Yesterday was full of noteworthy adventure so here goes. In the morning we hired scooters to track down a silk farm. We failed, and ended up at Lang Biang, a hilly area, 12 km north of Da Lat. Eager for a stroll we tackled this hill. The walk was mostly a solid gradient and took about 4 hours to complete. The last 30 minutes of which (up and down) was spent stumbling and sliding over the steep slippery slopes. All in all it was an ace hike.
Fig 1. Us on the way up, still quite happy
Fig 2. Relaxing at the top
We stopped off at a school field in the afternoon and ended up joining in a game of soccer with the local kids. They were right in to it, and going pretty hard. Our goalie must have been about 2 ft nothing but had no fear, running straight at Dustin and successfully nabbing the ball preventing a sure goal early on in the game. I managed a couple of sweet looking offensive moves too, but after colliding with a kid - no injuries fortunately - I eased off. There were a few great set ups with a couple of great crosses (primarily from Dustin/Tom's team) which made this look like a full on game. The kids were good, which was bad for me as I am not. Speed was my only redeeming feature, but left me pretty tired pretty quick.
Fig 3. Where we played soccer
Fig 4. Some local kids - all laughed hysterically whenever viewing their own picture
The last tourist activity for the day was a trip out to a waterfall. 40.000 additional VND allows you to access it via roller coaster. We'd be mad not to. On the coaster you can control the pace of it. Dustin attempted no breaking but when the thing felt like it was threatening to bounce off the rails he eased off the pace a little. The falls themselves were pretty, but I think the real attraction was definitely the coaster-access.
Fig 5. Waterfall
On from there, dinner was a bit abysmal. Service, quality, drinks; Tom was busy filling in his Trip Advisor feedback whilst waiting on a beer.
The cafes in Da Lat are brilliant. Probably helped by the coffee also being brilliant. They are fairly uniform, narrow, bench seats down the side walls, two rows of tables, and stools. And many with clubbing music absolutely pumping. (This morning's coffee & read was cut short due to the catchy beats being just a bit too extreme for this hour). Now, the really neat thing about these places is they have Xiangqi boards (Chinese Chess) for patrons to play on. Further reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi
This game is excellent fun. It's similar to Chess except different rules governing pieces, and I am finding this to be a lot more fun. I played a gruelling game against Tom, then swapped boards to play Craig. On Craig's second or so move his Vietnamese neighbour was providing corrective suggestions by shaking his head and pointing. By the fourth move, just when Craig was at risk of loosing a Chariot, the Vietnamese chap, head still shaking, brushed Craig's hand away from the board and took over. This was a very hard game and I feel I held my own surprisingly well. The chap was phenomenal at ensuring every piece was marked so that, at many points, any move I made resulted in me losing a piece. The aim of the game seems to be about protecting players as well as keeping sufficient pressure on the opponent. I ended up playing a third game against a different Vietnamese chap. With a new found appreciation of keeping the pressure on and marking we danced around the board. There were a few points where I was at risk of loosing a few valuable pieces, and when it started to look a bit bad I went on a massive offensive and actually managed to win. I must confess this was probably down to luck as I am sure the chap let his guard down.
Fig 6. Learning how to play Chinese Chess the night before
Finally finally finally, coffee. I am so excited to be surrounded by coffee plantations on every side. A couple of days ago I sampled coffee berries and was intrigued by their flavour: it was in between a stringy pea and a watery avocado (I think similar to the Mexican Mole flavour, but not 100% sure as I haven't eaten it in years). Being surrounded by the stuff, and much to my delight, the coffee here has been amazing. It's very sweet and very strong. Not like Italian espresso strong, but rich in vibrant fruity flavours. I'm not usually a fan of my sweet coffees but this stuff really is great. This is often (always?) served with condensed milk which is a very tasty accompaniment, and I guess what adds the sweetness. I suspect even the 'black' coffees are served with a dash of the stuff.
Departing today, and off to Nha Trang on another bus this afternoon.
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