Nha Trang, DaLat, HoChiMinh

A fresh coconut (first the water and then the meat), a glass of iced tea and later a cafe sua da (iced coffee with milk) are the perfect way to relax, enjoy some peace and quiet and escape from the heat of the afternoon. I went to this cafe, located in a beautiful garden, 3 times in 3 days. The owner and I became fast friends and on the last day he introduced me to his 1 year old daughter-so beautiful!

I went to the Thap Ba Spa in Nha Trang (a city located in central Vietnam), also known as Little Russia, since there are nearly as many Russians as Vietnamese. I was the first person at the spa (having arrived directly there from my night bus), and as people began to arrive throughout the morning I realized that each one was Russian. Besides the mud baths (pictured above), there wasn't much to see/do in this city aside from a brewery, where I sampled several of the homemade brews at a staggering price of $2/glass (extortion here in Vietnam) 

I walked out of my hotel one morning to see a large tray of breads on top of a motorbike. I bought one and as I was eating it the vendor picked up the tray, placed it on his head and drove off! No strap, nothing holding it on. Just pure balance.

Soon after I was walking through the markets with no real aim and sat down for a coffee. The ladies there soon tried communicating with me and with the help of one of the ladies' daughters I was able to have a chat with them. They told me I was too dark (tanning is a big no-no in Asia), that my jewelry was pretty, that I'm tall and then asked me to comment on their hair, jewelry or shoes. It was hilarious!!

Then I headed to an important temple in the city which was known for two huge Buddha statues. The first is the sleeping Buddha. One of the monks offered to take my picture here. The other Buddha was you typical sitting Buddha, but the base of the statue was interesting because it had the carvings of 5 or 6 Buddhist monks, each one encircled in a red, flaming orb. These men and women had burned themselves in protest during the was. At this location I also got to sit inside of a large bell while the monk rang it several times, at which point I was supposed to be wishing/praying for something. 

Another bragging moment: my view from my bedroom of my hotel. It was a 16 person dorm but I had it all to myself!

From Nha Trang I took a 4-5 hour bus trip up and down a few mountains  (absolutely breathtaking scenery), and arrived in Dalat, a small town located in the mountains of Vietnam, with nearly freezing temperatures-in that I wasn't sweating for the first time in 3 weeks. It was lovely. The first thing I did (I mean the first thing I did after putting on pants) was to go to the "Crazy House." It is only what I can describe as Tim Burton's dreamland. This house was designed by the daughter of a former president of Vietnam. It held true to its name. 

Here I am in long sleeves and pants! This was one of the highest parts of the house (it was hard to count the stories because nothing was even, but I'm several stories up) overlooking the city of DaLat. The house is built entire of concrete and is meant to look like the stump of a huge tree with roots and vines sprouting every which way. There are rooms hidden down winding hallways and stairwells and I nearly got lost inside. It reminded me of Las Pozas, another crazy house in Xilitla, Mexico where I went several years ago. 

The local markets held lots of new goodies to sample. Here I was trying all sorts of dried and candied fruits-grapes, apricots, bananas, cherry tomatoes (my favorite) and even roses (as in the flower)-strange but good. 

The next day I took a tour in which we had multiple stops throughout the day. One of the first stops was to a cricket farm where we learned how they raise crickets-basically-have lots of leaves in an enclosed area and let the crickets have at it. Then we got to sample some of the insects, with a bit of chili sauce (it was very similar to how they eat crickets in Mexico-also fried, with chili and lime). Once you get over the legs and antennae it's really just a crunchy snack that's high in protein. YUM

The next stop was to a weasel coffee farm. Here I am on the balcony of the cafe, overlooking the coffee trees. 

And here are coffee beans in the foreground waiting to be eaten, digested and excreted by the weasels before being cleaned  and ground up. The coffee was amazing! The smell between regular coffee grounds and that of the weasel coffee was significant and there was zero bitterness in the coffee. The only downfall was the extremely high price of $3/cup (3times what I've been paying for my regular coffees here).

Next stop-a temple. But I much preferred the "happy Buddha" which was out back behind the temple. 

After seeing the happy Buddha we walked down Elephant Falls (I guess there used to be Elephants in the area-now there are just a few small statues). Although it wasn't the largest falls I've see, the spray was pretty strong and soaking everyone and their cameras, so I don't have too many pictures. This is one from under the falls. It was definitely the highlight of my day. 

One of the last stops of the day was to a silk factory. I wish I could show you all the pictures here because the process was very, very interesting to watch-I can't even imagine how they were able to do it all by hand way back when. Here you can see the silk worms inside their cocoons, floating in the water. But don't be mistaken to think that the fine strands you see falling from the chopsticks or between the blue piece and the spout are water-those are individual strands of silk. The speed and skill that these women had to catch the silk and wrap it around spindles was impressive to say the least. 

After my packed day I took a walk around the lake in town, which I had run that morning, and I saw my mistake of running in the morning which had been overcast and very misty over the lake. At sunset the colors were beautiful and serene. 

Every country has some new (to me at least) device, invention, technique of doing something that I find amazing, awesome and wonder why it's not all over the world (Korea-the bell on the tables at restaurants, Mexico-the lime juicers,  Argentina-the ease with which you can add money to your phone) and Vietnam-this little handle on the 2liter water bottles. In a country where you can't drink the tap water it makes carrying water all day much easier. 

I left the coolness and quietness of DaLat for the craziness of HoChiMinhCity (HCMC-formerly Saigon). I won't bore you all with the details of another big city but some highlights: the post office (pictured here), Independence Palace, and the War Remnant Museum (it was enlightening and truly sad to hear about the Vietnam War from the side of the Vietnamese but I also realize that some of it was a bit one sided-most of the museum focused on the protests from around the world during the war and then lots of photo exhibits of the affects of Agent Orange on the people (some several generations later) and the land). 

Then the following day I headed to the Cuchi Tunnels, a series of over 200km of tunnels a bit outside HCMC where about 20,000 people lived, worked and plotted during the war. The tunnels were very built with every possible necessity available, except bathrooms. Here I volunteered to attempt to enter one of the tunnels just as the guerrillas might have if they were being chased by American GIs. 

Then we were allowed in the actual tunnels which have been enlarged to fit the western tourists. Even still, the tunnels were extremely small, and you had to do a Groucho Marx walk in order to get around. And despite the impressive ventilation, the air was still thick and damp and there is no way I'd want to live down there full time.

HCMC was a maze of small streets, lanes and back alleys. This is from the alley of my hostel. You can't see too well but the blue door on the left is someone's front door and the small brick windows are the only windows in the house's first floor. Hence why there are clothes hanging on the line. 

As I mentioned before people wake up early to go to the beach or park to exercise. Here are some ajumas (the Korean word for old women) taking part in some form of aerobics.