We left Nha Trang this morning and are going to Dalat. Dalat is in the mountains and has an altitude of 5,000 ft so the weather is quite moderate. Dalat was a favorite retreat for the French due to its cold climate. It was also a location for R&R for the Americans during the war and therefore attract Viet Cong spies. Today it is considered a romantic getaway for Vietnamese.
The drive was about three and a half hours. The first half was quite flat but the second half was uphill and quite curvy. We stopped at rest stop where they had jars that contained ginseng root that was carved into the signs of the zodiac.
The second half of the drive it was very, very foggy and the driver went quite slow. I was sitting in the front of the bus and it was a little scary. There are quite a few waterfalls and mud slides Some of the mudslides were pretty significant.
We stopped at a restaurant in Dalat for lunch and a visit with an indigenous K’ho family. Many K’ho people believe in animism or the attribution of a soul to inanimate items and natural phenomena. Many are also catholic. The French brought Catholicism to the area. The K’ho people are matriarchal in the sense that the bride’s family pays the dowry to the groom’s family. The youngest daughter and her husband live with her parents to take care of them. They were wearing their traditional dress and gave a concert using their traditional instruments.
After the concert we had a western style lunch which included choices of pork chops, fish and chips or chicken curry. Next we checked into the hotel. We had the option of going to the “crazy house” in as an afternoon activity. CNN describes it as a “bizarre avant garde guesthouse with a maze of spiral staircases, sculptural bedrooms, undulating surfaces, swirls of bright colors, narrow bridges and hidden nooks.” Rick stayed at the hotel and napped but I went. My trip mate, Sue, and I got lost in the house because there is no rhyme or reason to the staircases. We were there for an hour and spent half of it trying to figure out how to get out. Mai took a silly picture of Sue and I looking crazy.
That evening we went to a home hosted dinner. This is an OAT thing where on each trip the travelers go to a dinner hosted by a local family. The guide does not go with you and it gives you a chance to talk directly to the locals without intervention. We had dinner at the home of a lovely couple. It couldn’t have been a nicer evening.