Dalat, Vietnam will always hold a special place in our hearts. We had such an amazing stay there and have so many great memories and funny stories that we can’t begin to explain all of them here in the blog. Just know that the kindness and generosity that was shown to us by the chance meeting of complete strangers is something that will never be forgotten.
As we stepped off the bus in Dalat we felt for the first time in months, cool temperature. Not cool by Canadian standards, but cool by Vietnamese standards. What an amazing feeling it was to not be sweating! Because of the high altitude Dalat experiences much cooler temperatures than the rest of the country. Not only is the climate great, but the city is in the mountains and the views are spectacular. The town is very affordable, and alot of Vietnamese tourists go there for vacation. I have to admit that it was pretty refreshing to not be in the middle of a large touristy city.
We first met Lili one of the owners/manager of Th Dalat Motel on the street after our bus stopped, she was such a sweet lady and we decided to check out her hotel. We are thankful that we did because it ended up being the best decision that we could have made. Not only was it affordable and had all the amenities like WiFi, t.v and hot shower but we were fortunate enough to meet Lili’s family that lived at the hotel with her. (In Vietnam it is common to have the owners of the guest houses/hotels living in them, even sometimes the extended family.)
During our stay in Dalat we were invited to eat with the entire family at every occasion possible. It seemed that they were always ready to eat a meal and to say “no” to their kind offer would be somewhat of an insult to them. The women of the family cooked amazing Vietnamese food, and the entire family would gather around a small round table in their kitchen to eat all their meals together. They were so eager for us to try their food and wanted to know what we thought of it. Of course we loved everything that we tried, Andrew even tried frog for the first time. I’m happy to report that he said it was very tasty. In their kitchen all huddled around the table, we had some great times and laughs. The funny thing about that was out of the 10 family members only Lili (35) and her nephew Tony (17) could speak English. Again another example of what we have learned during this trip…. it is not always necessary to speak the same language to have a good time and laughing is the same in every language!
Cheers:
What a sight it was to see all of the men in Lili’s family plus Andrew and our Israeli friend Moti sitting around the little round table in the kitchen drinking rice wine together. No one quite understanding what each other was saying, but everyone laughing and having a great time. “Cheers” in Vietnamese sounded something like the word “YO” to our English trained ears. Assoon as a shot was done Lili’s father would fill up the glass with another shot and yell “YO!” The shots always came at lightning speed, but how can you refuse a shot from an old man yelling “YO” at you.
The shots were a mixture of rice wine that came from what seemed like a never ending clear plastic bag and a mixture of “special” alcohol from the large jars located on the other side of the kitchen. The “special” alcohol jars looked like some sort of weird science experiment. One jar had a big snake in it, another jar had a whole bird in it, another one had reptiles in it, and another one had a sea horse and other sea creatures in it. We were told that they all served a different purpose. On the occasions that we sat down with the men to drink, it seemed that they chose to mix the regular rice wine with the snake alcohol. We don’t know why, since there was no one to ask who spoke English.
Note: traditionally Vietnamese women do not drink or smoke therefore I had a good excuse not to drink the snake alcohol.
Chopsticks and Spaghetti????
To express our gratitude to the family and to Lili for all the wonderful meals, introducing us to amazing local street foods and going on various outings together, Andrew and Moti decided to cook the entire family spaghetti. Buying the ingredients in the local market was quite the experience as they didn’t have all the ingredients that we are use to in the west. They decided to make their own tomato sauce because here in Vietnam it is considered an import and buying a can of it is terribly expensive. (A small jar was over $4, and on a traveler’s budget that’s very expensive). It was such a funny site to see Andrew and Moti cooking in the kitchen. The women were shadowing them the entire time making sure everything was done correctly. They watched them with curiosity and couldn’t stop giggling at them, they were probably anticipating a near disaster. In a society where gender roles are traditional, they found the whole situation hilarious and on many occasions wanted to help out with anything. It was difficult to get them to relax and stop trying to do our dishes our chop our veggies, but eventually we did manage to get them to just sit down and watch.
When given the choice for chop sticks or forks, most of the family opted for chop sticks. Someone even asked me if they should add soy sauce to it. We found out that it was only the second time that they had tried spaghetti. It was so funny to look around the table and watch everyone eat spaghetti all the way in Vietnam. Everyone said that they enjoyed the meal, and after eating the spaghetti out of nowhere another amazing meal was served of rice and other Vietnamese dishes. I’m not sure if they truthfully enjoyed it, or if they only said it out of politeness. But I wonder how the spaghetti (especially without all the proper ingredients) can compare with the tasty, spice infused, aromatic foods that we were exposed to during our stay there. We enjoyed many more laughs together and Andrew and I felt genuinely lucky to be included in such a welcoming and nice family.
After four days in Dalat it was time for us to get packing and to move north to Nga Trang. Saying goodbye is always tough, especially when it is to great new friends!
~Nicola
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| Dalat, Vietnam |
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