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Published: March 16th 2008
Da Lat - the 1st Ca Phe
Coffee with milk at the Peace Cafe. Yummmmmoh!Welcome back to a new round of blabla... glad you enjoyed what you read so far (or so I assume) and are happy to join me for another bit of life experience coming straight to you, live and in color, from the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
HCMC was great, as was the Delta, but all good things should come to an end when it's all still good fun... and so we hopped on a bus (Sinh Cafe for USD 6) to Da Lat. I'm always surprised how long these bus trips actually take. One thing I have to mention is that the bus has a TV and you are constantly entertained by lovely karaoke songs!!! It's good fun... yeah right. Actually, those videos look more like tacky soft porn and are just terrible, as is the music, especially if you hear a song you originally know in English sung in Vietnamese... It's best to put your iPod on and enjoy the view out the window.
This time we were lucky and the bus was not even half full so I sat in the back and enjoyed the 'fresh' air (not that there is ever fresh air in Asia) coming
through my open window, camera pointing at everything that looked interesting. Not that easy to get a good photo this way though... Anyway, Da Lat was a treat. As soon as we got off the bus we met one of the well-known "Easy Riders" who wanted to strap us down onto his bike right there and then. But hold on... where are we going to sleep tonight? Massive amounts of hotels, guesthouses and mini hotels and the best thing is, they will find you. You don't have to go on a walk about for hours to find a place, someone will be at the bus stop and tell you a price, you look, you like you take it, you don't like it choose the next.
We stayed at Van Anh, for USD 6 good value with TV and hot shower (I don't ever want to go back to cold showers!!!).
Attacked by the next Easy Rider we were talked into having a listen and a read, which we did, but quite honestly, the prices are ridiculous! If you're on a budget, there is no way you can do it even though there is no doubt that those tours would
be a once in a lifetime experience.
We decided to give our bones and muscles a bit of a work out and hired pushies! Awesome. Loved it. Bum is sore still but I think it was the best way (and quickest and cheapest) to see the town which spreads out quite a bit.
Dinner was a mission... Again, being vegetarian is not a good idea. But we actually found a place in the market, on the 2nd floor, that served com chay, vegetarian food. We didn't think too much about what we ate as it was cheap and ok but later that night, I had a weird feeling in my stomach.
The food we ate was some sort of soy product or so, dried, marinated and deep fried in all sorts of shapes and flavors. But when we accidentally saw the 10kg pre-packed bag it all came in... the thought led more to 'cardboard'. The taste faded quickly and I thought I was chewing on a flip flop...
But anyway, it's all good fun. And who needs food anyway?
Instead of jumping on the back of a Easy Rider motorbike we decided to book a day trip in an
actual vehicle... For USD20 (very expensive indeed but understandable as the sights in the surrounding countryside are fairly far, in the mountains, which uses a lot of petrol I guess) we got a good 5 hours with a very nice young guide (don't remember his name). We went to the Elephant Waterfall (very nice falls to look at from the bottom after climbing quite steep steps, but extremely dirty and smelly at the top), saw the Happy Buddha, the silk (worm) factory (very interesting!!! They actually keep the boiled silk worms and fry them for lunch/dinner... bit gross if you ask me but they recycle every bit hey), a mushroom farm (awesome too to know you could grow mushrooms in your own basement too if you wanted to), had a local coffee (not the weasle coffee though. I don't think I'd like to drink coffee that's been chewed on and poo-ed out by weasles...) and I was even given a pretty rose at the flower gardens. Amazing how much information the guide had for us, any sort of question we had he was able to answer.
I found out that apparently 80% of Vietnam's money comes from tourism. That's
a huge number! One would think with all the money "Western tourists" spend (or have to spend cuz we get ripped off all the time) the country would be doing much better...
I also found out that the cross you can see on some of the statues' chests that look like the 'Hakenkreuz' (Nazi cross) is actually representative of the circle of life. Weird. Apparently it's supposed to be pointing anti-clockwise but most of the ones I have seen were actually the exact same symbol as the Nazi cross. Interesting...
Ok, for food there's a good and cheap place called Peace Cafe. We first dreaded going in there cuz the Lonely Planet suggested that it was a meeting point for backpackers and Easy Riders... Not wanting to be involved in yet another conversation about an overpriced motorbike ride we didn't want to go in at first but after we checked out the menu and saw that nothing would probably beat those prices we stepped through the door... and found a lovely crowd conversing in Vietnamese and English with a lot of laughs and smiles being shared. The coffee there was top notch (the first and the best we've had
yet) and so was the food. The prices unbeatable and the ladies that run the joint lovely! Two thumbs up for this place!
Well, Da Lat was great but the evenings were very cold, as were the mornings. I actually got out my fleece beanie, and the jumper I had been thinking about throwing out for a while came in handy as well. But we were in the highlands and it was great to breathe in a bit of fresh(er) air every now and then too...
From Da Lat to Nha Trang we had the most interesting bus ride YET! Mai Linh run a mini bus service (60000 dong) to Nha Trang, leaving at 3pm (3 - 3.5 hrs). Right... well, it's a great way to travel if you don't mind fellow passengers gagging and throwing up all over the bus and out the windows... Not a joke!!! Ok, fair enough we have to understand that many of those people may not be used to driving in cars and the route - as gorgeous as it was - is not the best for people with a weak stomach. The driver was definitely inconsiderable, driving like a maniac certainly
didn't help! There was vomit in the van and (just about 2 minutes before we pulled over for a break) one lady that had been sleeping for most of the way opened her window and just threw up all over the side of the van. I found it quite funny and was happy that she was able to open the window just in time! But the funniest part yet was when a lady threw up when the bus had already stopped and we were getting out... Less funny was the fact that no one seemed to want to volunteer to clean up the mess inside the bus... I may sound mean but when we first got on the bus all the locals seemed to make fun of us pointing their fingers etc... I guess that was karma...
Well, we did make it to Nha Trang. Most of us anyway. The lady that was sick out the window actually decided that this bus wasn't for her and got out in the middle of buttfucknowhere... waved goodbye as we drove off... funny.
We walked to the town center and found a place to stay. Not hard there cuz everyone stands in
the street, sees you with your backpack and tries to pull you in (some others just hand yu a business card with some info and tell you a price). After we looked at a 'waiting room' (and that's all it was, 2 spare beds in the middle of a hall way with a plastic door) we checked into a place called Sao Mai (not the best but good enough) which is right next to a very cheap and ok food place. Good location if you're on a budget.
We hired bikes the next day and just paddled around town and to the Hot Spring Center. Very bumpy road that goes there but if you feel like a hot bath, it's perfect. The mud didn't look very inviting but the the hot thermal bath and the heated pool were good value. We also went to the Pagoda near the bus station but it was not a nice place. I didn't feel comfortable there at all, don't ask me why. Jut had a weird vibe that place, tons of beggars too which I can't always handle. It would be nice to just go somewhere sometimes without hearing "you want to buy something?"
while they hold a tray of cigarettes, chewy and tissues under your nose.
In regards to that we figured that by sitting on the footpath in the restaurants you practically ask those people to come over and offer you stuff. We decided that sitting inside keeps most of them away (except for in HCMC where it didn't matter how far in the back you sat, they came anyway and stayed for a long annoying time!).
The beach in Nha Trang is worth a visit but even there you get asked if you want to buy stuff. Women walk about with huge bags full of rice paper and stuff like that, flavored stuff even, and they talk to you for 3 mins trying to sell you some. And as soon as one woman is gone, the next one comes along and tells you the same thing... same same... but different. You know?
Off to Quy Nhon so this should be it for today. I hope you enjoyed yourself and will check back soon for more from the front. Until then keep smiling and enjoy the good life!
CHAO
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