“I just… ate a bug”

Day 8

Full disclosure I think I took 200 pictures today, but I won’t try to post all of them here.

Took an “Easy Rider” motorcycle tour that started at 8am and ended at 530pm. Full day of awesomeness.

Right off the bat we got to see Leah’s water buffalo. Not at a farm, no roaming the roads.

There is a beautiful valley with a golf course in it. The owner is Swedish. Would have loved to play but didn’t have time. Dad we should totally go!

Chicken Village –

K’Ho people are the indigenous people that originally inhabited Dalat. Specifically the Lạch group of K’Ho. The city gets it’s name from “river of the Lạch people” Đà Lạch then became Đà Lạt. Pretty cool. They live in “chicken village.” Long before they had clocks, they depended on the wild rooster and chicken to wake them up. They also make beautiful blankets and clothes.

These are coffee beans drying in the sun

Mushroom Farm –

Mushroom farms are very popular in Đà Lạt. The mushrooms are harvested and sold at a premium. 1Kg can sell for $9 USD or 204,000đ. It’s a lot. The science is very cool. They pack the bags full and water them. The result is high quality organic mushrooms.

Pongour Falls –

The largest waterfall near Đà Lạt. Also know as the “waterfall seven floors” is 40m high (131′) and 100m wide (328′). It’s surrounded by 2.5 hectares (6 acres) of jungle. It was the hunting ground of Bảo Đại the final emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty, which was the last ruling family of Vietnam 1926-1945.

Leah’s favorite flower!

In spite of this sign, there are people climbing in the falls. You can see them in the other pics.

a Snail and his poop

Silk Worm Factory –

So this is where real Vietnamese silk is made. Not to be confused with the low quality fabric that gets hawked from some shady vendors at the market saying “this Vietnam silk” aka cotton with a label that says ‘silk’ lol. Here beautiful fabric is made. They also cook the silk worm larvae with lemongrass and pepper. Yep we had to eat it. Part of the tour! I have a video of Leah being fearless and biting in to it. And that wasn’t even the weirdest thing we ate today. “I just ate… A bug” (first person to name that movie quote without googling it wins a prize!)

Weasel Coffee –

So what do you think weasel coffee is? Yup – weasels swallow coffee beans and poop them out whole. Then they are collected, washed, washed, and washed then made in to coffee, which is sold at double the price of regular beans. It definitely tasted different than the regular. Don’t worry, we didn’t bring any back for you all. Oh and they make rice wine. The use the rice wine to make Snake Wine. The catch the most poisonous snake they can, kill it, gut it, leaving the poison in they then ferment the whole snake in rice wine. It is used to increase fertility in men. I did NOT try it. The guide was very specific, you have to let the snake ferment for at least 100 days and drink only 1 shot per day, at the very most 2 shots per day. No Thank You!

Weasel that poops the beans out

coffee steeping

done steeping

Snake Wine made from King Cobra found in the Dalat Jungle

Mama and 2 puppies tired out

Cricket Farm –

Hmm why would they farm crickets? They are excellent at it. There has to be millions of them. The brilliant thing is none can escape because the top edge of each cricket pit has a slippery tile so if they crawl up they fall back in. Oh yea, they farm then to eat them too. Fried with lemongrass and pepper. I’m starting to think I could each anything if it was fried with lemongrass and pepper. Bring on the brussel sprouts, Wait maybe not. So the funny thing it’s the owner was a friend of our tour guide and wanted us to try the crickets and had rice wine for us. It was clear that he had quite a head start on us. He was totally wasted but was very happy we were there, he gave us it all for free. Finally our driver reminded our new friend that he had to drive and could not drink more rice wine, and we headed out. If you are ever in Đà Lạt I highly recommend the Easy Rider tour. Make sure you get the right one, since there are like 5 that have the same name lol.

We finished the tour with a visit to a greenhouse to see some flowers and then some breathtaking views of the city.

Here are some more random photos from today.

This is a man made reservoir that they keep dammed during the wet season, then open it in the dry season.

There is good fishing and no license needed!

This is called Elephant mountain. You can see the head and trunk pointing left.

Had to take a picture of my driver from my point of view.

Our guide laughs and says “we call lady mountian” hehe

Selfie

Massage of Death –

You think I’m being dramatic, no we almost died. Well maybe not quite. We had our tour guides drop us off at a spa since our backs and butts were numb from riding all day. Turns out they tried to kill us. It was not a “swedish massage” like we got in Saigon. (If only we could go back to Cát Mộc)  I had a very rough massage with super hot stones and poor Leah got super hot blankets and then coined by mistake. All over her back and shoulders. Ouch. So painful. Lesson learned, make sure they offer ‘Swedish Massage’ and understand the word nhẹ  = gentle.

Okay that was a long one! Next post from Hoi An, City of Tailors!