Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Dalat

Caught a bus up tp Dalat with Julie and Micheal. Another fellow Peter (Micheal had met before) got on the bus.

Was OK except the bus broke down after lunch and some people had their laptops and cameras stolen from the bus.
Got the cleanest and best value accomodation yet.. US$12 twin share per night including breakfast, internet beds made and clean towels every day...

Out to dinner with a group from the bus.. Walked around town for the day.. around the lake ..and saw a crazy house. Hired a bike and a guide for a day...
We went to a flower farm...
Water falls... The guide and I under the falls... Coffee plantations with some people picking and sorting coffee beans... A silk farm where they grow the silk worms, feed them mulberry leaves, harvest the silk, wash it and turn it into thread for weaving material... And a Monestary. Here is a drum inside a temple... Michael and I hired a bike for a second day and thought we would go it alone for a day.
We saw some prisoners working in a garden...
Went to a Pegoda...
With a bell in it that weighs 8500kgs...
We got into a town and thought we would stop for a drink.
There was a place that looked like a restaurant so we stopped there and walked in and sat down. A fellow came up to us and asked if we wanted some tea.. I asked if he had anything else.
He asked "Don't you drink tea?"
I said "yes.. OK then, tea will be fine. "
Michael asked for a menu and they looked at him blankly.. we sat and chatted to the fellow while as we drank the tea.
I was looking around watching the ladies putting a lot of nice looking food on the tables and I said to Michael "I don't think this is a restaurant".. he didn't really hear me and a few minutes later he said "Should we order something?"
I once again said "I don't think this is a resaurant".. and proceeded to querie the fellow if it was a party or festival or celebration... took quite a while to find out that his mother died at 74 years of age and this was the funeral.
We were then invited to eat with them.. this was a really nice.

Rode down a big moutain and past a big dam...
Heres a local boy riding his bike, on the way to school...