Am I really in Vietnam?

It's actually chilly outside!

Hello from Dalat,

Right now it's Thursday evening.

After a a good night's sleep after my last post I awoke refreshed on Tuesday morning. This was my last whole day. I had no particular sights to see. I knew I would walk around a bit, I wanted to see a bit more of Saigon. There was one thing on my mind more than anything. Street Food.

My day started back at the street stall where I had that pork rib previously. It was just so good. I went and got a plate of rice with the pork rib. This time there was another item in the window calling to me. Ihad only seen it after I ordered, darn. Much to my delight it was included along side the pork rib! "What was it?" you may ask. Pork fat. Pure, glistening, juicy, glazed, sweet pork fat! Little pieces of deliciousness. Sure, it's extraordinarily bad for me. It was just soo good though. It was calorific! The pork rib was also perfect. The pork rib and pork fat were over a steaming bed of rice. Yum.

I started to make my way over to see Notre Dame Cathedral (which was closed when I visited first). It was closed when I got there, too.

On my way I saw a bit of the riverfront and the posh area of Saigon with its huge hotels and business district.

Early on my way I had a snack. I saw two women who had set up on the sidewalk. They didn't have a stall. One was selling drinks (I think). The other was cooking on a little hearth right there on the ground. What was in that pot. Stewed organ meats. All kinds. You know I couldn't say no. I asked for one and she pulled out a plastic cup and began preparing my food. She had a pair of scissors with which she would snip off pieces of the various items contained in the pot, and put those pieces in my cup. So, what was there? Well, in addition to a little bit of pork meat (the muscle), there was skin, stomach, intestines, liver, and a few items that I honestly have no clue what they were. I know they were organs, just not sure which ones. It was all in a thick spicy broth. The plastic cup full of pieces came with a little skewer with which I ate as I made my way down the sidewalk. How was it? Offalicious. Very tasty. It was a lot of strong flavors which I like. There were a lot of interesting textures, too.

I had a little dessert, ice cream. Durian ice cream with sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top. Good.

After more walking and chilling in a park, I tried some food on a stick. It was simple, grilled pork on a stick. Delicious, crisp, tender and smoky.

More walking. Saw some cool stuff. The picture below is with a statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of an important looking building.

Lunch was on a the sidewalk at another stall. It was on the corner of a busy intersection. There were a few friendly people hanging out there. I had a fried chicken legs and mustard greens over rice. It was served with some soy sauce with chili. Very good.

I haven't mentioned it yet, but people love it when you take pictures of the food. Everyone crowds around to see the image on the screen. This often leads to everyone getting their photo taken (or at least the kids) so they can see the picture. Always good fun.

I went back to the hostel and crashed for an hour or two. It was late afternoon by this point. I wandered out and soon I found spring rolls. There was a woman operating a stall, where whe was wrapping them to order. Inside was slices of sausage (a really small, dry, spicy kind) with herbs and little dried shrimp. Those dried shrimp packed a punch! They were very pungent. Iliked it though. I can't remember the dipping sauce.

I only had 3 rolls, and they weren't too big, so I continued. I came across a stall cooking various kinds of shellfish. First thing I ordered was a large sea snail. It was removed from it's shell and sliced and cooked with this sweet, thick sauce. It also had little cubes of fried and very crispy pork fat (seems to be a recurring theme for the day.) It was pretty chewy. Nonetheless, it was very tasty. The pork fat added a nice touch.

Next I ordered some clams. She steamed these in a lemongrass broth. They were served with nuoc cham for dipping. These were very good, and the nuoc cham made it awesome.

I walked pretty far, as it was beginning to cool down a bit. I happened upon an area where seemingly all the young Saigonese hang out. It was quite lively. I got lots of hellos and smiles. I didn't see a single other tourist in the area.

I stopped at a street side restaurant. I had a hard time figuring things out there. One of the guys working there saw my onfusion and motioned for me to sit down, it was obvious he would choose. Sounds good to me. There were 2 guys cooking woks, going at lightning speed. I received my food which was beef stir fried with green peppers and onions. It was served with fried rice and lettuce and tomatoes. It was quite good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I made my way around some more. I had to force myself to eat more. I had some Bun Ca, a type of noodle soup. It came with all sorts of stuff like squid. The best part was pork belly that had been crisped on both sides then sliced and used to garnish the top. There was a special dipping sauce for that. It was excellent and full of flavor.

I made the long walk back to the hostel. I didn't realize how far I had walked away. I had eaten a ton of food. Wayyy too much. But I needed to try one more thing. I would up having some really tender, juicy grilled chicken with lemongrass over rice. It was served with nuoc cham. An excellent way to end the day.

Ok. I know, I know. That was a ton of food. It was a ridiculous amount. Saigon is the culinary epicenter of Vietnam, though. I wanted to try it all. I knew that's impossible. I tried my best.

Yesterday, Wednesday, consisted mostly of a bus trip. I left Saigon around 8 in the morning. There were only 7 of us going to Dalat. However, we were put on a full size coach bus, not a mini-bus. the 7 of us had 49 seats. It was really excessive. I knida felt bad, a mini-bus would've burnt a lot less gas. i guess its just standard to use a coach bus, maybe they normally have mroe people. Who knows. After we got a little ways out of Saigon there was a problem with the tire. I guess it was flat. The bus driver tried to explain through miming (he spoke very little English). I don't know what the problem really was. Anyways, we made it to the repair place and waited about half an hour for a new tire. We continued on, stopping for a bathroom break and a lunch break. Then we really started to go up in the mountains. It was quite steep and slow going and bumpy. We made it to Dalat around 4:30 pm.

What's going on here? It's actually cool outside! It's below room temperature, maybe in the high 50's/ low 60's farenheit. For me, it was quite refreshing. Everyone else around me was actually bundled up. I guess this is cold for them. Wimps.

Dalat is a popular travel destination. It's located in the Central Highlands. It's mostly geared towards domestic travel, though there are a handful of Westerners here too. I made it to the hotel, taking a ride from one of the Dalat Easy Riders (more on them later). My hotel room, which has a queen sized bed, satellite tv and hot water (none of which are necessarily standard in Vietnam) costs me $5 US a night! I didn't do too much that night. I had a little snack of grilled pigeon and grilled chicken feet. Later I had dinner, though I can't remember what it was. The food in Dalat, while good, doesn't come close to the rest of Vietnam.

This morning, Thursday, I took a tour with Hien, a Dalat Easy Rider. I met him yesterday when he drove me to the hotel. The Dalat Easy Riders are a known group around here. Hien, my guide, was the founder of them (and his story checks out). Basically, they're guys who give personal tours while you ride around with them on motorcycle. They do overnight trips, as long as 7 days, going through the Central Highlands, heading to other destinations. I just did one day, though.

First we visited the oldest pagoda in town. Nothing thrilling,but it had some interesting stuff.

We cruised out into the countryside. There were great views. It's a very mountainous area. The Frenchhad the idea to build this up as a resort for themselves. The weather is more comparable to Europe than the rest of Vietnam. That idea was cut off when Vietnam gained independence, however.

Hien dropped me at a base of a hill and told me to climb up it for some good views. He wasn't coming. So, after a 20 minute exhausting climb, I made it to the top. Spectacular. I could see for miles.
Then, continuing further out intot he countryside, we stopped at a few different farms. Onewas a coffee farm. That was rather unexciting; we just walked past some bushes of coffee growing.

We also stopped at a flower farm. Dalat is famous for their flowers.

Aditionally, we went to a silk worm farm. It was ok, but I had already seen that in Cambodia. Later we stopped at a silk factory. They start with the cocoon and work it all the way to finished products.

Next stop was the Elephant Wateralls. Once again, Hien pointed me in the directionand told me to walk while he stayed behind. After going up and down (more down than up) a bunch of precarious "steps" (I use the word loosely) that were carved into the rocks, I arrived. It was a good view of the falls.

Near the falls was a large temple. I quite liked this one. There wasn't anyone there until the time I was leaving. It was very large and very quiet. There were a few huge statues inside and more things to see on the grounds, Including a verybig, very fat Buddha.

We had a god lunch. It was a large spread of food with all sorts of barbecued and boiled meats and vegetables.

We made our way back to town. Along the way Hien showed me mountains that had been deforested by Agent Orange, which is still showing its effects today.

In town, we stopped at a Catholic Pagoda. That's right, a CatholicPagoda. Supposedly a Buddhist monk converted to Catholicism and became a priest. We built this pagoda/church. It was a bit bizarre.

Notice the crucifix at the very top.

No, that's not Buddha inside, It's Jesus. There was another similar one of Joseph with baby Jesus

Our last stop was at the Crazy House. Some relative of a South Vietnamese President built this after going to architecture school. It was extremely bizarre. The rooms had weird shapes, stairs were everywhere and in odd patterns. Who knows?

UPDATE:

Now it's Fridayafternoon. I was unable to publish this yesterday,when I wrote it. So here's what's happened since...

Nothing much else happened that day. Had a boring dinner.

This morning I boarded a bus to take mt to Nha Trang, where I am now. In a few hours I catch an overnight bus to Hoi An, an ancient town that's supposed to be really cool. The bus ride to here was very uncomfortable. The bus didn't seem to have shocks and the mountain roads were very steep and twisty.

Well, that's about it. I'll try to update you soon.

Take care,

Mike