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.

Day 8- April 24, 2009

Hoang
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Day 8: Nha Trang

I started my day at the breakfast buffet. I had a full plate of the local fruits like papaya, dragon fruit, passion fruit and water melon. I also couldn’t resist the steamed dumplings, salted eggs and bowls of beef noodle soup. After finishing my second pot of green tea, I joined my group for a tour at the Yersin Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin) which is next to our hotel, the Sunrise Nhatrang Resort.

The group didn’t have to meet again until 5:30pm so I decided to visit the local market, the Dam Market. I got some small gifts for my nieces and nephew. My nephew probably will enjoy the miniature black metal cyclo. I also got my nieces similar bikes but they were more girly. They can use their collection of tiny stickers to decorate the bike. I couldn’t resist collecting different sizes of purses made from colorful plastic crystals for my nieces. All of them range from $1.5 to $3. I bought a small size wooden lamp in the shape of a courtyard lantern for $7. When I got back I showed the ladies what I bought and they really liked it. Miss Helen and I went back so she could buy some things for her grandchildren too.

I still had a couple of hours before dinner time so I took a long, slow walk along the beach. I enjoyed watching a group of guys passing a ball around in a circle. Other locals were out too, either walking along the beach on the clean white sand or swimming in the warm and clear water. I stopped at the private beach of our hotel and lied on a lounge chair. I ended up falling asleep and the next thing I knew 40 minutes had passed by. The cool, breezy weather by the beach was very soothing.

The group met at the hotel lobby at 5 pm. Miss Denyce enjoyed showing her first-time polished nails to everyone that she got done the day before at the private island of Chef Khai. She forgot that she had already showed them to me though. She insisted that I had to take a picture of her new nails. I took some group pictures of everyone while they lined up at the staircase near the lobby. The group then headed to Chef Khai’s childhood home. Chef Khai’s sisters greeted everyone at the gate with pink lotus flowers. And then each of us got handed a special drink of fresh sugarcane juice with Grey Goose and orange slices while other relatives of Chef Khai’s served us seafood crispy rolls, roasted mussels with fried green shallots and barbecued pork rolled with rice noodles. The group then surrounded Mr. Goerg to sing “happy birthday” to him while he blew out the candles on his surprise birthday cake that was presented by Chef Khai.

At about 7:30pm, the group went for dinner at Bien Ngoc Restaurant by Nhatrang beach. We were all still so full from the food that was served at Chef Khai’s home but couldn’t resist some shaking beef, steamed mussels, barbecued and fried fish dishes.... all the while with candle light and breezy weather. Mrs. Chu walked around and offered everyone Baileys and Grand Manier that she had brought from Hong Kong and San Francisco. On the way back to the hotel, the “happy birthday” song was sung a few more times to Mr. Goerg through our laughter.