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Published: October 17th 2006
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(Anna there is a caterpillar picture at the bottom of the page).
Having left Hoi An far too many hours before hand, we arrived safe and sound away from the typhoon a little later than anticipated at about 1.30pm. Claire and Emma let Bruce and I get on with the gritty business of selecting a hotel, so we based ourselves in a modern mini hotel, that had wonderfully comfortable beds and plenty of hot water. All for a mere seven dollars per room including breakfast.
Having settled in, we wasted no time and arranged a tour with a group of "Dalat easy riders" the following day. We popped on the internet to send our little "we are safe" message to everyone and we tried but failed to get a message through to Paul and Pauline to comfirm their safety. We checked on the typhoon news, because, until we had been updated by the people on the bus, we were not fully aware of the gravity of the situation.
Bruce, Claire, Emma & I all had dinner together at the V cafe, which was just down the road from the hotel. It was great Vietnamese and Western food (they
have great lemon meringue pie Shhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone but during our stay both Emma & I had more than one piece) and wonderful service.
The following morning we came downstairs for breakfast, which was a simple affair, omlette, fruit and coffee. Our three drivers (Claire was not joining us because she was concienciously studing for her Spanish degree), were waiting for us, Windy, Jean and Ba. Windy was a big, handsom silent type; Ba was the cool dude, whilst Jean was a rather wiry fellow who spoke the best English. Due to the typhoon, the majority of the country was experiencing rains and Dalat was no exception. However, equipt with a good dose of British optimism, we three headed out on our trip in the drizzle. Unfortunately, simple optimism was not enough to hold mother nature at bay and the rain came, but we still enjoyed ourselves ...
First we visited the Dragon Pagoda, followed by a terraced farm and then a flower farm, a short ride back towards town to visit the "Crazy House" (a place you DO NOT want to visit when drunk) which is a strange maze of animal themed rooms and abstractly shaped
corridors (it is still not finished at the moment but when it is, you will get free psychiatric help with your entrance ticket). Then we head back out of town to a coffee plantation, followed by another Pagoda (every town has more than its quota of Pagodas). After a small consultation, Windy, Jean and Ba decided that we could not get to see the Elephant falls because of the risk of a land slide on the roads required to get to there. So they substituted this with another waterfall and a stop at a nearby restaurant. After lunch, with the rain still coming down, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. It was a shame that the weather had got the better of us, but just motoring around had its charms.
After a hot shower and a change of cloths, we took a short walk to the market (where Emma bought some of the crystalised strawberries and strawberry cordial for which the region is well known). We then spent the rest of the day lounging around and reading.
Emma: I had bought a couple of really good books about Vietnam from the street venders in Hanoi. The first was "Catfish and Mandala" by Andrew X. Pham and the second "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" by Le Ly Mayslip. They were similiar to one another, in that they each chronicled the experiences of a Vietnamese person during the civil / American war, their escape to America and their subsequent return home. They were both a good mixture of historic fact and personal experience and I'd recommend them.
We spent almost all the following day on the internet, failing (due to a slow connection) to catch up on our woefully neglected blog. Finally I gave up and went to market again and walked through the narrow paths lined with fruit and veg, cosmetics, clothes and shops selling moon cake. That evening we had an excellent dinner on the other side of town with Bruce, Claire and Chad (not the one from Charlies Angles). However I do have to admit that all the way through dinner I was dieing to ask " is it the Chad?" but Emma wouldn't let me (spoil sport).
On our penultimate day, we booked a minivan to take us to the airport the next day. The driver said
he could make the journey into a mini tour for a few dollars more, so we agreed to his suggestion and then spent the afternoon packing and strolling down past the lake, to the botannical gardens.
The next morning our "Dalat easy driver" was waiting for us and took us to a village that was devoted to silk worms, then to the next village that made the bamboo racks on which the silk worms spin their cocoons, next was the factory where the silk was being made ready for spinning and finally to Elephant falls (the water fall Emma really wanted to see). By the time we arrived at the airport, it was straight to check in and through to the departure lounge (N.B: if you need any last minute gifts you can get them here quiet economically). In the shake of a lambs tail we were in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon (depending on your political persuasion).
FOR THE CHILDREN: Silk is a highly prized, strong and beautiful natural fabric which is made from the cocoons of a particular type of caterpillar. Here in Vietnam, the special caterpillars (silk worms) are fed on mulberry leaves three times a day and housed on bamboo racks. Once large enough the caterpillars start to produce a strand of silk inwhich they wrap themselves, until they are entirely coccooned. After this, the coccoons are collected by the farmers and taken to the factory. Ladies then work machines that unravel the silk strands from the coccoons. Three or four of these strands are then twisted together to make a single thread. These threads are then used to weave silk fabric.
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anna chough
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i'm still trailing your travels. keeps me inspired. keep going kids! thank you so much for the window into your journey.