We really enjoyed these 5 days in the countryside of Da Lat, we saw beautiful waterfalls, and lakes, the jungle, and local workshops like a rice wine cooker, a wood carver, silk worms etc. We always stopped in little shacks to eat something, I think Thao appreciated my half Vietnamese side, he told us one morning that he'd usually go for a more western friendly breakfast but since I am able to eat rice noodles at 8.30 like them we might as well stop there.
Thao and Lam were good riders, I saw them always using their blinkers, or being wary of the bumps on the road and the other cars or bikes.
About the cars, it's funny, most people have motorbikes, or trucks, but their cars are always spotless and modern. Actually Vietnamese are clean. Always using a broom even on the sidewalk. Sure, in the countryside you'll find garbage, but you really don't have to go to Vietnam to see this. It's not much dirtier than home.
We saw dogs in cages on a bike , that's really awful, I never saw dogs meant to be eaten in China but here you can't miss it.
Lam and Thao were always dedicated to their job, explaining things and taking care of us from a to z. They were really nice.
Eventually we arrived at Nha Trang, where we said goodbye to them, and left for Hoi An, a city in the middle of the country.
It's a lovely city, especially at night, full of lanterns and with a small islet next to it. The bridge to go from the mainland to the islet is really cute, with all these lights it was superb. We ate in a wonderful restaurant, shaped like a market and actually called The Market. We wanted to go to another restaurant but it was full... The waiter suggested we go to The Market, it turns out it's the same owner.
You can see the food being prepared for you on the side of the restaurant, and we had the local specialities, all very nice.
During the day we saw also the ruins of My Son, a temple built by the Cham People, some centuries ago, but mostly destroyed during the Vietnam War, when Congs hid there and US bombed the place. The next day (this means today) we went back to The Market and had a cooking class. We got to eat what we prepared it was all beautiful and tasted great. Definitely the best restaurant we ate at in Vietnam. And the Vietnamese cuisine is really wonderful.
The girl that showed us around the kitchen was really helpful. The girl at the hotel (actually more like a guesthouse) we stayed at was also really helpful.
You can see that people really appreciate when you try to say a few words in their language. The father of the girl of the hotel always smiled at me, appreciated that my mother is South Vietnamese, and said Meh Vietnam (mother Vietnamese) all the time.
When Celine was sick people always went out of their way to help her, Renaud asked for news days after we stayed a his place, the girl a the hotel tried her best to help us, offered us to use her personal bathroom because we arrived at 7.00AM, and our room was not ready yet.
The girl at the restaurant asked us, after our cooking class, what would please us the most, then asked her team to prepare it for us.
In the afternoon we took a car to go to Hue, city of the Imperial Palace. We had a private car take us there, they were two, one of them was a German speaking Vietnamese guy. I understood him quite well, less than Celine of course but quite well. He was really chatty and we talked football, of all things! He even knows the Belgian clubs, crazy!
This night we stay in a beautiful hotel, they offered us drinks when we arrived while they checked us in, and we have the honeymoon suite, with jacuzzi, round bed, view over the river and the city. We had a nice regular massage and now we're going to watch a movie.
Life is good friends!
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