Day 69-77 In Da Lat we recovered a bit from our cold. We kept extending the accommodation. The owner once gave Ivar toilet paper with the words: "The house will soon be yours!" We did a few tourist things, like looking at the Dalanta waterfall. There is supposedly a path to the waterfall. But there is also the Alpine Coaster! A summer toboggan run! Tested by TÜV Thuringia! Maybe the TÜV has expired a bit. The whole thing was definitely bought second-hand from Germany and the sticker was still on it. As if the TÜV in Vietnam checks things!
We went down this summer toboggan run. That was fun!
The waterfall is very beautiful to look at. As is often the case, everything is well concreted.
Afterwards we walked to Hồ Tuyền Lâm Lake. From there we wanted to take a taxi back. Unfortunately there were none. So we had to walk for a long time. Nice along the street. Apparently not that many do, because the car and scooter drivers looked at us strangely. Unfortunately, no one came up with the idea of taking us with them!
Another day we went to a flower park. Especially at the beginning there were beautiful flowers in many delicate colors. There was also foxglove! Further back in the park there were more bonsai. The funniest thing was the elephant figure. You had to climb in through the butt to see out the eyes. Looks a bit scary. Without words! :)) On December 22nd we left Da Lat. Nearly. My scooter wouldn't start! And when it was running, it would turn off again after a short while. The scooter also sat around for a few days. After trying for a while it finally worked and we left the city. We rolled past countless coffee plantations. We stopped at a café. The young man said he was out of coffee. Was a bit bizarre in the middle of coffee plantations. Then we drank fresh orange juice. The young man offered us a kind of pipe that was very long (about 40cm) and looked more like a bong, only without the big belly. Oh no, thanks! We made an overnight stop in Lâm Dồng. There was a restaurant there that served dog!
The next day we drove to Buôn Ma Thuột. On the way we saw people in colorful clothes. They wore beautifully decorated and embroidered dresses. We were told that the people are from the Hmong people.
Buôn Ma Thuột calls itself the coffee capital. We reached there in mediocre weather. It also rained in the evening. On December 24th. we took dirty laundry to the laundry and visited the “World Coffee Museum”. The museum was okay. We learned a bit about the coffee bean and coffee cultures in other countries. I briefly wondered why I could read the heading of a world map on display so well. Then it dawned on me: it was German! Many grinders or coffee cans were from Germany! In the afternoon we picked up our fresh laundry. On the way back an older man said in broken English "Merry Christmas!" to us. We also saw Santa Claus on a scooter. Since Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist, Christmas is not celebrated here. There are churches where there would certainly be a mass. There are also Christmas trees around and many shops are decorated with lamps, but this has more of a commercial motive. A nativity scene at a church. In the evening we went out to eat in clean clothes. There was hot pot, which is actually always delicious! What we didn't know is that the shop's specialty is stuffed tripe (cow stomach). So it's a piece of cow's stomach filled with meat and tied at the bottom. We had 3 of these little balls in the soup. 2 we ate spacers. Well, it's not like it tastes totally disgusting. Otherwise we focused on the vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and beef. Later we called home. They're just getting started with Christmas.
