Dalat, Day 1 - Cable Car to Monastery

From the church, we headed to the Truc Lam Monastery and Pagoda --the largest pagoda in Dalat.

The monastery is on Phuong Hoang Mountain and we took a cable car ride to reach it. It was still raining a bit at this time but we enjoyed the ride and I still managed to get some pictures.

And here are some photos walking up to the cable car entrance:

(Love this one.)  :P

The monastery grounds are beautiful and so peaceful.

A short video...

This is our tour guide, Henry (not Handy, which I was calling him a few times until Kathleen corrected me!)... and the van behind him...

Dalat, Day 1 - Group Tour

Before leaving for Dalat, Kathleen and I booked a tour to go on during the day on Friday. I'm usually not a big guided tour person but since we were only in Dalat for a short time, I thought it would be fun to see the sights and get a good overview of the city.

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.

I love Dalat... da lot!

Ahhhh Dalat, Vietnam - what a beautiful city in the South Central Highlands of Vietnam. It felt fabulous to be back in the mountains... with cool, crisp air and not nearly as much traffic as Saigon.

Here's a shot from Google Maps that shows where Dalat (A) is located within Vietnam (you can see Ho Chi Minh City in the south and the capitol, Hanoi, up north)...

We had a 3-day weekend, as Friday was Vietnam's Independence Day. In 1945, this is the day when Ho Chi Minh stood in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi and read the Declaration of Independence for Vietnam's independence from foreign control (Chinese, French, Japanese).

I flew to Dalat (about an hour flight) with two other new teachers at the middle school: Donna --the art teacher-- and Kathleen --an English Language Arts teacher--. We arrived to our hotel late Thursday night and our return flight was Saturday early evening... 1 1/2 days to conquer Dalat. (I look forward to being able to get back to Dalat again sometime - it's such a do-able trip and a great place!)

My travel gals:

People kept telling me of the French influence in the architecture throughout Saigon but I've found that it's not as prevalent as I thought it would be... in Dalat, however, the French influence can be seen all over... the architecture throughout the city is beautiful. I was surprised to see many pine trees along with the palm trees!

Dalat is centered around Lake Xuan Huong - where many people hang out around at night... pedal boating in a swan boat, taking a horse-drawn carriage ride, sitting on a bench at the side of the lake, or taking a stroll. I love that Dalat is not super well-known among foreign tourists (yet)... it is very much a Vietnamese vacation locale.

Supposedly, Dalat is the number one destination for Vietnamese honeymooners! ...Come to find out, the hotel that we booked is more of a compound filled with bungalows and flower gardens... for couples on their honeymoon.  :P

We stayed in the main lodge - our rooms are behind the flag.

 View from my window.  :)

 Outside our room.

The hotel is filled with silk paintings for sale.

Other pictures from the hotel grounds...

Great greenhouse

 Rooftop

 WHAT are these?? We saw them at and around the market as well... always being sold with plants. 

(Do you think it's a type of plant??)

Karaoke tent at the hotel!

The produce is amazing in Dalat! Fruits, vegetables, flowers, and tea that I haven't yet seen in Saigon are prevalent among street stalls and the Dalat Market. I bought a good variety of dried and candied fruits (even some kind of gummy sweet potato) - it's pretty awesome.

This really couldn't have been a better weekend getaway.  :D  ...I'll post more from the trip over the next couple of days (trust... I took plenty of photos).  :P

DOH!

So... my principal just broke the news to me...

Only 1 student signed up for Poetry Slam Club.

Hahahaha... I had a feeling something like that might happen. Especially when I was up against Dodge Ball Club.

So... no club for me 1st semester (could be worse!)... and we'll either try to pitch Poetry Slam Club again for 2nd semester and advertise it OR I'll just do something else. It's too bad - if I could have gotten a group of kids started, I think they'd really enjoy it. I had some fun things planned... food too even!

Last spring I guess there was a group of kids going to a local orphanage... they started in the spring and only went a couple of times it sounds like. A teacher here is interested in starting it up as soon as possible and having it be a weekly, year-long after school activity. I'm totally interested in that... so hopefully that will work out and I can be a part of it... maybe that will be in lieu of my 'club' - sheesh.  :P