Easy Riders - Day Two

OH, forgot to tell y'all that we also visited some Cham towers on the way to Dalat. Basically, Vietnamese make up about 90% of the population, the other 10% are various indigenous hill tribes and minorites. The Cham belong to this 10%. Anyway, some of the Cham towers are no longer in use, but we went to one that is still a live place of worship. They have festivals and ceremonies at the one we went to. They look like the Angkor Wat temples sort of, but they are made out of brick. Hung, one of our guides tells us that no one knows what is the binding material in between the bricks.

DALAT
After a long day of travel on Day One, we are super stoked to get rolling and ready for Day Two. Tuy's bike is back in action. Hung takes us to breakfast (which we just had the Vietnamese baguette...one of several that Lily and I have...we can't get enough of the bread!!) and head to a cafe for some Vietnamese coffee. BTW, I don't think I explained this before, but Vietnamese coffee is stronger and smaller than American. They serve it to you in a glass almost bigger than a shot glass, with the metal filter on top of it working its magic. You can get black coffee, or with milk AKA cafe sua AKA coffee with sweetened condensed milk. I think this idea is BRILLIANT and will then drink coffee like this more often. Anway, Hung takes us to a cafe, in which Lily and I are the only females in the joint and get tons of stares. I guess the real coffee houses are usually full of guys just shooting the shit, and women do shopping, etc. Funny thing about this cafe is that there is one picture on the wall, and it's a picture of Bill Gates. HA! I guess he came to Vietnam a while ago and donated a lot of computers or something. Then we tour the market for a little bit and walk around town.

CRAZY HOUSE
Now we head visit Crazy House in Dalat. This thing is weird. Quite the tourist attraction, and it looks kind of Gaudi-esque, but cheesier. We spend a total of 5 minutes there and want to peace out. This is where Hung tells me that he's some what of a fortune teller (which I'm not sure I believe, as he's kind of a sarcastic fellow), but he tells me that he can tell that I'm going to be rich someday. He really thinks that I'm going to be super prosperous and that he can tell I am clever. Funny, ha? Let's hope it's true.

FLOWER FARMS
After Crazy House, we head off to the some of the flower farms in the hills of Dalat. We saw these as we drove in at night with all the pretty lights. It's just as pretty in the day light. We stop off at a gerber daisy one, and walked around. Tons of flowers farms in Dalat, and Tuy also pointed out some Avocado trees.

COFFEE PLANTATIONS
We drive around the country side, and it is a GORGEOUS DAY. Super sunny, crisp, a perfect winter day. Lily and I are ecstatic, as the weather is FINALLY better. We drive through several coffee plantation. Now, it's the off season, they've already harvested. You can see house after house with coffee beans laid out in their front yard to dry. Most of the coffee trees this time of year have blossomed, and the smell is great...kind of smells like tea oddly enough.

MUSHROOM FARM/RICE WINE
We stop off and get some coffee at a place that is also a mushroom farm. We check it out, this dark basement type thing with tons of mushroom bag thingys hanging down. Kinda gross, but hey, I love mushrooms. This place also makes rice wine (as do many places), and we got to see the huge jars of it in the basement. Got to drink some too.

ELEPHANT FALLS
We went to see some water falls, which were quite pretty. Hiked around for a bit, then had a PHENOMENAL family style meal. At least 5 courses of seafood, chicken, tofu, beef, veggies, etc. I even tried snail again...these fuckers are huge here. It was chewy like squid, and it was in a curry like sauce. This meal (including a beer) cost Lily and I a total of 70,000 VND (keep in mind the conversion is 17,000).

SILK FACTORY
We stop off at a silk factory, which was rad to see it all made. I can't really explain it, so I'll show in pictures later. Kinda creeps me out since there's a whole bunch of wormies. Once they cook them up and harvest the silk, they sell the silk worms to the markets and people (stir) fry them up and eat 'em

BEE STING
Ok, so I must be bad luck for Tuy or something...as we were driving, he gets stung by a bee near the EYE. Poor guy! First a flat tire, then a bee sting!

We end up in Bao Loc, which is our pit stop for the night. A pretty shitty town in the middle of no where and our hotel sucks. But, the guides tell us that there's no other choice along this route. While Tuy recovers (poor guy), Hung takes us out to eat. We have hot pot, which is basically a big pot with broth and meat, and you cook the veggies and noodles on your own (there's a propane burner). We get the goat one, and I try goat for the first time. I like it! Tastes like pork, kinda. We also got some rice wine, and drink it up.