Dalat Day 2 - Breakfast and Church 1

It turns out there are a lot of Catholic Churches in Dalat. Well, I've been to more churches this trip than I have during any other vacation! You can read about the diocese HERE.

BUT I get ahead of myself. First, breakfast. They look like marijuana leaves... But they're not. We checked LOL.

We walked thru a path to the shop across the field for breakfast - You're looking at a spoon with half a meatball, soaked baguette and veggies on top.

It's Banh Mi Xiu Mai - basically a naked banh mi with the meat in a bowl of soup intead of as a filling. In other parts of Vietnam you might find that the meatballs are cooked in a tomato/stew-like gravy, but in Dalat it's often a clear watery soup. Typical breakfast food, from what I've read, but can be found all over town at all hours of the day. 

We also had some Bánh bèo - which turns out to be BIKSS' favourite dish of the whole trip! AND we still have NO CLUE what's in that reddish sauce sitting on top of the rice cakes (in the version we got, anyway). But it was good. Especially with the tiny shrimp-chilli oil mixed in. As far as I can tell the dish is made up of translucent rice cake slices, scallions, fish sauce, some sort of spam, and that red-brown sauce which might have had minced meat in it. 

After breakfast we continued our trek to Cam Ly parish - it's an old church that is no longer in use, but the school building that sits on the grounds is sometimes used as a child-care centre by the ethnic community, from what I can tell. Altho one website says they still use it as a school for the children from nearby ethnic communities all the way from Gr 1 to University. So.. go figure. It also mentions 'sisters' so I'm assuming it's run by nuns LOL. Whatever the case... it was on my list. 

Along the way, with the sun beating down on us (can you see where I got a sun burn?)...

...BIKSS decided that another avocado ice cream would be a good idea. So we popped into a hostel that had a refreshment counter on the ground floor and got us this lovely thing that comes with a dollop of durian. This is my favourite version of the 3 we had on holiday. 

We finally made it to the church, but not before some wrong turns and trying to beat the rain! We eventually spotted our destination and just about ran up the slope to the church grounds - where we took shelter in a covered "school-bus" swing! It was a good 15 mins before the rain let up and we could get going again. The area surrounding the church was so peaceful and well maintained. It was totally worth the trek.

Taking shelter. Not an easy thing for BIKSS to fit into a swing set meant for kiddies! 

Peaceful garden with a Divine Mercy statue which had fresh flowers placed in front of it

Grotto with a statue of Our Lady behind the Divine Mercy

The front of the church with a painting of a tiger and an eagle (oops, it's meant to be a phoenix!). There's a whole story... let me find it...

There are two animals in the lobby. The tiger is strong symbolizes and the phoenix symbolizes for wisdom. Ethnic people feel safe when there are tigers guarding nearby and the phoenix bird warns from afar. In addition, these animals also symbolize religious meaning. Primitive people have wild instincts like the tiger, but when completed by the Lord, will become wise as a phoenix. Cam Ly church or Son Cuoc church of Vietnam Catholic Church in the Dalat city. The church serves mainly for ethnic minorities living in Da Lat. ~ Origin Vietnam

You can see a picture of the interior HERE.  THIS WEBSITE has a lot more about the church but reading it just about gave me a headache cos the (what I assume to be) translation leaves much to be desired. As far as I can tell, it was a church that was meant to integrate some aspects of the ethnic minority's belief in Yang or the sun-god into this new place of worship. In front of the cross in the church there is a three-headed wooden buffalo, as the "Buffalo is the mascot that minorities in the Central Highlands are often used as items to “communicate” with their Yang".

Pity the church was closed. I would have loved to see that. Along with the turtle(?) that's supposed to also be part of the interior decor.

Next, we were off to ANOTHER church. But not before going past the world's smallest shopping mall! LOL.

What you're looking at is ONE shop unit. Motorbikes for size reference. The "shopping mall" is half that unit and goes underground somewhere. Who knows how deep they're planning to go! 

More pics tomorrow. For now, have some colourful fruit chips! 

PS. I'm suffering from Vietnamese food withdrawal.. Gonna bug BIKSS to go to a Vietnamese place for dinner tomorrow night!

Dalat - Still Day 1 - The Night Market - Food and Loot

After the falls we headed back to the hotel where we got out of our wet clothes and changed into something a little warmer. Nights can get chilly (for me, anyway) at 16 degrees C, so it was time for my warmer long cardigan. 

I'm all about the local cuisine, and street food is a huge thing in many Asian countries. Where I live it's all but been eradicated. Hygiene issues etc. So the only chance I have of getting that old authentic local flavour (both literally and cultarally speaking) is when I'm on holiday! 

I'm glad we've both got our Hep A shots... along with the other stuff (DPT). Cos street food was definitely part of my holiday plan! 

Vietnamese Mini Pancakes (Bánh căn)

Vietnamese Pizza (Bánh Tráng Nướng)

In theory it sounds delish - egg, cheese, scallions, sausage - I think we had spam in ours - but the actual eating of it was rather meh. It didn't have a distinct taste of anything really. Just crispy with some sweet and salty profiles. It *looked* better than it tasted. 

The making of it was fun to watch tho - I managed to catch her doing the last bit.

There are also many shops selling fruit and vegetables! Both of the fresh variety as well as the dried / pickled / preserved kind. 

Them big purple things are brinjals. 

The stalls are on either side of the street - which, unlike the night markets in other places I've been to, is NOT closed off to traffic. So every now and again... and again and again, you'll get cars and bikes honking to get thru the human traffic. This was on Wednesday night so it wasn't crowded at all. We visited again on Friday night and it was packed! 

Hot soy milk in a plastic bag tied up with a rubber band and a straw stuck inside it.

I'm told warm soy milk (Sua Dau Nanh) is a great way to warm up on cold Dalat nights. Often paired with fried dough fritters, this is a popular supper food. The soy milk was fine. The dough fritters, um, NOT fine. We each took a couple of bites of 2 different types, then chucked them out. Charred. Burnt. Gross. Plain. Tasteless. Even the one with butter filling shown above. Give this a miss. We have these sorts of things in where I live and I much prefer the ones back home. 

The power bank I had with me is very very old. It was the biggest one in its time - 4000mah. Imagine that. It was time to upgrade to a slightly bigger one cos the old powertube would get really hot really quick when in use. And I don't know how long more it will last. I don't need something super huge anyway, just enough to get me through the day IF I need to be out all day. Most days I'm home by lunch time and can charge up then. BIKSS got this one for me from the electronic goods store around the corner from where or hotel was. We took it back to the hotel. I opened the box. There was no cable. So we had to go back the next morning to get a cable to charge up the thing. LOL. Do people sell stuff without charging cables now? 

This is the main souvenir shop at the market area. And any area, really. They seem to be everywhere. There'll be one here, and then when you go diagonally across the street there's another one. They're not all the same size tho, some stores like this one boasts a buffet upstairs - but from what we could tell it was more of a dried fruit buffet than an actual food buffet. 

Now who needs that kind of sugar overload when you can get it in this awesome avocado ice cream wonder! We tried three different versions - it seems there's no fixed formula for this treat - as long as there's avocado and a coconut-flavoured shaved ice ball on top, you're all set. This one had peanuts. Another had no nuts, but a dollop of fresh durian instead, and the third had coconut flakes in place of the peanuts. You mix it all up and spoon the thick yummy goo into your mouth and then experience heaven on your tongue. Yes, it IS that good. 

Some coffee to take home for colleagues - from the L'angfarm shop of course.

And that was about all the loot we got from that day. Oh, wait, here's a packet of sweet potato chips that I bought to try - cos if it was any good I'd planned on picking up more packets to take home with me. I didn't. It was't fantastic. So the one packet was all we got. Here. Have some!

Back from Dalat - Day 1 Datanla Falls

I took way too many fotos so you're going to have to bear with them the next few posts! Here goes - 

Our first and only Banh Mi. At Saigon airport waiting for our flight to Dalat. We were hungry. And I wanted some Vietnamese food right away!

The view from our taxi window driving up from the airport to Dalat town centre - about half hour's ride. The airport is about 1000m above sea level so it wasn't particularly cool weather-wise, but we had another 500m upwards to go to reach out destination so I was hopeful.

There was a distinct lack of tables in the room

We soaked 2 of the 3 nights we were there. It was a big tub!

BIKSS wants one of these hydrant bins now

We thought this was cute until the occasion clicking and clunking of the gears got to us. 

We switched off the light after a bit.

The 'outdoor' area was a cosy smoking spot for me. Except there wasn't much wind so the smell got on my shirt. Eventually I abandoned the smoking corner and chose to go outside the hotel for my ciggy instead.

The view from our lunch spot - Leguda vegetable hotpot - I shan't put fotos cos you can see them on the web. There, I've linked someone else's blog post! LOL

And the view from the cable car on our ride to Datanla Falls 

At the end of the cable car ride is the Truc Lam Zen Monastery

The breeze was cool, the area was quiet, it was very zen indeed! 

Then it was time to grab a short taxi ride to the waterfall!

My feet and the coaster track going up in front of us

There were mushroom huts along the way for the staff to hide in. 

It was drizzling when we started our roller coaster ride but by the time we were halfway to the falls it was actually raining. Still, it was beautiful!

With my mad iphone-camera skills I managed this foto without any of the 28 other tourists getting in the way! How's that for good timing!

This was seen mid way thru the coaster ride. 

If anyone wants a video of us on the coaster proper send me an email or drop me a comment and I'll email you the clip. 

And that, my friends was the most part of our first day. Stay tuned for more! 

(Have some L'angfarm sweet potato chips! I didn't take this pic, but I did buy some of it to take home with me as gifts for friends!)

I Bought A Mini Air Fryer

It's a tiny thing, smaller than A4 sized paper, and therefore takes up very little counter space. Cost me about $50. It's brilliant!

Not for big families, but since it's just me and the two helpers, it's enough for us. I managed 2 cauliflower hash browns and about 7 fish bites in the tray.

And I even made granola. Only thing left is for BIKSS to taste-test it.

And in honour of the new appliance, have some air fryer chips! 

PS and for dinner - made some eggs in ramekins with garlic and onion seasoning, chilli flakes and dried parsley sprinkles!