It's been hard to keep up with the blog and the photos, so I will try to fill in the gaps, but here is today.

Sleep was fitful as I had a really bad sore throat that came on suddenly last night. It was a little better this morning and as the day passed seemed to go away. I hope it is not the antecedent of something more serious. I enjoyed my corn flakes and yogurt breakfast with some fresh mango and coffee. After checking out, I met Thao and he was able to secure my bag and backpack to the back of the motorbike which gave me a nice backrest. We set off for today's adventure. First stop was was Thien Vuong or Chinese Pagoda in Dalat with a big golden Buddha and statue of the Dalai Lama (at a much younger age). The Buddha is golden because in its former white state, it did not photograph well, so the color was changed.

We drove past the Valley of Love, a very touristy place that apparently sells all sorts of "souvenirs" for the Vietnamese lovers inside and out. All I could see was rows of tables with dolls that from a distance resembled dressed up Barbies.

I took a ride on the cable car which provided good views of the city and surrounding countryside and ended near the entrance to Truc Lam Pagoda which houses a Zen Monastery Built in 1993, it's Da Lat's best maintained and prettiest Buddhist shrine. There setting there was serene and placid with beautiful flowers. After walking all around and down toward Lake Tuyen which is below the monastery, I sat down for a rest and to just take in where I was. A young couple sat nearby and the young man spoke a little English; he is an economics university student in Ho Chi Minh City and was with his girl friend who attends the university in Dalat. As we were talking, about six more young men arrived and joined in conversation. I am not sure, but I think they are all studying mining and geology and oil well drilling. They really seemed to enjoy speaking English. Then one asked to have his picture taken with me; I reciprocated by taking a picture of all of them and obtaining some e-mail addresses to forward it on. I left and met my guide who was eating with some other guides, so took a break in the restroom, squat toilets and all.

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Then on to Datanla Waterfall. This waterfall is in sort of an amusement park with a luge type ride that goes down to the falls. I chose to walk down and then found you could buy a ticket to ride up which seemed like a great idea. There were some Vietnamese dressed sort of like cowboys with a horse next to the fall for pictures, I think, and a place where you could pretend you were shooting animals. The whole place was sorty of hokey and touristy. As I hadn't eaten, the guide suggested I eat in the restaurant there. I was the only person eating there. I was tired of rice and noodles so ordered corn and prawns which was exactly that - sautéed corn with some pieces of cut up shrimp, a few sprigs of cilantro and some tomato slices, and some spring rolls that were fried and heavy. It was all overpriced and neither good nor bad, but at least provided lunch.

Next stop was the Lat or Chicken Village of the Co Ho (Kho) people. The guide book says its just a tourist trap with huts selling souvenirs, but that is not what I found. It is true that there is this big chicken statue in the center, but I walked around the village and found it interesting although quiet. I was told the village becomes more lively in the early evening when the workers who have gone off to the mountains return. They harvest coffee cherries among other things because many homes had these spread out and drying. There are vegetable fields in and around the village tended to by some villagers and a few small shops selling woven textiles. I met one of the women who was doing weaving while I was there. She is 33, has 4 children, and speaks English very well. She told me she learned English from listening to tourists only and can speak it but cannot read or write English. The woman sitting with her was of the Kho minority, an ethnic group that came from the mountains. Some of the people there had very distinctive features and these are people descended from previous settlers in the area from Malaysia and Indonesia. I took a lot of pictures. We boarded the motor bike and then set off. We made a stop for some local food, Banh Xeo.ide overshot the little restaurant so made a U-turn except the road was divided so we were driving back to the restaurant the wrong way on the wrong side of the highway. That was a bit frightening. The food was really good - little pancakes fried with shrimp and pork and some vegetables and then folded into triangles. You put these inside a softened piece of rice paper with really fresh greens, sort of roll it up and then eat it, either dipping it into a special sauce or plain. Once finished with that we went on to the mushroom village, a whole village with these special structures in which black mushrooms are grown in these special containers filled with sawdust made from old rubber trees.

It turned out the mushroom village was very near the airport, so I was dropped off early. The airport seems quite new and is very quiet with about one flight an hour. I spoke for a bit with some women I had seen earlier in the day from Winnipeg before they departed for Danang and then had some quiet time reading. Just as the plane landed that would take me to Ho Chi Minh City, this huge rainstorm started. The airport has no direct boarding gates; the plane stops away from the building and then a shuttle bus brings people to and fro. The airport people were holding up a big umbrella for the disembarking passengers and did the same when I boarded. The plane held about fifty people and was less than half full. It was a propeller plane; the 40 minute flight was fairly smooth, all things considered.

I took a taxi to the hotel. Thao had warned me of real scams with taxi drivers in HCM City, so I held out for the one well known reliable cab company, Mai Linh. The drive was interesting; this city is so very different from Hanoi; there are many Western stores, lots of signs in English, and a real busy cosmpolitan big city feel. As we drove on smaller streets near the hotel, it was a bit more like Hanoi, but I am curious to explore in the AM.