Dalat

Some of the slimey eats at the local market.

We happened to be here for the annual moon festival when the moon is at its fullest. There are roving dragons with their own soundtrack (kids on drums and cymbals banging away) running all over the streets and into stores. Supposedly they bring good luck to those they visit.

This white one just about visited my face but when his laser beam eyes caught mine he turned the other way. I don't know if that's lucky or not?

Dalat to Nah Trang

We've been Holed up in Dalat for four days now which is one too many. We had scheduled a bus ride back to the coast for this morning but canceled it last night. If you have'nt heard there have been some really hellaceous storms on this side of the world. Only three days ago a typhoon barrelled through the Phillipines and as of the last time I checked there were at least two-hundred and forty dead. When it reached the South China Sea it picked up strength again and hit the cental coast of Vietnam pretty hard. So far there are twenty-four poeple dead and more than a few unaccounted for. Luckily for us we're further inland and at a higher elevation but we still got an idea of what this thing was like. The weather yesterday was just furious and from the inside of our room, five stories up we could hear the wind ripping through the streets. A tree fell on a woman while taking her kids to school on their scooter and a couple of back-packers new to the hotel said they passed a car with the top crushed in only a few kilometers outside of town.

So just to play it safe we put off our ride out for one day. Tomorrow we're heading back to the coast to Nah Trang. This is probably going to be nothing more than a pit-stop before heading north to Hoi An which is an area that took the brunt of the typhoon. I'm curious and a bit anxious to see what's happened out there.

And the picture is just something I took during a storm in Phu Quoc. It has no relation to the storm I just referenced.

Ca Phe

The coffee here is pretty great for the most part except that there is no such thing as a free refill. Each order is brewed at your table over your own cup in a mini-filter. And what they usually serve is just a dense, near syrupy liquid that is incredibly satisfying. Maybe that's the reason behind the refill rule. The amount of caffeine being served in every drip. But they shouldn't assume to know my tolerance. Or it could also be due to the extra jolt of energy you get when ordering Ca Phe with milk. They prefer to use sweetened condensed milk which is kind of like white yoo-hoo but sweeter. Actually I haven't seen any fresh milk in this country despite the prevalence of cows. Most places just serve the sweet stuff or boxed milk. One night at dinner I had a craving for the "fresh milk" offered on the menu and what arrived to my table was a slightly watered down glass of sweet milk with some ice-cubes. And the really strange thing was that when I got near the bottom of the glass there were a significant amount of sugar crystals just hanging around waiting to be drank. They actually added sugar to my sugar milk. I really do love it here.

This is food

For some reason I thought this was going to be filled with bacon or sausage. Hoping actually. But it turned out to be kind of sweet. Strange. This one cost about thirty cents but they had a slightly bigger version with about a dozen little piglets suckling at the teet which was priced at fifteen-thousand Dong. About eighty cents. Fair, no?

North from Saigon

So yesterday we caught a plane from Phu Quoc back to Saigon. The weather just wasn't letting up, the storms were getting stronger and more consistent and we found ourselves stuck close to the room. We rented a scooter a few days ago to try and get around the island but after we navigated the scattered brick path from our hotel and found the road to be nothing more than rutted out, wet red clay we turned back. So due to the weather conditions we had pretty much exhausted the island.

And now it's seven a.m. a day after we caught our flight and we're about to get on a bus for a six hour ride up north to the city of Dalat. At dinner last night we got to talking to a young ex-pat who's been here for a year and told us that there wasn't much to see there but we're going anyway. Maybe we'll only be there for a day or two before heading north again but we're going none the less. Supposedly it's rich with French Colonial architecture set mid-way up the mountains. So why not go?

Zen and the art of living like the rich

For Sunday

So here are a few pictures of some of the foods we've gotten into. Mostly hits and only a couple of misses. More strikes than gutters. All in all the food has been a highlight and a reason in itself to be here. The prices have been inconsistent for sure but we've yet to spend more than ten dollars on any meal. Most often it's costing us about three to five dollars. We could be paying even less but we've adopted a habit of ordering at least three entrees for any one meal. As I write this we have just finished our fourth meal of the day. The first being the staple, egg and bread. Lunch #1 began with a pork and mustard green soup followed by a fish and tamarind soup and washed down by a few cups of strong coffee and and some carrot juice. I'll have to reserve another post at another time to write about the sweet, sweet coffee they serve over here. Lunch #2 came when another (and there have been many in the last few days) violent storm found us and we waited it out in a beachside bar/restaurant. I wasn't particularly hungry yet as I sat there and enjoyed the rain but I just couldn't pass up a thick piece of Tuna steak cooked in chili and lime juice. Especially when it cost just over two dollars. And since we've got the menu open let's just add a couple giant BBQ prawns dipped in a honey/ chili sauce. And one more cup of coffee please because I'm on vacation. Thank you. But somehow the time wittles away, it's near dark, and well the best internet access around here also happens to be a fine spot for a bite to eat so why don't you just bring us a plate of coconut prawns. But it just seems a little sparse on the table so if you wouldn't mind also cooking up that pork chop with onion sauce to kind of fill the space we would certainly appreciate it. Hmm, maybe this getting to be a little unhealthy. Yes, that's probably right. OK then bring us a plate of fruit. Now I feel better.