The five hour bus ride from Nha Trang to Dalat was pretty uneventful aside from when we stopped for a bathroom / food break and I fed a pet monkey who was perched on a stick with a chain around his neck. Poor monkey.
I had no idea what to expect from this city called Dalat. All I knew was that I had been drinking Dalat wine for weeks and that was good enough for me to visit. Dalat is a bit inland and home to mountains, coffee plantations, rice wine breweries, flower gardens, and waterfalls.
When Rich and I arrived, we hitched a ride to a guesthouse mentioned in my guidebook and then negotiated with the owners on a price for the room (typical SE Asia style). Our new room was a master suite with two huge king sized beds, a private bathroom, a dining area, and a view of what I think is the best street in Dalat; full of cute restaurants and shops. All of this for only $4 each a night... jackpot!
The kiwi and I settled in and then set off to walk the city. We checked out the local markets selling all sorts of live animals- chickens, ducks, fish, eel, snakes, crabs, butchered meat, vegetables, fruit, basically anything you could ever want. We tried some dried fruit and picked up some Dalat red wine to try.
The city is known for their vast quantity of beautiful flowers they grow and we were lucky enough to stumble upon a flower festival which was going on next to the lake in the city. We laughed about the cheesy swan paddleboats in the lake, and 20 minutes later were paddling in one. The lights in the city reflected off of the dark lake water, it was nice to feel so at peace.
In the morning Rich and I took a tour to see rice fields, indoor flower gardens, coffee plantations, and a few other sights around. We learned how they grow / produce coffee ,including one way which involves having a weasel eat the bean and then harvesting the bean from that weasel’s poo later before cleaning, heating, and steaming it (which is one of the most expensive coffee’s in the world).
After the coffee stop came a rice wine “factory”, which was really just a man’s backyard / garage where he kept twenty 50-gallon plastic trash-can containers full of fermenting rice. You should have seen the pets pigs he had... they were each at least 300 pounds and the laziest pigs you’ve ever seen! I figured they must be around 5 years old because of their size, but when I asked the owner he proudly said, “1 year”. His secret? He feeds the pigs the leftover fermented rice that he no longer needs. So, basically, the pigs are drunk on fermented rice all day and night.
Another hour passed and we watched brooms being stitched together by old Vietnamese ladies and wooden baskets being weaved and assembled by Vietnamese men. From there we stopped at a mushroom farm and learned how mushrooms are grown in moldy hanging plastic bags. Our last stop before lunch was to see a temple and one of the largest waterfalls nearby named “The Elephant’s Tears”. To get to the waterfall we had to hike down rocks and jump from one large boulder to the next. In our group was one other gentleman, but he headed back to the van after taking one look at this route. Rich and I explored around and it didn’t take long before we felt the mist floating in the air from the falls. In five minutes we were soaked with water and slipping and sliding on the wet rocks. The falls were absolutely stunning; pictures can not do this place justice.
For lunch we dined at a restaurant on the side of the road and ordered 10 plates of food between five of us. We had fish soup, steamed and fried rice, stir fried vegetables, beef, fried chicken, chicken wings, tofu, spinach, egg rolls, and noodles. We were seated on the terrace overlooking a river and some nice hills. A few locals were fishing off the ride of the ledge and every once in a while we would hear some excitement and watch as the smallest fish was pulled out of the water, unhooked, and showed into the fisherman’s pant pocket for his dinner later.
Just when I thought I couldn’t eat another bite, fresh watermelon slices were brought our or dessert and I had to indulge. As we were finishing up our meal, Lusa and her motorbike gang arrived at the same place! We caught up about our past couple of days apart and she told me how much she loved driving a motorcycle through the countryside mountains and grasslands. Both of our tours visited a silk factory next and we discovered how silk worm cacoons are heated, unraveled, and threaded to make silk rolls. I held a silk worm and a hatched silkworm (which resembles a moth with a gremlin face). They flap their wings as fast as a humming bird but never lift off the ground, they can’t fly.
After such a long day I was exhausted, but we had one more sight to see. I fell asleep in the car and awoke in front of the “crazy house”, a famous architectural site in Dalat. Now gallery/hotel/tourist attraction is a house built around trees with winding staircases and across unnecessary bridges. Its fun to look around and explore inside the structure. From the outside it looks similar to the architectural style of Gaudi who did the Sagrada Famalia and other sites in Barcelona
For dinner, Rich and I sampled some tasty street food (thin pancakes with breakfast veggie omelet ingredients inside) and then checked out the wine festival which was taking place on the other side of the lake. Unfortunately, we were misinformed and thought all wine samples would be free. After squeezing past hundreds of Vietnamese, we asked the vendors for some free wine samples and they asked for $2 a pop. Sorry wine ladies, we’re backpacking and just don’t have that kind of money.
In the morning it was time for Rich and me to say our goodbyes. He was headed north to meet up with his brother and friend from back home; while I was headed to a beach town called Mui Ne, where I heard there was not much to do but relax on the beach. Just what I could use after a few busy weeks of traveling.
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