Our morning began by waiting an hour for the tour company's car to pick us up! We had been told that the car would be at our hotel between 8:00 and 8:30am... we called around 8:00am to check in and were assured that the car would be there at 8:30am. Come 8:40am... we called again and were told the car had picked up other people on accident (what?!).
A van finally came to get us... the driver did not speak English, although we had been told by the company that we would have an English-speaking tour guide. We drove for a while, through rain and winding mountain roads, to finally arrive at some parking lot filled with other tour vans, taxis, and motorbikes. A man got into the van - our English-speaking tour guide! ...We're on the right track... even though it's past 9:30am at this point.
The tour guide looks over my printed copy of the tour itinerary and begins calling someone... he seemed a bit distraught. He and the driver kept talking to one another in Vietnamese, laughing... and then making more phone calls.
Come to find out, the tour company that I signed up through and paid, is based in Hanoi (totally different city) and had just let this tour guide know of our tour that morning. The tour guide in the video above said that the company does not know Dalat very well - what we had signed up for wasn't very do-able... he thought an elephant ride for an hour was much too long and did not make sense. He was also worried that we had signed up for a "private tour" but he was already in the middle of a group tour... hence the sweater and bags on the van's seats behind us. ...We soon realized how unorganized the whole thing was and that we were already late to this group tour.
I was not pleased. I know flexibility is key here... and you cannot expect anything to go as planned... but the tour company had seemed like a reliable one and we had already paid... I did not want to be taken advantage of. I ended up on the phone with the lady whom I booked the tour through and as I am explaining my complaints, she kept skirting the problems and just kept saying, "You will enjoy the day, it will be good." UGH. We were starting the day out late - having missed the stop at the King's Palace (which we did hear wasn't much to miss anyway)... and didn't know what the heck we had gotten ourselves into with this tour.
Like the rest of my time in Vietnam so far... we just went with it... not much else to do.
The entire morning reminds me of a fabulous quote that I came upon the afternoon before leaving for Dalat:
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. -Lao Tzu
Touche Lao Tzu, touche.
People in the tour group started coming back to the bus and finding two new people (Kathleen and myself) added to their group! We had probably taken someone's seats... but no one seemed to mind... and then we were off to visit the oldest church in Dalat for the beginning of our tour (finally). :P
The church we went to is a Catholic church... having been built in 1911, the church is now 100 years old.
The Domain de Marie Church...
This door has the same design as the Notre Dame Cathedral in the center of Ho Chi Minh City! (Maybe it is some well-known design that I am not aware of... and maybe you're laughing as you read this.)
Our tour guide liked that I was taking a picture of it - he said that it is very traditional.
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