Dalat

We could not book a flight from Hanoi to Dalat ~ they were all fully booked ~ but stand by had worked so well from Nha Trang to Danang (to get to Hoi An) that we went to the airport anyway. We got standby to Saigon figuring we could always take the 6 - 7 hour bus to Dalat, and then after waiting for 2 hours in the airport we ended up getting standby to Dalat and did not have to take the grueling bus trip. A taxi from Dreams Hotel (we had prebooked rooms there for 3 nights) picked us up from the airport and drove us to this much much cooler mountain town at 1,500 meter (roughly 4,500 feet). Dreams booked us a flight back to Saigon for 4 nights later because we decided to stay another day.

Dreams was a friendly hotel, with a great breakfast, clean comfortable rooms and a street view from our tiny balcony.





We went for dinner at a local place across from our hotel and had a great Vietnamese meal. Then we went up to The Hangout Cafe to meet up with Tuan from easy-riders. We had been solicited by guys with dalat-easyriders as soon as we got out of our cab and again on our walk up to The Hangout, but after talking with Tuan we decided to go with his guides for a ride around the area in a couple days.

After Vietnamese coffee and tea at a local place across from our hotel and family style breakfast at our hotel, we spent our 1st day walking around Dalat.






We visited the Hang Nga Crazy House, a completely untraditional and unique artistic guest house still under construction after 20 years.













We visited the market,



and bought our very own motorcycle helmets.


Now Brad can ride a motorcycle OR fly a helicopter ;-)
(Don't take this the wrong way ~ these helmets are very popular with locals!)

We had a snack at the Peace Cafe (and hotel), and then confirmed our motorcycle guide arrangements at The Hangout. We ate dinner at a tourist restaurant featuring Chinese food on the lake.

After another family style breakfast and stop at the Vietnamese coffee place, we walked up to The Hangout Cafe and met Hinh. I hopped on the back of Hinh's bike, and Brad hopped on his own. We drove out to the countryside and visited a flower farm,







a coffee farm,





(stray avocado ~ they were everywhere!)

a mushroom grower




and rice wine maker,








where we had coffee and tasted rice wine.




We visited Cuong Hoan Traditional Silk Center,














walked down to Elephant Falls






and up to Linh An Pagoda with a Happy Buddha.






We ate lunch that Hinh ordered for us at a local place along the road. Lunch was delicious; and we are pretty sure the pigs were there for lunch (their drivers, that is) rather than as lunch, but they were certainly on their way to be someones lunch in the future.









(This dog seemed to have no idea that one day he may be the main dish at a celebration.)

and then drove back to Dalat.




That night, we went to dinner with Hinh and his wife at a locals restaurant that we never could have found on our own. It turned out that Hinh and his friend Kim had driven our friends Greg and Sally (from the IIFET conference) from Nha Trang to Saigon the previous week. What a small world!

Our ride with Hinh was so much fun that we booked directly with him for the next day.
Dalat Adventure Tour (but he tours and arranges tours all over Vietnam)
Tran Thanh Hinh, Professional Tour Guide
dalatadventuretours@yahoo.com
www.dalatadventuretours.com
mobile: 0919.550443 - (+84)919.550443

Hinh met us at our hotel (well, we were at the Vietnamese coffee shop across the road again ~ we can't get enough of the stuff :-) . Again, I jumped on the back of Hinh's bike and Brad rented Hinh's friend Kim's better bike for the day.



We went to the meditation center on Quang Trung Reservoir, and then drove around the reservoir to see some aquaculture,




and watch Hinh's friends fish,




had coffee at a wildlife preserve on the reservoir,








(This elephant used to work for his dinner by helping a farmer carry things out of the jungle. When that work dried up, he had to find something else to keep his meals coming.)

took a bobsled type ride down to Tiger Falls,






had lunch at a fresh spring roll place,



(Later, when Hinh's wife saw that I had taken lots of pictures of the rooster in the restaurant because it was unusual to me as roosters are not allowed in restaurants in the USA, she found it even more unusual that neither roosters or any other animals would be allowed in a restaurant!)

Then we visited Lat Village,



had more Vietnamese coffee, got a guided tour (local prices) of the market, and met up with Kim and Hinh's wife for fresh beer and snacks.


Một, Hai, Ba, YOH! (that's 1, 2, 3, drink; and they say it all the time)


Everyone wears a helmet on their scooter or motorcycle so they have a lot to choose from and accessories for some. How do you like our girly sun visors?

It was at this fresh beer joint that I finally had the opportunity to learn some very useful things to say in Vietnamese. In addition to the cheers above, I learned:
Tôi vui quá (I am very happy);
chút chút (little bit ~ very helpful when the Một, Hai, Ba, YOH! is a bottoms-up);
and the ever useful Tôi là mèo đôi nón (I am the cat in the hat ~ now I can say it in 3 languages :-)

After the language lesson, they took us to local hot pot restaurant, where we squeezed in with lots of people on small chairs at small tables and ate the most unusual food we had eaten so far, washed down with rice wine. At the fresh beer place and the hot pot restaurant, the locals were intrigued by Brad and kept toasting him with enthusiasm.

The next morning, we shared a cab with a French couple back to the airport and took our last flight on Vietnam Airlines to Saigon ~ our last flight for which we did not have to remove our shoes or produce our liquids for separate inspection.