Dalat - the Mtns of Vietnam

We arrived in Dalat fairly late - about 8 pm but got a room at the place we wanted (people in Saigon were raving about their breakfast in the morning so we had to check it out). Their breakfast lived up to the hype! The next day we walked around the lake that is in the center of town. Many people were fishing which made Ben jealous, but the lake was really green and had a lot of trash floating in it. Along the way we stopped at the Flower Gardens that had a ton of different flowers. It started raining a little bit when we left so we headed back towards our hotel. We did not make it far before we stopped to have a bowl of pho bo (noodle soup with beef) for lunch - something we crave every day here!

The next day we went with one of the Easy Rider's that are promoted all around town. They are a group of motorcyclists that can take you from Dalat to Hanoi (a 6 day trip) or just around town. We decided to take the one around town since they were asking for $65 a day for the long trips, and it was great!! They take you outside of town so you see more farm land, etc (Dalat was a French colony retreat in the mountains). We started by seeing the Dragon pagoda which had probably about 14 dragons throughout the architecture and gardens; then we went to view the town from a hill before seeing a local flower garden. Our guides were really nice and funny - one of them spent some time trying to find me the root they make Tiger Balm out of so I could see it. He found one and gave it to me as a souvenir - I did not have the heart to tell him I wasn't going to put it in my pack for the next 3 months so accepted gratefully. From there we went to see a coffee farm. Neither of us realized that Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world but it is everywhere here and our guys told us how they grow the trees and the process of drying them out, etc. Then we moved on to see how they make rice wine. It is a pretty basic distillery process with fermented rice and we tried some that was just made. 65% alcohol - I thought my throat was on fire! There were 2 of the largest pigs I have ever seen in the same room squealing like crazy because they had not been fed. I guess they get any left over rice from the process - pretty happy pigs if you ask me.

We loaded back onto the motos to visit the silk factory and see that process from beginning to end. The patience you would need to do that day in day out is amazing and they had some really cheap things that we bought; $10 for a pair of 100% silk pants. Then we went to the Elephant Falls which is about 25 meters high. We were able to climb into a cave behind the waterfall to see if rushing over us which was really cool but you got a bit wet. Right next to the falls is a pagoda that has the biggest and happiest Buddha (see the pic above with Ben in front of it). The Buddha is surrounded be various other statues and hydrangeas along with other depictions of Buddha. By the time we were done with all this we were starving and ate at a local place that was just a set meal of $1.50 each. They brought out more food than any of us could eat. Probably about 12 different dishes from Whole fried fish, chicken and veggies, to bitter melon soup and stir fried snails. It was probably the best lunch we have had for the least amount of money! To end the tour they brought us to the Crazy House in Dalat. Apparently the lady created it to be one with nature. We thought it was pretty cheesy and wouldn't really recommend it, especially if you had to pay the extra entrance fee. It is really just a lot of high narrow bridges winding to connect different bedrooms. Overall we enjoyed the highlands; next we are off to the beach!