to sell me anything, which I found really touching.
We were briskly dragged away from the sweet ladies up a huge flight of stairs to a working monastery where I saw three students who were only 17 according to Liz and 16 according to me. Behind the monastery was a garden depicting the life of Buddha I found this very interesting as I never knew that prior to Buddism the Nepalaese were Muslims. Further up the mountain we saw the statue of the happy Buddha, he was an enormous concrete creation with such a huge smile that he did indeed make me chuckle, and bit by bit my nerves from the horrendous climb dissipated.
The Silk Worm farm was the next stop, this was so interesting. I was already aware that silk worms only eat the leaves of the white mulberry. However I was not aware that the cocoons were stored on large bamboo racks and fed shredded leaves each day. Each cocoon had enough silk spun adoring it to make at least a kilometre of silk. This silk was taken off the larvae by immersing it in boiling water, the odour was on par with that of the weasels and I had to shallow breathe through my mouth.
Huge spindles spun the silk into usable thread and it was dyed or woven into patterns with an automatic weaving machine. It was great seeing the finished products and I was delighted to purchase my daughter and future son in law a matching scarf and tie. I would have bought more but the smell was inducing a headache so I waited outside, Quite soon we were comfortably ensconced with in our air conditioned vehicle, on our way to the final attraction of our tour. This was the Crazy House!
I had see this incredible building on Trip Advisor and was amazed that it had no right angles and was constantly eveolving. The architect, a tiny woman in her seventies was selling tickets at the door - a bargain at only $2 each. Her father interestingly enought was Ho Chi Minhs successor. Tbc
No comments:
Post a Comment