Weasel coffee and Montaignard people

Dalat is a lovely city in the mountains of central Vietnam. 5000 feet in altitude. Lovely cool weather. It was founded by the French as a getaway city. Full of French style villas, now a destination for Vietnamese tourist. Not many foreign visitors. 

There are 40,000 plus green houses where the grow flowers to ship all over Asia. They are all around the city. 

We went out of Dalat up into the mountains where they grow coffee. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee after Brazil and before Columbia. 

We visited a coffee plantation where the have weasel that eat the beans and poop out the berries.

They have to send the poop to the factory intact to insure it is the real thing. The factory rinses the berries in the local red wine removes the husk and roasts it. We got to have a sample of the coffee and had an opportunity to purchase 100 grams for $20.00 us. Too bad I am not a coffee drinker, I did not see God. 

Coffee flowers smell really sweet, like jasmine.

We also received special permission from the government to visit a k'ho village, one of several Montainard tribes. They have been given housing, water and electricity by the government in an effort to curb their slash and burn farming practices. They have large families and it is a matriarchal society. Women pay a dowry to their husband family and the husband lives with his wife's family.

We visited the local school the K'ho people are not real big on sending their kids to school. The government provides free schooling in an effort to get more children to attend. They have a Vietnamese teacher who teaches the children to speak Vietnamese in addition to the K'ho language. 

We visited with the headman of the village and his wife who was weaving on a traditional back strap loom.

The village is Catholic and has a pole outside the church which is a nod to their animist roots, they treat it like a Christmas tree.

The bus was not able to negotiate the dirt road so we went up in a tractor trailer.

A really bumpy ride

Visit to a fishing village in Nha Trang

This is a real tourist town. Mostly Chinese and Russian. We escaped the crowd via boat. We were suppose to suppose to go on this boat but it couldn't get to the dock.

We sailed across to an island inhabited by fisherfolk. These gigantic lobsters were really beautiful. They were kept alive in a net to be sold to Chinese tourist for big bucks to be cooked in a floating restaurant.

There is this a fence made from bicycle wheels.

Everything is brought to the island by boat.

We were taken back to the boat in these bamboo boats. Bit of a challenge getting in and out.

I got to paddle mine.

Motor bike through the twilight.

This may be the most fun thing we've done yet. 

There was a toll taker at the end of this bridge.

Then we stopped at a local market to by vegetables.

After watching bamboo basket making

 We peeled and chopped our vegetables and ate them.

The return trip in the dark was by bus. Not so exciting.

More bits and pieces....

The dragon bridge in Da Nang shoots fire and water out of it's mouth on Saturday and Sunday nights. I was sorry to miss that. But we did get to walk across it.

Rambutin is a fruit I haven't tried before. I'd eat it again. It has a big seed in it.

Autrailian motorbike tour in Dalat. There was also a bicycle tour but not so many or as interesting.

We visited the Dalat University to give the students a chance to speak English with native speakers.

Tourist train ride in Dalat built by the French.

To visit the mosaic pagoda covered with bits of broken pottery and beer bottles.

Vietnamese Girl Scout uniform, another shopping adventure.

Cooking in Vietnam

We've had a chance to a bit of cooking along with the eating here in Vietnam,

We made fried spring rolls.

Squid salad that I would make again. The mint was fabulous.

And fish cooked in banana leaves.

All was pretty tasty.

The next day I did a private cooking class and market tour at the hotel next to our hotel.

There is a big market a half block away, just for locals my guide said. 

Her dad is a fisherman and her mom sells the fish at the market. Everything is so fresh, some of it is still alive.

I made rice flower pancakes stuffed with pork, shrimp,  bean sprouts and lettuce and herbs.

Them I made sweet and sour shrimps. I also made the fancy garnish.

Last I made eggplant in a clay pot.

It was all delicious. All the dishes were delicious. I would make the shrimp and eggplant dishes again, but the pancakes were a bit tricky.

Today we had two meals requiring us to cook at the table. We had seafood hotpot for lunch.

And tabletop BBQ for dinner.

The squid was my favorite. It fad a fabulous marinade.we also bbqed steak, shrimp and tuna.

Bits and pieces

Banh mi sandwich in Hoi An, they put whole peppercorns on it for a real zing!

This was a really long worm at My Son the ancient Hindu ruin.

I am bringing home a fancy peeler, fish scaler, bottle opener and blade. I couldn't resist when the chef at our cooking demo offered to pick them up and deliver to our hotel.

Bamboo bike.

Motorcycle wheels in fancy wrap.

Hoi An

Tourist magnet! Our third UNESCO world heritage site in Vietnam. Hoi An has an old town unscathed by the war, full of old houses, temples and tons of shops. 

We got an early start but the streets filled up fast. We did a bit of site seeing, entering the town by the covered Japanese bridge. It has barriers at both ends to keep out the motorbikes.

Next was a temple with a great dragon sculpture in the back made from broken pottery.

We hit the market with beautiful dragon fruit. We've been eating it for breakfast.

I was mot tempted by this bamboo bicycle.

Enjoyed a glass of ice coffee.

And did my best to contribute to the local economy.

 

Nuns, orphanages and nursery school

We visited an orphanage run buy Buddhist nuns, had dinner ar another Buddhist nunnery and visited a nursery school run by Catholic nuns. Who knew?

There are 150 kids here, youngest is 3 months old, oldest 38. They keep the ones with "mental" problems. The others are encouraged to find a job via vocational training or go to university. The older children help the younger ones and they are all considered family. It is run by Buddhist nuns.

The girls are trained to sew. 

Next we went for a meditation dinner at a Buddhist nunnery.

 All vegan food, no talking during the meal. And we didn't miss the meat. The fancy boxes contained dessert.

Next was a visit to a nursery school run by catholic nuns. All the children are Catholic, the second largest religious population after Buddhism. The French sent in missionaries.

Sara and I put our feet in the East Sea ( not the China sea, the Vietnamese do not think it belongs to China!)