Our trip to Dalat was a short one, so we hired a couple of what are known as 'Easy riders' to get us around. Hiep and Joseph were in their late to early 50s, and on the back of their motorbikes we cruised the countryside and visiting various places of interest. Even though DaLat is known for its nice, cooler climate, the sun was scorching hot and would warm up the bike seat pretty quickly! My driver, Joseph, called it getting a 'barbecued bottom'! He was right!
We had a great day out seeing lush green valleys with its rich soil perfect for farming vegetables, strawberries, roses and coffee. We visited farms that grew mushrooms in millions of plastic bags of a manure/tree bark mixture (yummy), all suspended from the rafters. As we drove through the countryside our guys pointed out areas that had been hit by American napalm bombs during the war - a herbicide that killed plants and trees designed to leave no shelter or cover for enemy soldiers. The slopes were now covered in pine trees - a restoration project carried out by the government. Elephant Falls was next with a cool climb down around large rocks to get a decent view of the big curtain of water. Above the falls we stopped for some very delicious and very cheap food - about $1.30 (70p). Next, was a drive through the New Economic Zone - an area for north Vietnamese people relocated to make a new life after the war, using a variety of different trades and crafts to sustain them. We visited families that farmed silkworms - white, 4 inches long and all wriggling away in bamboo racks strewn across the kitchen. Can you imagine!! Eeeww! Having a life cycle of 1 month, silk worms build cocoons during their final 3 days. These then get sent to local factories for weaving. It was very interesting to see how the cocoons were softened in hot water and the silk thread removed and spooled onto bobbin after bobbin. Must mention, that the remaining worms were lifted out of the water and sent to market as produce!!!! Finally, our daytrip ended with a visit to 'Crazy House' pictured here - a bizarre hotel designed by an eccentric architect. All the rooms were totally unique with different themes - such as the bear room, the tiger room, the gourd room, the kangaroo room etc etc. Pretty cool.
The best bit about our day was that Joseph and Hiep were open to answering our personal questions and they were very honest. Having lived through the Vietnam war, they were able to tell us what life was like during and afterwards. We could see the pain in their eyes when they shared the fact that, like many others, members of their family (having been anti-communist), suffered after the war in re-education camps of the new Communist government. 30 years on and Vietnam doesn't really appear to be very Communis, to be honest - people are not regarded as equal in terms of financial/social status anymore and there are huge differences between rich and poor. Joseph, described Vietnam's current poilitcal status with a cute phrase: " Vietnam has a Communist hat, but Capitalist belly!''. To them, thay are just happy that life has moved on, and that they have food and they can send their kids to school. * Mush
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