Da Lat is supposed to be ’beeerry beaut-a-ful’ and is a popular spot for Vietnamese honeymooners and holiday makers alike. After we arrived I must admit I was struggling a bit to see why. First of all it was cold! That’s something we certainly haven’t been many times on our trip so far and it came as a bit of a shock. It was also quite wet as Da Lat is at an elevation of about 1500m’s above sea level. Each afternoon there would be a sudden storm in which the heavens would open before the cool sun faithfully returned. We pottered about in and around the town courtesy of our scooters that we rented for about $4 AUD per day, but the whole place seemed a little lack lustre and I began to fear that this place was one of those over-rated tourist spots that consists of dreary attractions and inclement weather.
What we discovered was that it is the area around Da Lat that really makes this a place worth visiting. As we had motorbikes already we decided to hire one of the renown local motorcycle guides known as the ’Easy Riders’. Joseph was one of the original easy riders who have now been copied by an array of locals trying to pass themselves off as the real thing. He led us around the surrounding countryside on an epic tour that lasted a bum-splitting seven hours! We visited coffee plantations, mushroom factories, silk factories, waterfalls and ’minority’ villages. The food and drink farms don’t sound particularly exciting but you don’t actually go to a proper factory, you just stop at a place that is growing the coffees or mushrooms and have a wander around! Joseph gave us all the local info as we went and was a great guide. At the waterfall you could walk right underneath the falls and get totally soaked which was great fun. A huge storm came through as we went to leave the ’Elephant falls’ and we were forced to sit in a corrugated iron food and drink shack enjoying 50 cent beers until the storm passed and yes I only had one…
The minority village was a real highlight as the local lady we met there gave us a lot of awesome information about how the ethnic minority people live in Vietnam. The Vietnamese people as we think of them today actually came down to the south from the north and before they arrived there were many ’minority’ people living there. There are some twenty nine different minority groups living in and around the southern highlands area all with their own distinct language and culture. Our guide Joseph pointed out the irony of the fact that the North Vietnamese during the war vehemently opposed the colonialism of the South where their ancestors had long ago enslaved the minority groups that had previously inhabited the same area!
The group we visited is a matriarchal society which basically means the woman is the boss…sound familiar?? Jokes aside, in this village the woman really does rule and the men have to follow the woman’s orders at all times. We learned that if a girl wants to marry she approaches her chosen beau’s family and has to pay them a fixed dowry. The dowry consists of five cows and twenty sarongs that she has to hand weave herself and then she is allowed to marry the bloke. If a family has a daughter that they can’t afford a dowry for then she simply stays single for life, in spite of this it is still considered better fortune to have a lot of daughters-go figure! They also have children often starting from a very young age. Contraceptives provided to them gratis from the government often end up given to visiting foreign tourists or used as substitute balloons by the numerous small children of the village J Having huge families is also part of their culture so it looks like the government has it’s work cut out for them.
The central market in Da Lat is also worth a mention as this place gives a whole new meaning to the ’fresh food people’. Huge frogs in woven cages, dozens of hens cooped up in the same basket, fish chopped in half and freshly bleeding onto the ground, chickens gutted and splayed openly on the counter tops covered in flies and so on. One fish we saw had jumped it’s bucket and was leaping valiantly away from its captors down the street. We actually cheered the little fella on in his nose-thumbing of his tormentors but we may have unintentionally alerted them to his plight and all too soon he was back in the bucket with his friends, road dirt and all. At least he tried… I think Amanda might have struggled with the ’realness’ of this particular market as she disappeared. Kate however seemed just fine and was busy taking lots of snaps of the assorted delicacies including a top shot of an old lady napping at her stall while the market carried on around her. Typical country girls, they’ve seen it all before!
As I am struggling to recall much else of note that occurred during our stay in Da Lat I may as well end here. All in all it was a nice place to visit. Kitsch lovers would enjoy this place but for me the highlight was seeing the countryside around the city itself. After several days in the highlands it was time to head back down towards the coast to a place called ‘Jungle Beach’. After a few days cooling off I was looking forward to warming my bones and seeing what the beach in Vietnam has to offer. Once again we were in for a few surprises but lots of cheap beer and sun. Sounds good eh? ‘Til then.
Easy rider countryside tour
Tim, Joseph, our guide, and me.
Rice paddies.
A road we travelled down. Amanda and Jake are in front of us on their scooter.
An old looking truck.
Amanda and Jake on their scooter.
Super cute kids from the minority villiage. They absolutely loved getting their photo taken.
Minority villiage vegie patch.
Cute little kid. The day before the little boy had fallen over and grazed his nose.
Inside this little shed were 2 cows and a calf. These cows are used for the dowries.
This young girl was 'sewing' a sarong out of silk.
Workers at the mushroom farm putting the mushrooms out to dry in the sun.
Eating dinner at a local place that Joseph {our guide} recommended. We had sooo much food for 30,0000D per person {AU$1}. It was a feast!
The view of the man-made lake from our restuarant. It was filled with fish.
The view of some misty hills.
Elephant falls.
Elephant falls.
Coffee beans. Vietnam is the third biggest exporter of coffee.
Tim posing in his helmet. This was our first stop on our tour - we stopped for the view. In the Vietnam war, the Da Lat district was covered in Agent Orange. Now, the country side is covered in pine trees and Euculypus trees.
The country side.
The country side.
A ceremontry and the country side.
Da Lat Market
Geese in a cage.
The fish that got away!
Chickens packed into a small cage.
Eels
A fish seller.
The meat market.
Market lady sleeping on the job.
View of the street and houses next to the market.
Da Lat life
View of houses from our hotel.
View of the main street from our hotel after it had rained.
An old, cheerful man on his motorbike.
Vietnam is one of the 3rd largest exporter of coffee. Suprisingly, Vietnam has a huge cafe culture - but the cafes are slightly different from ours in that they only serve drinks, mainly, coffee {Coffee is called Cafe here}. Every morning while we were in Da Lat we went to this little cute Cafe which served coffee in shot glasses and free tea. The kind owners taught us a few vietnamese phases as well!
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