Central Highlands Road Trip, Part V

It's our last day road trippin' and our flight back to Saigon doesn't depart until 4pm this afternoon.  Les is kind enough to hire a guide from "Easy Riders-Dalat" who will escort us around the greater Dalat Metropolitan area for a couple of hours while he attends to some business. 

With the guide, we decide to head south out of Dalat to an agricultural valley with a few interesting places to see.


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It was another spectacular day as we headed out of town.  Overcast and cool and perfect.

Dalat is the growing capital of Vietnam.  There are greenhouses everywhere, growing all sorts of agricultural produce and especially flowers.

Driving down into the valley, there were coffee plantations up and down the hillsides.  The crop is another 2-3 months from being ripe, but the plants were loaded with tons of green coffee beans.  Trivia fact: Vietnam is the world's second largest coffee producer after Brazil (and before Colombia; Juan Valdez, chop, chop!).

Fresh fish being sold next to the river we crossed on the bridge above

Coffee beans drying in the sun

Jerry standing next to an old coffee grinder

We next stopped at a silk making factory which was pretty fascinating.  Our guide attempted to walk us through the process, but it was so loud, I couldn't hear much, so you'll have to make up your own story.  Note the amazing, old equipment which dates back to the 1920s.

Silk worm cocoons

I thought this was especially fascinating: the "punchcards" above wound through the
weaving machine to produce the pattern on the silk being woven.

Next up: a quick trip to Elephant Falls.

And lots of schools kids on their way to (or from) school:

And a stop at a rice wine distillery.  Something about rice, yeast, fermentation, big vats and a goat.  Ok, maybe not the goat. 

After returning to Dalat, we made one last stop at the "Crazy House", built by the daughter of Vietnam's second President.  She studied architecture in Moscow apparently, but she looked more like a student of Gaudi (for those of you who've visited Barcelona).  I'm thinking heavy drugs were involved.

It was a strange, fascinating house with corner nooks, bizarre staircases, hidden bridges and odd-shaped rooms.  Unfortunately the pictures here don't do it justice.

After a fantastic three days through an especially scenic part of Vietnam, it was back to the airport for our trip home.

Half of Air Mekong's fleet on the ground at Dalat Airport.

As for now, I'm on my way to Noi Bai Airport to pick up my nephew for his week long stay here in Hanoi.  I'm really looking forward to sharing with him all the great things I've discovered here in Vietnam and will hopefully have lots to post while he's here.

Central Highlands Road Trip, Part IV

After cresting the top of Ngoan Muc Pass, we dropped down into a small valley which was nothing like anything I expected to find in Vietnam.  Instead of jungle, we got forest.  Evergreen forest.  It was like we had taken a wrong turn and ended up outside Flagstaff.  The air was clean, cool and crisp. 

Of course, after a long trip up the pass, we were all parched.  So we pulled into a roadside stop for a rest.  Unfortunately, they had no ca phe sua da so we had to settle for water and green tea.

The owner had several interesting piles of "things" out front, drying in the sun, and it turned out that they were mushrooms.

That's ginsing on the left.

Bamboo root here.

After spending a few minutes resting up, we continued down the road through beautiful forests.  Even the housing went from the standard brick to wooden homes.  Timber was everywhere. 

I have no idea what these buildings were, but they sure looked interesting.

The weather at this point was not only cooler, but considerably wetter.  It soon started to rain quite hard, so we pulled into a very small general store to wait out the storm. 

This little girl and her father waited for the rain to clear with us.
The woman (one of the owners, I think) entertained her until she and her dad hopped on
their scooter and drove down the road.

After waiting about an hour and a half, we finally gave up, dawned our very fashionable "baby bear" adorned ponchos and made our way the remaining 12 miles or so into Dalat.

Les and Jerry before we head off into the rain.

After travelling about 85 miles Sunday, we arrived at our hotel, the Dalat Palace.  Built by the French in 1922, it's been preserved and restored to its vintage glory days.

Check out the old fashioned tub.

After a shower, nap and dinner, we wondered downtown to the Night Market in Central Dalat.  Not much interesting or unusual to see, but we did pass the prettiest church I've seen in Vietnam along the way.  It's an old Catholic Church which is still in use and was spectacularly lit that night.

It was another great day through an amazingly different and incredible part of Vietnam. 

Tomorrow: One last day on the road.