Dalat - Monday Feb 9th 2010

Monday February 9th 2010 230 pm, 25C and clear!

Hello everyone! Nancy again!

We are still in beautiful Dalat! We decided to make it a bit of a home base for a while. A little bit of absolutely perfect weather before descending into the heat and humidity of the Mekong Delta on the 12th.

We are in our favourite place - the monastary at the end of the cable car ! A haven of quiet and bamboo trees! There is also a man made lake at the base of the hills.

Yesterday while Brian was off riding around visiting old military sites on the back of an “Easy Rider” motorcycle, we decided to rescue some turtles that were for sale on the back of a motor bike in the blazing sun. The turtles and many varieties of fish were in bags of water waiting for the Tet holiday(as pets - not food). They had been out in the hot sun for 2 days! At the girls insistence we approached the vendor and bought all 8 of the turtles - there were 4 tiny baby soft shell snout nose ones, and 4 medium sized Cootes paradise types. The man, and his buddies who were watching this amusing interaction, could not believe we wanted any turtles at all let alone all 8 of them!! It probably made a good story to tell at dinner - Crazy Canadians who didn’t know what they were doing!

After we bought the creatures we hailed a cab and set off for the cable car! We disguised the clear plastic bag within a dark one just in case the turtles didn’t meet the height requirement of the cable car. We hopped off at the end and took the path through the pine trees on the monestary grounds to the lake. I have no idea really if the lake is the right habitat for the turtles but I figure they had a better chance there than cooking on the motorcycle! Of course the lake front is populated by boat rides little shacks that sell pop and water and various souvenir stands. We chose the least populated cafe and bought some drinks as cover . We then let them out one by one with a little prayer for there survival! They all swam away and I hope they fine a safe place to hide. On our way back we passed some very sad and hot monkeys in cages that screeched very menacingly as we passed. We still had a few cashews left and as we tossed them to the monkeys, one reached out his paw and hit my hand so hard I thought I would be off to Singapore for rabies shots post haste! However he didn’t break the skin and my blood pressure eventually returned to normal!

It was probably some sort of weird payback for Tamio biting our neighbour this fall !

We also met a young women who had a little booth selling handicrafts and actually had a little loom set up at the front of her shop.e and She was weaving a beautiful red silk and cotton panel that would eventually be made into a table cloth. We started chatting and she told us that while studying” Tourism” (which seems to be very popular) at University she visited a minority village. The minority people here are very poor and marginalized it seems. While at the village, which was a weaving village, she hatched an idea to open a shop and sell the weaving for the women who wove it. After she was finished school she returned to the village and the women taught her to weave . They also built her 2 looms . The looms were amazing - very basic, primitive and effecient. She showed us what she was making and explained the symbols in the cloth. The style was of the K’ho (?) people, who live not too far from Dalat city. I may try and visit tommorrow.

Bye for now

N