Dalat to Hoi An - Fish with Wings

17 May Dalat to Hoi An

Posted at 10:42h in Blog, Personal by Mallory 0 Comments

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**I am having issues with WordPress again and cannot add any more photos. Updates to come later**

Dalat and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

So I believe I’ve mentioned how David’s bike hasn’t been doing so hot…

Heading into Dalat the hills were getting steeper and the traffic was getting thicker. He was falling far behind, though I tried to slow down enough to keep him in sight, but it was dangerous. The narrow roads became terrifying as vehicles struggled to pass me and I struggled to let them. I was almost smushed by a bus determined to get by me despite oncoming traffic on a tight turn with guard rails on my other side. I could smell the rubber burn from the soles of my shoes as I let my feet down to try and stay balanced just inches from the solid barriers on both sides.

We chugged slowly into town, overwhelmed by the amount of traffic. We stayed the first night at Hoa Cat Violet Hotel. It was quiet, but the rooms smelled moldy. We explored the town by foot, heading to the night market for some food and excitement. Unfortunately, I had been feeling under the weather lately, and the congestion of noise and people proved too much for me, so we had an early night and I went straight to bed.

We moved to a homestay the next afternoon for a different experience. We arrived on a quiet side street and rang the bell at Ngan Binh Homestay. A short, elderly woman answered and ushered us in, smiling from ear to ear. ‘Booking? Booking?’, she asked. We nodded and she pointed for us to change from shoes to house slippers. Apparently that was all the English she knew. A proper homestay, this was just one extra room in her family’s home, which was beautifully and tastefully furnished. Her daughter had just come home from University in HCMC and translated some house rules for us. It was a lovely stay, thought a bit strange, as they had to come unlock the front door any time we went in or out.

We asked Ngan (the homestay is named after the older woman’s two children) where we could find a reliable mechanic to look at David’s bike. After some rough translation, she sent us to a gas station across town. When we arrived we were unsure if she had understood me, as there was just one man with a few tools and an air compressor setting on the corner, but as we tried to ask him who might be able to help us he slapped his chest proudly and said he could do it.

After speaking to Phuc, our mechanic, another man getting his motorbike worked on came over and started up a conversation in broken English. He very much wanted us to join him at his house for breakfast so he could practice the language. He kept asking for my phone number, but since I have a data only SIM card, I couldn’t provide him with one and he didn’t have facebook. We went back and forth for several minutes and finally decided on meeting there at the gas station in the morning.

While we waited on the bikes we popped over to a restaurant and bakery that had been recommended called Lien Hoa. It was a little slice of heaven – we had a great lunch, then loaded up on baked snacks, pumpkin milk, and a birthday cake for Ngan. We went back to the gas station to check on the bikes, and David’s was still not running right, so we left it with Phuc overnight and used mine.

In the afternoon we went to the Crazy House (60,000d), which is a wild architectural exhibition to explore. The architect is native to Vietnam and after her studies she moved to Dalat and began this project. It has been ongoing for many years and now not only includes her house (where she still resides), but several connecting offshoots that function as a hotel. You can walk all over and through the buildings and it’s pretty cool. You also get a pretty sweet view of the town.

Crazy House Da Lat We never can seem to both look good in a picture... Dalat Town

In the evening we went to the Maze Bar, just across the street from the local market. The entrance fee is that you must buy at least one drink, but then you’re free to roam through the many floors, mid-floors, tunnels, staircases, etc. I don’t know how they keep the place clean – we were lost within minutes! This place also had a pretty sweet view of the city from the top floor and garden area.

Making Friends

The next morning we got up early and took my bike back to the gas station to wait for our new friend, Hoang. He was already there waiting and his face lit up when he saw us. We greeted each other and he started walking towards his home, briefly stopping at a market on the way. His house was tucked away in an alley, with a small gated courtyard and many hanging plants.

We came in and sat on the couch. His wife, Mrs. Leen, brought out baguettes, shredded pickled vegetables, sui my (meatball in amaze-sauce), coffee, and iced tea. We feasted on the deconstructed banh mi buffet and tried to communicate as best we could. His English vocabulary is very good, but he has little opportunity to practice speaking, and we were enthusiastically searching for topics we could communicate about. After breakfast he invited us back for lunch, and we just couldn’t refuse. We promised to be back at noon after we checked into our new hotel.

We left the homestay with hugs and well wishes and moved to Sen Vang Hotel for our last night, then headed back over to Hoang’s. For lunch we had rice, winter melon soup, mango salad, mackerel, bitter melon with sausage, and really delicious rice wine. It was amazing. Mrs. Leen joined us this time, and his children and grand children came in and out to exchange conversation. We discovered that Hoang used to build houses, and in fact built the one they live in now. He also played us some guitar and we talked about different places in Vietnam and where we planned to travel. He invited us back again for breakfast the next day and said he would like to take us to his friend’s farm so we could see the countryside.

After such a wonderful and relaxing morning of conversation and good food we drove out of town to visit Datanla Waterfall (30,000d), one of the closest and more famous waterfalls in the area. We only went to the one as David’s foot has been injured and we didn’t want to do too much trekking in case it flared up. There were several tour buses there, but despite the appearance of many crowds, it wasn’t too bad. There is an option to take a ‘rollercoaster’ ride (it’s kind of comical, really), and a cable car to the falls for an extra fee. We opted for the short hike instead.

The falls were pretty. We took the obligatory pictures, then tried to hike to the further falls but were turned back. Apparently there is no way to hike down to the secondary falls. You have to buy a separate ticket and take an elevator or the cable cars down. An elevator! In the middle of the forest! I fumed and whined about it, but we hiked back up in good spirits and headed back to town. At least I got some exercise in.

On the way back we stopped and picked up David’s bike. It was an extremely costly fix by Vietnamese standards, but the bike could finally make it up hills and even keep up with mine! Phuc was so grateful, taking some pictures with me (not with the owner of the bike, but with the girl, as David noted sourly), and telling us how much we helped him. You helped us, Phuc, thanks! Then we went back to the hotel, curled up in the cushiony bed, watched movies, ate icecream, and drank a bottle of wine. That Dalat stuff ain’t bad!

In the morning we headed over to Hoang’s place for another breakfast. Today we had something he called Xoi Bap – it was sticky rice witih coconut, boiled egg yolk, and corn with some chili, sugar, salt mix to sprinkle on top. It was good, but a bit dry. We followed him out of town by motorbike. We were loaded up to leave town after our day trip together. He stopped to show us an extravagant pagoda in an otherwise unremarkable town. I am not even sure where exactly we were, we were a bit rushed. Then we followed some small roads on the hillside to a small village where we visited a Hydrangea farm, then up some more steep hills to his friend Tom’s farm.

We had briefly met Tom at breakfast the previous morning. He and Hoang have known each other since they were young men in the army. Tom now owns a prosperous farm where he grows broccoli, artichoke, and flowers, among other things. We got the grand tour of his land, then walked through a pine forest to a neighboring farm. The workers harvesting broccoli pushed two large heads of it on us and we promised we would enjoy it greatly later.

We headed back to Tom’s small work shack for lunch. The men whipped up some stir fried susu, broccoli, a ham-like block of meat, pig forearm (whatever that is actually called), egg, and rice. We ate and tried to chat, but mostly it was the men and the workers, many of whom are Tom’s children, talking animatedly in Vietnamese. Probably quite a bit about us. They definitely commented on our ‘beautiful noses’ and something about how we used our chopsticks.

After lunch we had a long goodbye as they pushed baguettes and other snacks on us. We promised Hoang many times over that there was absolutely no way we could forget him, and that we would send photos of our travels. He led us back to the main road and we moved on again. It was a scenic ride through the mountains back towards the coast, and much more enjoyable now that David’s bike could keep up.

Coastal Roads

We arrived in Nha Trang early afternoon, but decided to have a short travel day and stay the night. It was a bustling city with a crowded beach, and the beautiful views of the coast mingling with the mountains was largely obstructed by the many high rise hotels. There was a lot of construction going on for even more high rises, and we slept poorly as construction continued through the entire night. Overall, I was unimpressed.

The next day we headed down the peninsula just north of Nha Trang. It was a beautiful ride through mountainous roads on sheer cliffs overlooking the ocean. At the end of the line was beautiful Ninh Van Bay. We passed the small town and headed to the only hostel in the area for some lunch. It was outrageously overpriced, the music was terrible, and everyone was partying at the pool instead of the beach. It was also complicated to eat there without being a guest, and we didn’t want to commit to staying there yet. We had to give them our passports and a deposit, then they gave us a bracelet that would take the charges and we would be refunded the remainder. The moment we walked in we were sure we didn’t want to stay and got out of there as fast as we could.

We went back to the small town and parked in front of a cafe to have some iced coffee. I tried to chat a bit with the woman and her children, but it was difficult. I asked about any other places to stay, but unfortunately the hostel was the only place in the area. We walked down a small ramp to the beach and I scrambled over some rocks to find a good seat. I watched children diving in the shallow water for crabs, surfacing with excited cries when they caught something, watched the women in their conical hats pick through kelp drying on tarps in the sand, and waved at the smaller children following close behind us. It was immensely peaceful and I felt so comfortable that I didn’t want to leave. However, because we had no other place to stay and didn’t want to submit ourselves to the youth hostel again, we headed back inland and up the coast.

We made it to Dai Lanh, another beach town, in the early evening and found a hotel to stay at. But as I was negotiating over the cost of the room David realized that we didn’t have our passports…We had left them at the youth hostel in Ninh Van.

Damn that place!!

The owners of the hotel said the passports were no problem, we could still stay, and David planned to drive all the way back to get them the next morning. We grabbed some dinner, and though it was dark outside, packed our things to go down to the beach. We walked along the sand and had the entire place to ourselves. Me being somewhat of a wimp and somewhat afraid of the dark, I was nervous to follow David into the water at night, but when he said he could see the phosphorescent plankton I sucked it up and followed him. We drank in the magic of the plankton, the perfect temperature of the water, the stars, and the eerie lights flashing over the horizon as fishermen hunted for squid in the night.

David left early in the morning and got back just before noon with our passports safely in hand. He was exhausted after the long drive, though, so we stayed one more night in the quiet town. We sunbathed on the beach, laughed as locals at a food stall on the beach fussed over us and shared their food, and had some amazing coffee at the place next to our hotel. I tried several new snacks, too, including ‘trung vit lon’, aloe smoothie, flan with coffee and milk, orange glazed mung bean balls, and che.

The next morning it was raining, so we had a late start. We took a small detour to the ‘Giant’s Causeway of Vietnam’ (22,000d), which is a small outcrop of columnar basalt on the coast. By evening we made it to Quy Nhon, another coastal city.

The city has a long promenade along the water, so we walked downtown in search of fresh seafood. We found an area with many food stalls, but we weren’t sure what any of the food was, so we randomly chose one and sat down and I quickly started google translating the signs. We both got a bowl of noodle soup – David’s with fish (which ended up being weird fish cake things, not fresh fish), and mine with…jellyfish! I have to say, it was interesting, but didn’t have much of a flavor. It was also a difficult texture to get used to. On the way back we stopped at a tea place that was packed with young locals. You choose what kind of milk tea you want, then they fill the bottom of the glass with several different kinds of flavored jellies. I was sold – this is now one of my favorite snacks/desserts and I cannot get enough of it.

The next day we rode on deserted back roads, buffeted by the coastal winds. In Quang Ngai we found a cheap but dirty hotel, and had an adventurous time finding dinner. We sat down somewhere and tried hard to mime what we wanted. Fortunately, these women were helpful rather than dismissive, and we ended up with several small random plates of food. When I asked for the toilet after a few beers, one of the women walked me to some stairs leading to an empty stretch of land and pointed down. I walked down the steps and squatted in the grass, extremely aware that I could see couples sitting looking out over the river. Oh well, who hasn’t seen a bare bum once or twice in their life?

Next stop: Hoi An