Vietnam 2008: Dalat

Other links:
Vietnam 2008: In a Nutshell
Vietnam 2008: Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam 2008: Cuchi

Day 3: Dalat

We took the overnight coach and arrived at Dalat at 4am. I think it was about 10°C.

In Vietnam, the sun rises at 6am and sets by 6pm. Hence, all the shops open early (as early as 6am) and close by 9pm (latest). In the small highland town of Dalat, it is like a ghost town at 4am. There's virtually no nightlife at all. Even the hotels were closed. You gotta ring the bell to wake the owner up in order to enter.

With some help from the locals at the bus company where we alighted, we got a cab to take us to Dreams Hotel (I read that it's really good). Unfortunately, it was fully booked. We asked the cabbie to take us to our second choice hotel, Thien An Hotel, but he took us to My Dreams Hotel instead. But ya know, it was 4am in the morning, it was dark, it was cold, and we were exhausted. We didn't really want to argue with him about any hidden motives (as in him getting commissions from the hotel to take us there) so we checked the rooms, thought it was okay, then checked in immediately.

My Dreams Hotel
US$12/night

As you can see, all the buildings in Vietnam are very narrow and tall and long. Reason is because in the past, people were taxed based on the width of their shops.

After a couple of hours of sleep, we got up again at 7am to try to book a day tour that very day. Thankfully, we managed to get last minute tickets to the 8am tour.

With only about 30mins to spare, we went to the nearby coffee shop for some Pho.

Super nice beef Pho.

We came here to eat again the next morning.. hehe...

We stopped at the roadside for awhile to take some pics.

View from the roadside overlooking the villages below.

100% original and no digital editing. Credit to God.

The flower farm

Nice flower

Coffee plantation
Dalat is one of the world's major exporter for coffee.

It was the harvesting season.

Coffee beans are actually red and green in colour. They only become brown when you sun them.

A little roadside stall next to the river

The river... I don't know what's this thingy for but it looks nice.

After which, we headed to the silk worm factory. My much anticipated moment. I told Kh that I wasn't going to do a tour if the tour does not cover the silk worm factory and Elephant Falls (to be shown later).

Harvested silk worms. They look really cute and fluffy. Like cotton wool. ^_^

These ladies will boil the silk worms then take out their thread and attach it to the spinning wheel which will become rolls of thread for weaving later.

Dead cocoonless silk worms

Weaving the thread into silk cloths.

Along the way to Elephant Falls, we dropped by the minority people's clothing store.

They were weaving some stuff with this thingy, using weights to change patterns. I think it's so cool.

View of the waterfall at the top

After that we trekked down a rocky, slippery path down to the bottom of the waterfall.

As you can see the climb was quite scary. And of course dangerous. One fall and that's it. We had no safety harness.

Elephant Falls

Then we climbed into a small cave to get to the back of the waterfall. This pic shows kh climbing out. As you can see, my camera was really wet!

Behind the waterfall

After which, we climbed back up the hazardous path and took a short walk to a temple nearby.

Linh An temple

the temple's courtyard. Nice view.

Then we had lunch at a restaurant in the minority village with our tour group.

Our tour group.

Australian mother and daughter and Czech couple.

There were only 6 of us. Almost like a private tour. Tour groups in Dalat are kept small because of the rough and steep roads which big buses cannot handle.

Yummy lunch

After lunch, we went to visit the rice wine factory. It was a house+factory+farm altogether!

Oink oink!

the steamer

How to make rice wine:
1) Cook rice and put them in water. Ferment for 3 days.
2) Boil it in a steamer and use cold water to condense the vapour.

The rice wine comes out from a tap which collects the condensation.

Shortly after taking this pic, the owner of the factory poured a cup of rice wine for us to try. Everyone passed the cup around and took a sip (except me, I no longer drink alcohol) and then passed it back to the owner. And guess what? He just poured the leftover rice wine back into the container! As far as I know, chinese people use rice wine in their cooking. But in Vietnam, people actually drink it like wine. Alcohol: 40%.

And in one room they used rice sacks to cover the jars of fermented wine so we couldn't actually see what was inside. On top of the rice sacks, there was a bowl of noodles. It's funny how sua ku ang mohs are. The Australian mum asked,"Is that how it looks like in there?" And I was like,"No, that's their lunch." -_-" And she was really embarrassed. Lol.

Then we went to visit a village...

One of the houses there.

A real well. As in, it leads to an underground source of water.

The kitchen in one of the houses.

The tour guide just brought us to a random house to take a look around. There was nobody around and I felt like we were intruding their space. Isn't this like bulgary if say I were to take a piece of their charcoal? *shrugs*

The village church.

I'm not sure about this one, but the churches in Vietnam are mostly Catholic. Probably due to its French influence.

We got free bananas from the guide who picked it up at the mama store. They were orange in colour and tasted really artificial. Like banana essence.

Then we went to Crazy House. It's basically just a house with very strange architecture. There's a long history behind it. Every room in the house is different. You can actually live in the house. Rates are about US$32 per night.

Crazy House

The Gourd Room

Can't remember the name of this room.

These bridges can actually be crossed. It's a little scary though.

Our tour ended early at 2pm instead of 4pm which is good because that left us with a lot of time to explore Dalat on our own and we could push our schedule ahead. Our tour guide was very kind. We asked him if he could drop us off at the cable car station instead of at the tour agency and he said ok. He not only asked the driver to send us there, he got the driver to wait for us at the cable car station till we were done and then send us back to our hotel.

the cable car

LP described this place as "not for the faint-hearted". I was a bit apprehensive after reading this. But having gone through the ride, I seriously have no idea why they said that. If I were to make a comparison, I would say the Sentosa's one is scarier. Don't ask me why.

View from the cable car

Dinner at Wild Sunflower restaurant as recommended by LP.

Good and cheap!

Night scene of Dalat town

Vietnam's post box.
I think I must look super retarded and sua ku taking a pic of a post box. But I think these are the little things that make a country unique and special. =)

Banana shop

Then we got back to the hotel to sleep as we've got a morning bus to catch to Nha Trang.

Next post, Vietnam 2008: Nha Trang...