The city is nestled on top of a mountain and is comparable to San Francisco in look as well as temperature. The change of climate has been a relief, but the contrast between the day and night is pretty harsh, something like a high of 85 and a low of 65. Simply put, you sweat during the day and shiver at night. The cool breeze has reminded us of home and we feel that this week in Dalat will help pay our dues to everyone in NYC we left in the cold. Next week we move back to tropical paradise on the beach...
Dalat is a relatively small city home to less than 100,000 people. It feels safe and is very well developed. There were many times riding around the city where I could imagine I was riding down a hilly landscape in France, not in Vietnam! The people are friendly and even more friendly with our local tour guide that seems to know everyone.
You will see the video of ngoc and I on our second motor bike ride of the trip on Facebook. We started as passengers and as of today I have started driving my own! It's been a rough learning on the crazy streets here, but with some more practice I will be an expert. They say that only I should drive because no police would dare pull over a white person in fear of having to deal with the translation. I'm excited for this because now I don't have to fight for the pilots seat. Motor bike rental for on day is $7 USD, $2 less than our hotel nightly charge...
Yesterday we spent time riding all around the city and it's surrounding hills. We visited the market that Thanh sells her goods, viewed terraced farms in the hills, and saw some very pretty landscaped parks. Thanh made us lunch and dinner with the kids, which was amazing. She stressed to us over and over again while traveling in the south that Dalat has the best of everything, and I think she is right!
As the climate is similar to Northern California, you get a similar deluge of amazing fresh produce. To have the ability to see my dinner grown in the field, transported 2 miles, sold at the market, and then cooked at home by family was a truly memorable experience. Did I mention artichokes are in season here? SO GOOD!
After dinner the family went on a run to the local roller skating rink. Ok, try to follow this, 5 of us leave the house after dark. Ngoc with Thanh, me with Buon, and Phuong on her own bike. We arrive at a random larger looking structure surrounded by much of the same types of houses/shacks you see all over the city. I'm saying they just converted a larger shack in the middle of a residential area into a indoor roller skating rink. This sounds ok so far, right?
We dismounted our motor bikes and could hear the thumping of the outdated house music playing inside. Upon entry there is a small room to change into your skates. They have many sizes available in either roller skates or blades. They also have a laundry bin full of old dirty socks just in case you forgot yours.
Ngoc and I decided to take the skates due to the uncomfortable nature of any kind of communication with the owners of this filthy establishment. The first ones I tried on had the top of the skate completely separating from the base. The second attempt was not much better. I did my best to look natural and be a good sport for the boy, whom was the main reason for our visit to the place. I remembered how excited I would be as a 15 year old at the prospect of blading around and being able to show off for my family. So we pushed ahead...
Ngoc had to figure out how to get his on as they were missing some major parts of the laces, the tongue of my right skate kept sliding up and out, and Buon had to stuff dirty socks in his blades to make them fit. Get the picture?
We skated around very uncomfortably for about 30 minutes before giving up. Luckily, there were only a few other kids there also struggling with the out dated, unsafe, and broken equipment.
The whole time Buon never showed a bit of annoyance with the situation, he was happy as a kid with a big bag of candy. The experience humbled ngoc and I deeply, but we also vowed to be sure Buon was the recipient of our roller blades we never use once he moves to the states. We don't want the other kids making fun of him...
This was just the tip of the details I could write about last night. With respect for how much happiness was shared, we will spare the rest of our Western judgments, including the one about the complimentary water offered after skating from dirty reused plastic bottles filled from the tap and then poured into an old dirty plastic cup for all to share a drink from...
The photos above are Ngocs childhood house, the market in Dalat, and a few other shots from the day.
Miss everybody!! Comment!
That last paragraph is killin me!
ReplyDeleteIt is quite chilly back home and calling for snow Saturday!
Jamie, you are hilarious with that last part of your post. The humility you experienced is one of the best things about traveling, I think. Just being able to put our own lives in perspective. Thanks for your honesty and candidness. :-)
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