The 5000 Project

For the first time during this journey, I wasn’t hot. Da lat is a city in the highlands 400kms north of ho chi minh. The cool air comes with a cost though, there are heaps of Asian tourists so everything is a little expensive. after walking around for a while, I found a dorm for $5 a night. There aren’t many western tourists and if they do arrive they pay for their own room, this gave me a unique opportunity to hang out with local visitors who choose the cheap dorm because they can’t afford anything better. All three guests in the dorm were motorbike taxi drivers for tourists known as ‘easy riders’ they do long distance journeys but charge $20/day when they get customers, these kind of drivers are all over the city.

They invited me to have dinner with them, so we all headed out to a local restaurant which puts out a gas stove in the middle of the table and when the initial soup is served on top, it is upto us to cook the noodles along with the vast mound of vegetables and herbs. Although their English was a bit poor, we managed to understand each other after a few half shots of vodka when someone calls ‘yo’. They had a good month with their collective income, so it was a night of celebration. What seems to happen is that during the bad months, they survive solely off money that they borrow from friends who are doing quite well, and during this good month the debt is paid. Spreading the wealth in an unofficial socialist way. I found a similar thing in Cambodia, a street full of tuktuks would all be working together, the guy who knows English the best would be the manager, not actually a driver.

After lots of drunken talk about girls, sex and female body parts – I managed to change topic and fetched some interesting info on how free tourists are, yet the locals are quite constricted.

One of the guys mentioned that if he rides with a westerner on the back, the cops never touch him. He could speed right past them. If he’s riding on his own or with a local, he gets speeding fines for no reason, one time he was going 40km/h and given a 1000000 dong ($50) on the spot fine, a huge amount for a lowly income.

Da lat is a beautiful area with really nasty cheesy tourist foundations. I paid $12 to see a whole day of them. One attraction is a nice scenic view on a hill, they have ticket booths to gain entrance and the summit has cheap kiddy rides and untrustworthy carnies, destroying the nature view. This park is known as ‘the valley of love’ it has love themed cartoon statues scattered throughout.

Each waterfall in the surrounding area also has an entrance fee, one even had a rollercoaster to provide transport, incase the 10min walk down is too far.

One great thing about da lat is the huuggge market, awesome food. Traditional pho noodle soup stands were everywhere, all different styles. There’s also bakery stalls which also serve hot flavoured soy milk to go with the pastries, I chose a muffin thing with custard in the middle. One benefit from French occupation.

For lunch one day I bought a huge ripe avocado, 2 baguettes and a small jar of salt with pepper and citric acid. Bloody awesome lunch and so very cheap, probably lacking in nutrients though.

After a few days I came to the conclusion that I have got the most out of this town, I booked a bus ticket to nha trang.

Also like to note, I am not going to see another waterfall, I’m totally waterfalled out. A bit islanded out too. Bring on north asia and Europe.