September 26, Hoi Chi Minh City to Da Lat
Another travel day, this one on the bus for most of the day. We made several stops between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, several with things to eat or taste.
It was back to a familiar rhythm in our Ho Chi Minh City hotel, with breakfast, packing, and gathering in the lobby before we were ready to go. We moved to the curb to wait for the bus, because the bus could only wait for about a minute before it could be fined. A couple of the hotel staff helped load the luggage while we boarded.
It didn’t take us too long to get past the Ho Chi Minh City traffic, and we were soon in a more rural setting. The first stop was a smaller rest stop than we had been at before, but there were still several things you could buy. I saw some packages that looked like mochi, and Bao confirmed that’s what it was.
Another stop was a durian stand with hundreds of fruit in baskets. Bao had the vendor pick out a smallish one, and he proceeded to cut it open and pry out the fruit. It did have a strong smell, but the surprise was the very soft texture. I think we all agreed that it wasn’t for us, but it was good to have tried it.
Another stop was to taste tea. It was iced green tea, and they also had iced coffee samples. I sipped Melody’s coffee and it was quite mild, almost like it already had milk in it.
We then crossed a small part of Tri An Lake where there were a lot of sheds floating on the water. Bao mentioned they were fishing for carp. We also did a quick stop to take a look at coffee plants which had plenty of fruit on the vine. Bao also pointed out tea plants.
At one point I saw this big rock that was sticking in the road. It even was painted at the bottom to make sure drivers didn’t hit it.
Da Lat
When we got to Da Lat we got checked into our hotel and went to our rooms. We found that we had a great view of the park and lake in front of the hotel. After we did a little unpacking, we went out walking for a bit before the sun went down.
The park is at the base of the dam that forms the lake, so we started on the hotel side of the river and started downstream. Lots of flowers, and everything seemed well-maintained. We crossed a bridge across the lake and were greeted with even more flowers on the other side as we walked upstream towards the dam. Stairs were going to the street at the top of the dam, so we went up those and crossed to the lake.
We decided to walk at least partway around the lake and stopped to take a look at some sculptures at the shore. As we were walking back up, Bao called out to us. He was jogging around the lake, saying it was 5 kilometers. We continued walking but decided to turn back.
Since the crosswalk to the hotel side of the road was right next to a busy traffic circle, we continued walking the other way around the lake until we could find a quieter crosswalk. We saw a swan pedal boat going by, thinking it was quite cute. After going across a quieter crosswalk, we went back to the hotel.
While we were walking, another member of the group had gone to the rooftop. Back at the hotel, we passed our room to go to the top floor. There were a couple of cafés there, so we made a mental note of that, especially since it also served gelato.
We were all meeting up to go to dinner, so we took a seat in the lounge. When Bao showed up, I asked how his run was, and he said he turned around and went back the other way, ending up probably doing about 3 kilometers. As other people came down, the discussion turned to the swan boats. A couple of people had rented one and said it was quite a workout. I looked at the photo I took, but it wasn’t their boat.
People had noticed open-air electric trams driving around, but they were not allowed to go outside of the central area of the city. We grabbed a couple of taxis to go to the restaurant. It was Italian-themed and was in a much less busy part of town.
Everyone had a great time at dinner. Among all of us, we covered a wide variety of the menu. We opted to share an artichoke tart and squid ink pasta, with tiramisu for dessert.
Having had plenty to eat, we piled into taxis for the ride back and called it a night.
