Mui Ne and �Dalat

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Hello again family and friends! After a comfortable four hour bus ride norht, we arrived at the beach resort town of Mui Ne. The area is known for its excellent kite boarding conditions. Kites from all over the world conveine here because of the moderate and constant winds. The weather is great a lovely average of 30 degrees.

Besides the wind sports there are many beautiful up-scale resorts, a nice beach and a fairly strong surf. The highlight for us is our resort - Tien Dat (Blue Waves). We certainly hit the jackpot here. We have a spacious and beautiful deluxe suite with a large open balcony within steps of one of the awesome pools. So I am back to my swimming routine and of course lounging in the pool as well. It is a very large pool so I have to work really hard to complete my laps!! To top if off there is also a whirlpool and swim-up bar. Can't believe what you can get for $45 in Vietnam!!

Mui Ne as well as kite boarding is jammed with Russians on their week vacations to the sun. We have really tried to see the positive side of them but the ones here just don't sit right with us! We consider ourselves very tolerant but the Russian tourists that are in Mui Ne are unfriendly, loud, rude, never crack a smile do not return a greeting and treat the Vietnamese people very poorly. Honestly they will push you out of the way when they pass you on the sidewalk!! And you should see them eat at the breakfast buffets!! Oh my goodness - piles and piles of food. The actually push each other at the buffet trying to get the food!!

There are many great restaurants here in Mui Ne and some excellent and different dishes. The menus offer frog, turtle, snake, alligator, crocodile and eel. So far we haven't tried any!!I am really enjoying the pumpkin soup which is one of my favorites. Warren continues to enjoy the Pho (he even has it for breakfast sometimes). A new dish for me is steamed shrimp in coconut juice. Speaking of food, none is wasted in Vietnam. Food scraps from homes and restaurants are put in pails along the roadside and are collected in the evening. We assume they are used for something - maybe stock feed or fertilizer.

One day we set out on our rented leisure bikes. What was going to be a pleasure ride turned out to be a 45 km trip into the city of Phien Dat. It was great fun and we saw a lot of sights. We only had one break down, my pedal fell off. A nice man offered to fixed it in his bicycle shop and wouldn't take any payment. But we insisted and give hime 50,000 dong ($2.50). Even with all our pedalling and walking we cetainly have put on a few pounds! Oh well, diet city when we get back!

Friday took us on a jeep tour of the area. We set off with Finn in the morning. We walked along a ared colored brook called "The Fairy Stream" that lead us to some spectacular red sand dune. The sand is so soft and a definite shade of red! Next we stopped at a fishing village where we saw hundreds of colorful fishing boats including some round boats that looked like saucers in Rub A Dub Dub 3 men in a tub. Our next stopo was the White Sand Dunes. Wow, just like a desert except it was all hills. A beautiful sight. You can walk, ride a quad or ride an ostrich or horse. We did the walking option!!

We are impressed with the road systems in Vietnam. They are well maintained and very modern. Apparently many countries injected money into the country after teh war and paid for new infrastructure, roads and bridges.

After 6 days of relaxing at the beach and pool, we decided to take a side trip to the enchanting moutainous city of Dalat 200 km north west of Mui Ne. We reserved a spot on the mini van ready to embrace cooler temperatures again where the climate stays at a constant 20-23 degrees and is known as the City of Eternal Spring. Dalat is 1500 meters above sea level and since the early 1900's has been the main vacation spot for well to do Vietnamese and foreigners. During the french colonization, large european style villas were built to create an atmosphere reminding of France and is sometimes referred to as "Little Paris". They even have a few mini Eiffel Towers that lights up at night and also suffices as satelite towers.

We chose to stay at the Empress Hotel. It could be describved as an offordable oasis. It is stucked into the side of a larage hill where the room form a courtyard. It is obviously an old hotel and reminds us of the ones in Europe with the formal dining room. Kind of like the one in "Fawlty Towers" if you remember the english show. The rooms are decorated in granite, terra cotta tiles, silk bedspreads, rataan furniture and local artwork. The best quality is the location right in the city center with a beautiful viewof the famous Xuan Huong Lake. Weddings and honeymooners are popular here in Dalat with the picturesque lake and scenics.

We set out on a self guided walking tour in the morning to walk arouind the local streets, markets and the historick railroad station and the Crazy Guest House. This place is quite the attraction. It's a wild mass of wood, trees and wire fashioned into the shape of a giant treehouse and smoothed over in concrete. The architect is an eccentric lady and has lived to mingle people and nature. There are them rooms as well. Very crazy!!

We had noodle soup for lunch on the lake and then took a private tour in the afternoon to see some of the sites around the city. Our first stop was a charming historic village and location for embroidary on silk. These masterpieces are amazing and we saw the girls in action. The average cost is $5000 but I think these works of art are well worth the price.

Our next stop was Bao Dai's summer palace. This is where the last king of Vietnam and his family and friends vacationed in the summer. It was built in the early 1900's and used until 1945 when he fled to France when the dynasty crumbled. It is set on a beautiful mountain with a view of the city. It was very cool to see the parlors and bedrooms as they were in 1945. He entertained friends as well as generals and admirals. When you think of it, it was only 50 years ago.

Our 3rd stop was a working monestry that was built 700 years ago. Situated on beautiful and peaceful grounds we saw monks going about their daily life. We also saw afew western foreigners who were there obviously for a retreat and to partake in the Buddhist religion. Paradise Lake borders the monestry and adds to the calmness and beauty of the pagodas, temples and lovely flower gardens. It is interesting in that there are our familiar pine trees which you don't often see in Vietnam.

Our final stop was the refreshing Prenn Waterfalls. Nothing like Niagra Falls but quite impressive. The falls are situated 300 m down a steep path. You can take a rattletrap little cablecar or walk. We chose to walk for exercise. It really was a nice walk, so green and lush.

We enjoyed the Dalat market every evening where merchandise comesfrom who knows but there is everything you can imagine for sale. One of the coolest things is the street kitchens on the wide steps that lead up the the upper level of the city. Here you can find all kinds of mussels, snails. oysters, clams etc cooked for you over an open fire for a dollar a dish!

Our final morning in Dalat we took a cable car ride over the city and mountains. It was a very modern and smooth running tram and beautiful sight. We couldn't get over the vegetable and fruit farming around the central highlands of Delat. Such beautiful lush produce of fruit and vegetables you could imagine. We are really enjoying the spinach and other greens. There are miles and miles of green houses in the area and they also grow a lot of flowers such as carnations, gerber daisies and roses as well as many teas. I would expect they export some.

We boarded a bus at 1 p.m. and headed to our next beach destination "Nha Trang" 200 km north east. Riding on the bus is sure convenient. The bus picks you up at your hotel. Can you imagine having the bus to Regina pick you up at your home!! It was a stunning drive over the mountains to the coast. The mountains are enormous and the road winds around some pretty wild turns!! Cheers! Hope spring is on the way in Canada!!

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Photos

View Of The Famous Lake in Dalat
This was taken from our hotel so it was very scenic

View Of The Mountains from the Cable Car
Sorry my pictures do not do this justice!!

A Typical Lady Covered From Head To Toe
Most of the ladies in Vietnam wear a mask and cover themselves, reason being for for air pollution but most importantly not to get any sun as they are more desirable by the men when they have white skin!

Comments

[Mallory]

WHAT!!!

[Linda and Maurice]

Love you pictures!
You are teaching me so much. Makes me want to go there. We have the purple flowers here as well. We've had them since the beginning of March. When walking down the streets it like a wedding...instead of rose petals there are purple flowers to walk on.