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Dalat and Nah Trang March 1st - 5th
After our heavy day
of touring in Saigon, it was quite a pleasant change to be in Dalat. We booked tickets
with a government owned, tourism company called Sihn Caf?. For 25 U.S. dollars, we would
go by bus to Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoian, and Hue, cities running north up the eastern coast
of Vietnam. We could spend as long as we wanted in each town and the buses that ran daily
would pick us up. Our first stop, Dalat, was located in central mountainous highlands. It
was a welcomed, cool breeze that struck us as we exited the Sihn Caf? luxury bus. It
reminded us of temperatures not felt since trekking in Nepal. During the war, Dalat was a
lush, green, get away, used for training officers of the South Vietnamese Army and the
Viet Cong. Therefore, it was one of the few places relatively unscathed by the damage the
rest of the country received from the bombing. Dalat is surrounded by green mountain
peaks, semi-clear lakes, and bountiful nature reserves. We were also happy to see the
famous Vietnamese coffee fields in this region and were awake into the wee hours of the
nights after doing some sampling of the local brew. Once again we were surprised to find
such contrast to our preconceived visions of Vietnam.
The evening we arrived, we walked down to the main market
where Dalats main exports - coffee, fruits and vegetables - were on sale in plentitude:
raw, stewed, pickled, preserved candied or fried with noodles. We tried to sample as many
as possible. Our favorites were a bowl of clams, fresh strawberry candies and two healthy
avocados we ate with our morning bread and coffee. We sampled uncountable Vietnamese
delicacies from the local street vendors, and asked some kind Vietnamese-Americans to
order us up some of their favorites.
The next day we rented motorbikes (scooters) to tour the
beautiful nature reserves and other sights of Dalat. The most impressive or at least the
most striking was the "Crazy House" a structure built by the daughter of
Vietnam’s second president's (after Ho Chi Minh). The "Crazy House" is a
tea house/caf?, made of cement and plaster resembling, among other things, a large tree,
two huge giraffes, a spider and spider web nearly 2 stories tall. The "Crazy
House" is also a hotel with rooms that look like tiger dens and underwater caves.
On one of our adventures, at the Dantania nature reserve,
unsatisfied with the touristy, brick laden path, we followed a woodsy trail up to a
rushing waterfall. The three boys, being foolhearty males, decided to leap over the
stream, from grassy island to grassy island, and climb the slippery, wet rocks to the top
of the falls. We then crossed to the opposite bank and explored an ancient water tank.
There we found a path that led us to a cabbage farmer's field with a wonderful view of the
mountains. Unfortunately, the view showed dark, ominous, rain clouds on the horizon, and
our buddy Rochelle, who had wisely decided to stay across the river on the opposite shore,
was waiting our return. On the way back down several boots were submerged and an ankle was
painfully twisted (Mike). This made the walk back through the forest and up about 200
stone stairs bring back painful memories of our Annarpurna Trek - Day 1.
The next day, as we loaded back on the bus, we came to
our realization that two weeks was definitely not enough time to see everything we wanted
to see in Vietnam. The bus trips alone would wind up taking 6 of the 14 days. This didn't
leave much time for the 7 cities we wanted to visit.
Nha Trang was a small beach town on the eastern coast,
bordering the South China Sea. We were confused by the large amount of tourists, but
finally realized that the Vietnamese government makes it almost impossible to travel to
sights that are not what they consider "appropriate" for tourism. Not that it
can't be done, but as a traveler, you are sucked into what we have labeled - the
"Sihn Caf? Void" - a long line of cattle-like hoarding grounds, where you jump
off the bus snap a photo, hopefully buy a souvenir or Pepsi, and get going to the next
place. Nha Trang was no different. The thing to do was to take an island tour with Mama
Hahn's Boat Trips. We took the tour, but, oddly, they didn't take us to any islands worth
exploring, so our choice was to either get off at the few stops to buy crappy souvenirs
and drink Pepsi, or stay on board and watch those who did get off. This tour turned out to
be more of a party than an island tour. Cancun, Mexico could learn something from Mama
Hahn. We ate a seven course meal, and enjoyed the pleasantries of the lush, green islands
from the boat and in the water. |
