Doing Dalat

Arriving in Dalat felt like arriving in another country. After four months of sweat and flat, seeing mountains and coniferous trees and needing a jacket is just a whole other world. It does not fit into the conception of Vietnam that I have been constructing. Friday was largely uneventful, except for the main events of Morena's departure, and my arrival in Dalat.

In Dalat I explored the market and the night life before hitting the sheets in preparation for today's big day. We took a 15km (just over 9 miles) trek in the mountains. Twenty minutes in, it was already magnificent. We went top to bottom and then back up to the top, and maybe down and then up again. I got to taste a coffee fruit and a passion fruit and touch a fuzzy gourd. The Vietnamese guides asked me if I was Vietnamese, or at least part-Asian. We crossed rickety bridges over brown rivers that accompanied our steps. We were eagerly greeted by people who actually live here, pick coffee, and make legs of that hike daily. At the top we stopped for lunch, the most hard-earned and fulfilling feast of french bread sandwiches and fruits galore. We watched people motorbike over seemingly impossible paths and those same rickety bridges. We trundled through grasses tall enough to hide me. I'm not sure if I can do it justice with words, but I certainly tried to do it justice with photographs, and took almost 200 pictures to that end. Take a look.

Coffee!

Crops, mountain, pines, clouds: most of the day's sights

First time I've ever had fresh passion fruit! I picked it myself.

About to cross the first bridge

Partway across the bridge

Daily life, apparently

More coffee

The second bridge

New friend!

Got a little too friendly

Intrepid explorer

View from the top

If the pictures don't make it clear enough, it was a fantastic, breathtaking day.