Da Lat: Scenic Highlands

Da Lat: Scenic Highlands

From Mui Ne we went to Da Lat, another popular tourist destination but inland, in the southern part of the Central Highlands. Because of the higher elevation, it has a cooler climate. French influence is evident in the architecture.

On the way to Da Lat, I took some pictures of the landscape we were passing. The plants you see in the picture below look like cartoon plants that you hide under as a disguise, the better to sneak up on someone. But in fact they are dragon fruit bushes. The dark shadow is, of course, our bus -- not a sleeper bus this time.

Before long we started to see mountains that reminded me of the northern part of Thailand.

 Da Lat. The city of Da Lat has some beautiful views and neighborhoods.

There is a large, bustling night market. Most pictures I took at night didn't turn out.

Roses. We booked a tour just for the four of us, with a driver and a guide who spoke excellent English. We visited several family businesses, the first of which was a rose farm. Our guide explained that all the work is done by family members – planting and caring for the rose bushes, cutting the flowers and transporting them, binding them into bundles for sale, and selling. Thus, their roses are much fresher than flowers that are flown in, and cost less.

 Coffee farms. It was a beautiful day, cool and sunny. On our way to the next crop, coffee, we stopped for a photo-op.

Me, Tricia, Angela, Katherine

 Our guide described the stages of coffee cultivation.

Coffee beans on tree

 It surprised me to see coffee beans spread out to dry right beside the road, in people’s yards or wherever there was space.

Weasel coffee. The alleged superiority of weasel coffee, made from coffee beans that have been eaten by weasels, is, er, hard to swallow. The coffee beans pass through the weasels' digestive systems and are excreted, then extracted from the dried weasel doo-doo, cured and roasted. Here you see one of the weasels, and a photo of weasel droppings spread out to dry in the sun.

Of curse, after all this extra work, the weasel coffee is more expensive than other coffee. I politely declined a taste of weasel coffee when it was offered and did a little research later. Some sources said that weasel coffee is not worth the extra money unless the droppings are collected from free-ranging weasels, who eat only the best-quality coffee beans. The caged weasels must eat whatever beans they are given. If this sounds like a scam to you, I admit that the same thought crossed my mind as well. However, if you have had a positive experience of weasel coffee, please let the rest of us know.

The people who make the weasel coffee also make rice wine and snake wine.

Cooking the mash for rice wine

Wine stored in plastic jugs

Big snake in big jar of wine

The wine I tasted was very strong, more like schnapps. I didn't sample the snake wine. It’s not clear whether the snake is a vital ingredient of the wine or just window-dressing, like the mythical tequila worm. You can buy little souvenir bottles of snake wine, with small snakes in the bottles, at many markets.

Silk farm. Next we went to a silk farm where, again, every step of the process is done there, at the site.

Silkworms

We watched women making the silk thread and working at the looms, as seen in the two videos.

We then spent about an hour in their store, buying silk scarves and shawls. To my chagrin, I have no pictures of us doing that.

Waterfall. After the silk farm we took a detour to Elephant Waterfall and clambered around it for a while. Here are a few photos.

Temple. Finally, we visited a Buddhist temple. It is very different from Buddhist temples we see in Thailand, as you can tell by comparing the Buddha figures in the picture below with Buddha figures in Thailand seen in previous posts. To cite just the most obvious differences, their clothes are very colorful, their faces are less stylized, and their hair looks smooth, unlike the tight curls seen on so many Buddha figures in Thailand.

The three Buddha figures above are seated front and center in the temple, at the space we would think of as the altar.  The figures below are on either side of them.

From what I understand, this bodhisattva “with a thousand arms” (actually, it’s usually 18 arms) is the most compassionate of the bodhisattvas. Having many arms enables him to reach out and help more people. Sometimes "he" may also be represented as female.

The nagas guarding the stairs outside the temple look different from the ones in Thailand too – their heads are larger and they seem more active, ready to charge. The Thai nagas do look very fearsome but don't give the impression that they are coiled to strike.  Just my opinion.

 Outside we also saw a couple having their pre-wedding pictures taken and chatted briefly with the groom's mother who was waiting for them..

Notice that they are walking across coffee that has been spread out to dry!  Makes you glad that there’s a roasting process before the coffee comes to us, doesn’t it.         

The temple visit was the end of our tour. The rest of our time in Vietnam was spent exploring the city, sampling street food, and of course shopping. There is one street, near the center of town, where virtually every other shop has a sign saying that it was endorsed by the popular travel guide Lonely Planet -- sort of like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, but for tourists.

After one more five-hour sleeper bus ride back to Ho Chi Minh, we flew back to Bangkok on December 16. A good end to a memorable trip!