We were very lucky to have found the 26.00 flights from Saigon to Dalat! The flight took only 40 min instead of a 6 hour bus ride. We arrived by taxi (it was a beautiful 35 min. drive from the airport- mountainous country covered with lovely pine trees.) and were dropped off at our hotel- Thieng An. As soon as stepped out of our taxi we were struck by how chilly it was! We went for a walk for supper and all I had was my new shawl from Bali and it was certainly not warm enough! People here are walking around in winter coats and scarves-a bit much, but a hoodie would be good! We found the pho restaurant recommended to us and it turned out to be delicious. That's all they serve. We had yogurt and fresh orange juice - scrumptious!! and a strange drink called lemon juice with salted plum. We are into trying anything new lately... And it was pretty darn good- very refreshing if you can believe it.

Trying to sleep in our gigantic 10' ceilinged room with a balcony facing the street was a real feat. Terry asked Mom while skyping if she could hear the bus drive in through our balcony and out the window.... Horns honk continually and you should hear the crazy variety of sounds their horns make! Cars with wild ringtones!

Thank goodness for earplugs - we actually slept alright. You don't really need aircon here- it goes down to about 10 degrees with a cool breeze! This is unbelievable to us after the searing heat everywhere else.

The next day we taxied to a monastery at the top of a mountain (took a 2 man cable car which swayed A LOT in the wind) and it had beautifully landscaped meditation gardens. Also went to Prenn falls which seemed to be THE spot for wedding photos! It is certainly lovely but it is funny to see how they have added every photo op prop there! There is a suspension bridge, adorable bridges of every description, horses and carriages, and the piece de resistance - two huge swan paddle boats! All this with a pretty waterfall! We did see two Wedding photo sessions going on - one looked liked they were re-enacting Prince Charming. Another looked like matador on the horse complete with sombrero! We had fun taking pictures - BUT the most fun I had was .... Riding an ostrich! Can you believe they had 10 of them? They eat ostrich around here so I guess these did double duty.

I have always wanted to ride one! They herded it over to me and I was a little worried when I saw it had no bridle or anything to guide it. I ever so gracefully stepped off the stand onto the saddle of this side stepping bird. I obviously did not sit in the proper spot as the two 'herders' started forcefully shoving my butt in place. Fun...anyway, no sooner had I been 'seated', and the ostrich took off at a trot! Luckily I found the grippy thing on the saddle under the feathers and hung on. Very weird feeling! The herders caught up to me and ran alongside the run away ostrich. He calmed down and walked, or lurched rather, around the corral. So that was fun and Terry had a good laugh!
We went to the Market which was again something else. This one was just about all in a building. But this one has tons of clothing sellers. They all seem to be yelling something - quite the sight! Their clothes are in giant canvas bags that they lay open on he sidewalk and everyone digs through the clothes!

The next day we hired two Easy Rider guides on motorcycles. The weather threatened rain but we decided to go ahead. It was a great way to see the countryside which is really beautiful- they grow tons of fruit here and every kind of vegetable imaginable. They are known for their excellent produce and especially their flowers which they ship to Saigon everyday. So we saw a flower farm, a coffee plantation,(FYI 3 main types of coffee- moka (highest quality, robusta, and then arabica (lowest according to our guide whose family has a coffee farm- Vietnam 2nd largest exporter of coffee in the world)
a rice wine operation (a hooch making outfit according to Terry!), and then we stopped for lunch at roadside hut... The guides were excited for us to try the 'delicious but cheap food'! "You can choose anything!"
By this point we have tried quite a few crazy foods but this was cooked earlier in the morning and just sitting on plates in a showcase thing. We usually avoid that. We chose rice and vegetables and pork. But that's not what we got exactly. But we ate it and if you can believe it, it was really tasty! We sat in a room which opened out onto a river and the whole thing was fun. But then the sky just opened and dumped buckets and buckets of rain. A Torrential downpour!
We waited it out for awhile and it did calm down, so we donned the provided raingear and were on the road again. Lucky for me I had a helmet with a visor, Terry had a cool Nazi type one!

We ended the day with a look at the Crazy House which was built by an eccentric lady architect. wild!

we ordered in and relaxed and read.

This morning we were supposed to catch our coach bus to Na Trang but NO! We got onto a small bus! We were not happy. We are currently in the backseat swinging from side to side as we wrist and turn down crazy mountain roads that have been washed out in two places so far... No aircon JUST fan.. Really not happy. :(