Our one tour in Dalat took us on an all day excursion with our Vietnamese guide, a young lady named Quinn, and five other tourists, three from the UK and two from France. It was a good group to go exploring the surrounding areas of Dalat. We started at the Alpine Coaster, which took us down a 2,400-meter long coaster trail to see the Datanla Waterfalls. We strapped in and were given the controls to break (or not), and set loose on the ride.
It was pretty fun going down as fast as we could handle, luckily there are signs for when to brake. We did get slowed down by a father and young son, which we heard, from one of our fellow tourists, had happened to her the day before (I could see it being a little scary for a young child). We reached the bottom and took our pictures in front of the waterfall.
Next stop was Pongour Waterfall, the most famous in Dalat. It was a short walk down to the waterfall area, although there is a golf cart that will take people down and back as well. On the way back up, I wouldn’t have minded the golf cart, as we also ran into some screaming monkeys.
The waterfall is quite wide and very cool looking.
We stayed at the waterfall for a while, and it was fun to wander on the stones and take in the cooling temperatures. Soon we were on our way to the Linh An Pagoda which has a huge Lady Buddha (the second largest in Vietnam, to the one we had seen in Da Nang). This Lady Buddha we could actually enter and climb up to view another waterfall, the Thac Voi.
Before we climbed up inside the Lady Buddha, our tour guide took us to see the huge Lucky Buddha (or, as I call it, the Money Buddha).
Quinn told us about the history of the Buddha and how he was raised to be a King and very privileged, and later gave it all up and became a penniless monk. Eventually he decided that walking the middle path, between those two extremes, was the best way to live life, and reach Nirvana. After Quinn let our group free for 30 minutes to explore the Temple grounds, we asked her how she practiced Buddhism; she said she only learned about Buddhism as part of being a tour guide, she was raised Catholic, and we said, so were we! We laughed, and went to wander the very eclectic temple grounds.
We realized we didn’t have much time left, so skipped entering the temple itself to climb the many floors of the Lady Buddha, because if given the opportunity to climb inside a massive statue, one should.
We had to take off our shoes, and started the climb up; every level had a set of guardians and temple altar; we climbed twelve floors, and still didn’t reach the top! We did get to see the waterfall through one of the small windows.
We ate lunch right across the street from the Lady Buddha, and could see her as we sat on the patio and ate some average Vietnamese food.
Less than five minutes from our lunch spot was the Cuong Hoan Silk Factory, where we learned how silk is made and harvested from the silk worm. It is harvested before the silk worm can turn into a moth, and the worm is dried and can be eaten as a snack. Of course, I tried one.
Honestly, they tasted a little meaty, not bad at all. We saw the inner-workings of the factory, and learned that from a single pod, 800 meters (2600 feet) of pure silk can be obtained, wow! As you can see, Jessica shows that the silk factory is pictured on the back of the 2000 Dong note.
Silk items are also very reasonably priced at the factory store; Jessica picked out a scarf and I chose a sleep mask, though it was too small for my head. We also had Quinn take our picture in front of the sign, and then one with us.
Of course, no day would be complete without trying rice wine with crickets. That’s right, we visited a place where they raised crickets, which are eventually ground and used as protein powder, as crickets are very high in protein.
They also made rice wine, which can come in different strengths and flavors. We did a tasting of the rice wine and tried some dried crickets as snacks. The crickets actually tasted like chicken skins and were better than the silk worms. The rice wine is a strong spirit for sure.
The final stop on our tour was the Me Linh Coffee Garden. Vietnam is the second largest grower of coffee beans in the world after Brazil, and the highlands are the best place to grow the beans. Me Linh also produces the Weasel Coffee that we tried while we were in Bali. Though the animals that produce them are not weasels, rather they are civets. The civets are in a large enclosure, and are nocturnal, so were lounging around when we visited.
Jessica tried some of their excellent coffee and after we finished, headed back to our hotel, a long and fun day in the books. More to come from Dalat!
Phil's WayPastCool 