We had to pull out our warmer clothes today. Are they kidding me: jacket in January? I thought there’s summer all the time in SEA!
When we finally got up we got off to search for some breakfast. We decided to try something at a local place. Rice, chicken and egg plus some more-or-less undefined vegetables (?) seemed very Taiwan alike. Than we got some coffee at another local place. And everywhere they stared at us as if we were aliens :] After that, we walked all the way to see the famous crazy house. It was built by Vietnamese architect (a woman) who studied in Moscow. The house looked quite Gaudi style. It was amazing to know that she built it all by herself and it took her 20 years and 35 billion Dong.
Anyways, we rented bikes (1,5 $) to discover the whereabouts of DaLat since the city itself is not so exciting. We biked all the 13km to LangBien mointain through Lat village. Getting some exercise was great! … at least at the beginning. Than when the road went uphill it became a little bit difficult for our lazy, totally unfit bodies. But we made it, we got to the feet of the mountain and… ok, gave up :P But we took a very cool jeep ride up the mountain (2140 or 2400m – don’t really know at which peak we were). The views might not have been as majestic as in the Alps but maybe it’s my prejudice that I just like mountains with snow caps. No snow cups mean a less pretty mountain in my very subjective opinion. It was still worth it :] Especially beause we got to taste crocodile and rabbit meat in the peak restaurant. Crocodile was great – tasted like something between a fish and a chicken. I will not be a big fun of rabbit meat though… On the way back we just took a local bus… I know that is lame and even the locals laughed at us mercilessly but there was no way we could bike uphill any more.
Lonely Planet warns so much about drive thru bag snatchers but I think it is really safe here. The only anxiety was caused when we were crossing road in Saigon… A bit difficult at the beginning and we only got by with police officers help, but after 3 or 4 times we learned. You just have to walk slowly so that all the drivers have time and space to drive past. Overall, exciting experience.
I’m just watching on BBC a discussion on whether in near future China will overcome the USA as a superpower. One student from Duke University went even further saying that the US will become insignificant in the world economical scene… interesting. Lesson to be learned, Americans are starting to notice Chinese breath behind their back and send their kids to language schools at early age to learn the Red Dragon country’s language.
Oh, by the way, I love how they misspell English here. We saw a lot of “French Fried”, “Advetour”, “Mogito” etc… :]
I really liked the chapter of see your pictures after to read each post, is like we are seeing in images what we have read, and of course see you in the pictures always its a pleasure for the human being eyes...
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