Day 9- April 25, 2009

Day 9: Nhatrang - Dalat

I woke up and went to the hotels breakfast buffet at 6:30 am. No one was there except Miss Denyce. We sat together in the balcony area which overlooked the beach. I had more food than I needed on my plate; there were just so many tasty looking things that I didn’t want to miss out on. I had a small beef noodle soup, a plate of dumplings, sushi and steamed green beans. Then I moved on to water melon, dragon fruits and jackfruits....I relaxed afterwards with two pots of green tea.

The group was ready to leave on the bus for Dalat at 8am but we couldn’t go anywhere. The road was blocked for the annual bicycle race from Hanoi to Saigon for the celebration of the 34th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. The race passed by the main road in front of the hotel. The hotel management should have informed us about the event. The group just stood by the sidewalk and cheered on the bicyclists. Some people took advantage of the idle time and went souvenir shopping at local vendors. Finally at 10am our bus was able to leave.

We passed by the beautiful mountain scenery of pine trees and deep valley on our way to Dalat. We reached our destination at 1:30pm. Everyone was so exhausted, but we were led immediately to our hotel restaurant for lunch. Everyone was very pleased with the lunch setting and enthusiastic staff. I went to test the water of the swimming pool next to our lunch room while I waited for the food. The water was warm, blue and inviting. We were served a delicious 7-course lunch of green salad with fried tuna, seafood crispy rolls, barbecued pork ribs, sauteed chicken with sweet and sour sauce and a vegetable soup with stuffed cabbage and a side of pork.

We had an open schedule during the afternoon before dinner. I got to my room and opened the balcony doors. There was a sudden light drizzle and the cool fresh air rushed into my room. I didn’t have to turn on my air conditioning for that reason. Dalat is a city that is 1500 meters above the sea level. Because of the cool weather at Dalat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Lat), Vietnamese people love to come here for honeymoons and to vacation to escape the heat of the tropical weather in the main land. The rain continued for an hour, but very lightly. I led a small group of 12 people to the Dalat Market nearby. Dalat is famous for its flowers, vegetables and fruits that only grow in this type of cool weather. People were impressed with the big

avocados, durians, dragon fruits and artichokes. I got offered many different samples of local

fruit candies like wild berry and strawberry. Miss Denyce bought a small bottle of snake wine with a cobra and a scorpion inside. I bought a small basket of Golden Everlasting flowers as a present for Mrs. Chu.

We had dinner at Ming Dynasty Restaurant which took place at a beautiful French villa on a small hill looking down to Xuan Huong Lake. The house was surrounded by a large beautiful garden and a water fountain. The dining room was elegant which had a Chinese décor style of painting, furniture and precious china’s. The food was Chinese and Vietnamese fusion with beautiful presentations. I enjoyed tremendously the lotus root salad with shrimps, fried snake

head fish with tomatoe sauce and ginger chicken.

The sauteed chicken with vegetables had plenty of red pepper and it was unbearably spicy for me even though I normally love spicy food. On our way out of the restaurant, some people couldn’t help but admire the water fountain which was lit with beautifully.