Dalat, Vietnam

The cool mountainous air of Dalat was the first thing we noticed as we stepped off of the tour bus. That evening, as the weather dropped into the the low 70s, the towns people donned (imitation) Northface jackets and parkas, causing Jessica and I to stand out as we passed by in tank tops. Though to Seattlites the weather wasn't 'cold,' it was still a cool relief from the hot air we've grown accustomed to in Vietnam.

Like all Vietnamese cities, motorbikes ruled Dalat.

Dalat is a small city set in the sloping hills of the central highlands. After spending a week in Nha Trang, we decided to pick up the pace a bit and only hit the essentials of Dalat before moving on. Though we only hade one full day, we made the most of it. At 7 AM we awoke and went down to the lobby to meet the "Easy Riders," a group of motorcycle guides that we hired for the day (for $17) to show us all of the highlights of Dalat and its surrounding countryside. The guides were hilarious, and after being greeted with a 'What's up G?" we mounted the bikes and rode away through the hills.

The Easy Riders made seven stops, including: a flower farm, a coffee plantation, a cricket/scorpion farm, a rice wine distillery, a silk factory, a water fall, and a unique work of architecture locally referred to as 'Crazy House' (with good reason). At each stop, we were given tours of the locations and allowed to sample the various goods (from eating crickets to sampling rice wine!).

Preston and Jessica, ready to start Easy Riding!

Jessica's guide, Quy.

Preston and his guide, That, instantly bonded.

Fertile vallies surround Dalat. It's warm climate and volcanic soil make it an ideal location to grow coffee. In fact, Vietnam is the world's #2 coffee producer, second only to Brazil. (According to the Easy Riders, that is.)

The flower farm. Aparrently, orange daisies signify good luck in Vietnam.

Red roses!

A plate of fried crickets.

Preston considers the food he is chewing on: fried cricket. They sort of taste like overcooked french fries. Though not pictured, Jessica sampled the cuisine as well.

The rice wine distillery

Thousand of silk worm cocoons. This is before the silk extraction process begins.

From cocoon to thread to woven designs, its all done here at the silk factory.

The 'Crazy House.'  Though the project is not well-loved by the locals, and is an indefinitely ongoing expense, the architect is the daughter of a famous Vietnamese president, and is given free-reign to design as she pleases.

After a full day of sight-seeing with the Easy Riders, we strolled around Dalat in the evening and enjoyed a leisurely dinner. The thought of not seeing cold air again was a bit daunting, and we wanted to make sure we enjoyed as much of it as we could before calling it a night. After all, we were leaving for the 95-degree capital city of Saigon in the morning.

A side note: All drivers in Vietnam seem insane, constantly swerving around everything and anything in their path to maintain top speed at all times. After watching busses swerve around motorcycles and motorcycles swerving into the sidewalks to avoid traffic, it leads one to ask the question: don't these crazy drivers ever crash? The answer is yes. At about 11 PM on our last night, we witnessed a pretty serious crash right in front of our hotel. This is the second crash we have literally seen or heard as it happened. Anyone wanting to drive around in the cities of Vietnam: be careful!!