Travelogue :  Kyvan's Southeast Asia Adventure

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Dec 11, 2005
Da Lat: Evergreen Trees and Artichoke Tea, but with unexpected twists...
 

Morning in Mui Ne! <<Yawn, stretch!>> We got out of our resort room and went on the beach to watch the sunrise and I am telling you....come to Mui Ne! No one is here, you have the whole beach to yourself, and it's stunning!

Now we were on our way to Da Lat, a city in the mountains of Vietnam where they have evergreens. This is a truly special country with such a variety of landscapes. We arrived at our hotel and discovered that it was truly a dump. The agency either lied to us by saying it was brand new, or they were misinformed by the hotel. Whatever the case, we were upset. Hair was on the floor, on the bed, pillow cases were yellow, bathroom smelled like a public toilet, closet like mothballs, mold on the walls and ceiling, no hot water or showerhead, but we had a bucket of water and a pot, we did not even want to step inside. So of course, I took pictures because we were going to give the agency a piece of our mind when we got back to Saigon. I hear there are lots of nice hotels in Da Lat though for as low as $7 during non-peak season. But DO NOT stay at Hong Phuoc Hotel.

Da Lat is known for its agriculture, vegetables, flowers, strawberry jams, artichoke teas, avocado ice cream, mountains, evergreens, waterfalls, and cool temperatures. We went to Da Lat for the Flower Festival 2005. We strolled along the city and yea, there is French influence here, because French colonists decided to make this their playground way back when to escape the heat of Saigon. But I wouldn't describe Da Lat as being a small European village, as you may read in travel books. There is an Eiffel Tower that looks so gimmicky you'd think you're in a theme park. Ho Xuan Huong (spring scent lake) is a pretty walk. Our short stay here did not enable me to hike the forests and see waterfalls, but Da Lat turned out to be quite a unique experience in ways that I could not have planned.

One thing on my agenda was Truong Dai Hoc Da Lat (Da Lat University). I heard this campus was very pretty, with cobblestone walls and evergreen trees. We had that light drizzly rain again as I described in "Da Nang," so I found shelter within a study hall waiting for mom and sis to finish using the WC (water closet, the VN acronym for public restroom.) We sat in the quiet room and relaxed a little bit. I noticed some English pronunciation on the chalk board: "Ai em fai(n), thanh kiu = I am fine, thank you." When we got up to leave, another girl was just finishing her tutoring session and left too. So of course I was gonna talk to her. I spoke English because she was a university student, and I wanted to see how much she knew. "Hello, do you speak English?" I know, not too smooth, but I needed to say something simple. And I was astonished she didn't understand a word I said. So we eventually got around to asking her questions about university life in Vietnam. She studies math, calculus now, and is having tons of trouble. She cannot grasp the concepts. It costs an equivalent of $100 USD/semester. She failed out of university in Saigon so now she is is Da Lat. She has a younger sister but her parents are rice farmers and can only afford to pay her education through 9th grade. They are financially strapped, but she tutors children for extra money. Taking all of this into account, she was overwhelmed and cried. Tears rolled down her face as we stood on her misty campus. Sis offered her tissue paper. I guess girls are always prepared like that. Mom ended by saying, "Is there anything we can do for you?" She thought about it and asked...."Can I have your address?" I was speechless. I totally expected her to ask for money, because up to this point, we were conditioned to think that Vietnamese people are money driven. So we exchanged addresses and she gave us three of hers, just in case we had trouble contacting her. While she wrote hers, mom pulled out $20 to give to her. She was genuinely hesitant, but reluctantly accepted. She also did not want to trouble us for giving her our banh mi (VN sandwiches). In any case, she needed it more than we did. Mom invited her to the Flower Festival with us, but she couldn't because she had to tutor the children. So we went our separate ways and I hope she is doing fine now. I'll write to her when I get home.

The Flower Festival sucked. As mom said, the display was like a big Home Depot garden. Orchids, bonzai, and tulips were for sale. Not worth the effort to report, however, what we experienced at night was most memorable. As always, we declined to hand over our passports overnight. Apparently in Da Lat, hotels are required to hand deliver our passports to Cong An (Communist VN law enforcement). Not wanting to part from our passports, we found ourselves walking to the office of Cong An. What we saw here was very telling of the oppression VN people experience under this governmental system. There was a huge white bust of Ho Chi Minh's head and we were not allowed to sit at the table directly in front of it. We waited with our hotel guy. Mr. Cong An finally came out with a booming, demanding voice, speaking with a clear tone of intimidation. He berated the hotel guy, questioning the whereabouts of his paperwork, threatening to fine him, using rude VN pronouns of "may and tao" (you and I). All our hotel guy did was politely accept everything Cong An said to him. Any cross words and I can imagine severe punishment would ensue. Again, this is the VN reality, where if you were born of an anti-Communist family, multiple generations of your family will have no hope for a good future, no home ownership, no vocational progress, no socioeconomic mobility, only direct governmental oppression of a life of quality. This fact was exemplified by our waiter in Da Lat who has a university education but has no opportunity to use it due to his family history. If my parents did not succeed in escaping, this waiter's life would be my reality. April 30, 1975, the fall of south Vietnam to Communist rule, and the day my parents escaped, is a date that changed the course of my life in an immeasurable way.