DaLat was crying at our departure yesterday morning....at least that is the way I’m choosing to see it. There were tears pouring from the heavens when we awoke! We have had such good weather for all of our time on this trip (despite the weather forecasts being horrible!) that this actually came as a bit of a surprise to us. But on the upside....it gave us a great excuse to enjoy our rooms a little longer. We’d all picked up “breakfast” the night before at the bakery across the street and so were prepared with our 3 in 1 coffees and peanut butter baguettes.
We’d made arrangements for a driver to pick us up from the hotel at noon (check out time). The plan was that he would take us to the Linh Phuoc pagoda about 20 minutes out of town and then to the airport in time for our flight to Saigon. That pagoda is ranked as one of the top things to see in DaLat so we didn’t want to risk missing it! As luck would have it we got the same driver we’d had drive us from Nahtrang to DeLat a few days ago so it was like seeing an old friend. He reported that we definitely looked better than we did when he’d met us at the train station! LOL. We all agreed that we certainly felt better too. :-). As an added bonus, Mr Dogh had also brought his wife and new baby daughter with him this morning. His wife is a lovely woman and spoke excellent English. Bonus! She is a tour guide and so she was able to tell us about everything we were seeing as we passed by it along the road to the pagoda and also to the airport later in the day. The baby’s name is Tinh Tu which means the bright stars in the sky and that baby is certainly pretty enough to be a bright star in the sky! She is just 3 months and 9 days old.....what a gorgeous little girl and a proud mom and dad.
WOW! That was about all any of us could say once we arrived at the pagoda. It was stunningly beautiful! We weren’t able to take photos inside the actual temple section but we could take them from outside that space and certainly we could take them anywhere else around the buildings that we wanted to......and we did! The detail was incredible. All of the buildings are covered (inside and out/ceiling and floor/handrails/walls/alcoves) with mosaic tiles and shapes such as serpents wound around railings and pillars. There was simply too much to look at! There was nothing to say except WOW!
We took our time wandering through the main temple. It felt peaceful and calm in this holy place. There were a few locals and others who had travelled to be here making their prayers and spending time in gratitude and offering. By the time we left the main temple building the rain had shifted to a mere drizzle so we were almost able to dodge the drops as we moved from that building to the next one. At the Bell Tower we climbed the stairs up to the level that housed the massive bell. Each of us took a turn to write a wish/prayer for whomever/whatever we wanted. From there we passed that paper to a lady who was working by the bell. She dipped the back of the paper into glue and glued it onto the bell. At that point we each got to go to the other side of the bell where the big “stick” hung, suspended and at the ready to hit the bell. Each of us took a turn to hit the bell and think about the wish that was glued to the bell as the resonance of the sound carried our prayer into the heavens. After that it was back to the little lady who then gave us a stick of incense to complete the process with a moment of silent reflection after which we stuck our incense stick into a vat with several others, re-donned our shoes, and climbed back down the stairs. There were other buildings on the site as well. One was home to a massive Buddha character that is made up of 650,000 dried flowers. It took 30 artists and 600 Buddhists a full month to make him! Another Buddha statue was sooooo huge and set into one end of another massive room. He was a creamy colour and actually took my breath away when I saw him! In that same room there were dozens of pillars (all mosaic and with serpents wound round them) and hundreds of statues and many many life-sized and life-like monk figures amongst the statues. All of us just wandered about exclaiming WOW and being ever so grateful that we had decided to make this side trip this morning.
From the pagoda Mr Dogh and his wife took us to the airport. We passed by and learned about the flower village (there were about a million greenhouse roofs in the village!). Many of these greenhouses are home to the artichoke that is also a major crop here in DaLat. The artichoke is used to make a tea (a delicious tea). Some of the less expensive versions use the artichoke leaf but the very very best quality uses 90%-100% artichoke flowers. Artichoke tea is not only delicious but also considered to be a very healthy drink option.
The DaLat airport is clean and new and small so our wait time there was enjoyable. Our plane was an hour late and so we had time for dinner and coffee and a game of cards. We were playing “10” and within minutes had a Vietnamese couple at our table wanting to learn what the game was. She is from South Carolina so had good English which put her at a huge advantage over him as she could choose how much strategy she wanted to share with him once they were playing the game themselves (he speaks no English)
Our flight to Saigon with Jetstar was excellent....just 35 minutes in the air. We thought our arrival in Saigon might be challenging but no....ours were the first cases off the plane and security was super quick with checking our baggage tags and as soon as we were through...there was Kim....our friend in Saigon. She had a taxi waiting for us and zoom we were off! Our hotel was just 20 minutes away and it was 20 minutes of insanity! The traffic was plentiful BUT....it was relatively quiet in comparison to all the other cities we’ve been in on this trip. Here in Saigon there is not nearly as much honking as there was in Hanoi or even DaLat. As we neared our hotel we all sat in the cab agape as the street we were on was the main walking street. It was a walking street but motorbikes and taxis are also allowed. The vehicles on the walking street were one thing but the thing that left us all agape was the MUSIC. That is typed in CAPS as the music was soooo loud! And it was that electronic crap that can barely be called music. It was coming from every direction! And there were lights everywhere! Billboards and buildings and well.....I don’t know.....just everywhere! Overwhelmed is definitely the feeling we all had in that moment! When our cab pulled up in front of our hotel, the Attica, we all just sat there for a minute wondering......by some miracle will this place be soundproof?? Short answer to that question is....”no”. Our rooms were literally rocking with the beat of the music coming from outside. That is not an exaggeration people! The building was rocking! Our rooms looked out over the Main Street so we thought...surely there has to be something better than this. In fact it was so bad and we had such hope that we asked to be moved to two different rooms. The hotel accommodated us and moved us to rooms at the back of the hotel but guess what....that might have stopped a little of the reverberation that was happening in the room and on the glass in the window BUT....it was still LOUD! The reception desk even had a bucket of ear plugs we could have if we wanted so I’m guessing this wasn’t a first time for them! In the end, we spent the night. In the morning (thanks to our friend Kim) the hotel moved us to one of their sister properties the Ace Hotel which is just a few blocks away and much much quieter!
We are ever so grateful to know that we will be able to get a good sleep tonight before we head out on our Mekong Delta tour at 7 tomorrow morning. This afternoon we will rest (and maybe even nap a bit) as last night was a long one! Heh....kind of like the train again!!!
Saigon is a busy busy city. We’ll venture out in search of something to eat this afternoon and then tonight Kim is coming back to go out in the city with us so we will see a few of the sights then. Perhaps there will some time for sightseeing after the Mekong Delta but boy oh boy the 10 million people who live in HCMC sure do like to party!
Well.....tonight just happened and what a fun night we had. First it was a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant patio right in the middle of the downtown district. The temperature was perfect...maybe about 25 or 27 degrees and there was a perfect breeze to keep you comfortable. We truly felt like we were on a fancy vacation! :-). From there we were off to the SkyDeck (48 floors up) where the views of the city were spectacular! Gail even managed to conquer some of her fear of heights....well maybe conquer is too strong a word. But she did manage to enjoy the views from the back wall of the deck. :-). Once we’d seen the skyscape from every angle we got back in the elevator to go up to the 60th floor where the Heineken Brewery museum and bar are. What fun we had there! We learned a little about the history and then we were treated to a 3D experience that had us as ingredients in the making of a vat of beer! After being well shaken up on that “ride” we were into the games room where we could virtually drive a race car, kick a virtual soccer ball or play a game of fooz ball IRL. I’m happy to report that I managed to win the soccer game....I had three balls and only needed two of them to score 2/3. Wahoo! Who knew I could play soccer! LOL. :-). As well, Lynda and I were the fooz ball champs! In celebration of our championship status we were invited into the bar where we were taught how to correctly pull a perfect beer (which we did like the pros that we are) and then it was time to start the drink fest. That first beer that we’d poured ourselves tasted so good that we just had to have another one in the party section of the bar. Yes...it was a fun night and well worth the 250,000 dong we’d paid to do it.
We’re looking forward to a good night sleep tonight as sleep wasn’t really in the cards for any of us last night. Tomorrow morning our driver and guide will be here to pick us up at 7 so the hotel will have some breakfast ready for us at 6:45 so we don’t have to head out on an empty stomach. We’re excited about the next two days of touring in the Mekong Delta. Not sure about how much wi-fi we’ll have from there but if we do...you’ll hear from us as I’m pretty sure there will be an abundance of photo opps. :-)
Till next time,
Darlorlyngai
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