Now For Something Completely Different

I arrived in Da Lat late on an overcast and cool afternoon. Da Lat was a hill station for the French colonialists in the 1930’s who sought to escape the heat and humidity of Saigon. Many say that it looks like Switzerland with its French-built chalets and mansions set among pine forests at 4500 feet elevation. It couldn’t be more different than the Vietnam I saw in Saigon. And it was downright cold at night! The warm clothes I felt so silly carrying around for the last 6 weeks were finally unpacked.

Getting there was not so nice. It was the bus ride from hell: an ancient shell of a bus with no suspension that crawled along for 9 hours while the chain-smoking bus driver cruised for local fares. Luckily, I had the magic acupressure wristbands that prevented any ounce of motion sickness. I highly recommend these for anyone traveling in a bus or minivan!

The surprising bit about the countryside was the lack of pagodas or other evidence Buddhism. What I saw were a lot of Christian churches and statues of Christ, some graveyards, and, disturbingly, coffin shops. But thing that is clear, is the communist message - hailing from banners bearing the flag and from colorful signs in every town and city showing scenes of national pride.