Nha Trang has a very pretty beach which the locals embellish with found art projects. Across the water is an expensive resort that features a large ferris wheel.

The young women enjoy posing for photographs. Although at times flamboyant most of the local dress is modest.

These young women are having some Banh Mi, the very delicious Vietnamese sandwich. Each region has its own version of the Banh Mi, from the straightforward pork and pickle variety found in Hanoi to Saigon’s bar-b-que style.

There are cheap flights from Moscow to Nha Trang and Russian tourists can enter the country visa-free.

In the park adjacent to the beach, men were playing vxiangqi, a Vietnamese and Chinese board game similar to chess.

The Thap Tram Huong Tower, a city landmark, overlooks the beach.

We took a short motorcycle ride to the bird coffee house, where workmen congregate with their pet song birds. It’s like a dog park for song birds, with each coffee house specializing in a particular type of song bird. Birds here are the Bulbuls.

Many of the men work in the nearby fields and on their break they go home, get their birds and sit around drinking coffee, chatting, and encouraging their birds to socialize and sing.

We paid a visit to Xom Gio Village in the countryside outside the city.  Here are the village chief, Nguyen Hoang and his wife, who oversaw the cooking of our delicious vegetarian lunch. The chief told us his political story. The village was pro-South Vietnamese government during the war and he fought with the ARVN Air Force. After the war he was sent to a re-education camp along with other former military officers and government officials from the south. Once he returned to the village, Mr. Hoang made his political comeback and was elected village chief. He is an agricultural engineer by training and his competence is well respected. He says he has a good working relationship with Hanoi and he is effective in getting governmental support for his municipal projects.

Part of their farm operation includes caring for fighting roosters.

The Vietnamese take great care with their fighting cocks, carefully bathing and grooming them. We did not attend a cock fight, which is legal in Vietnam.

The chief took us around and introduced us to some of the villagers who make their living weaving baskets and carving chop sticks.

Splitting bamboo with a sharp scythe is a dangerous process that requires great dexterity.

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We left Nha Trang and headed for Dalat in the Central (Lang Biang) Highlands. We made a pit stop at an enclave that included a restaurant overlooking a bamboo forest and a stream with large animal sculptures made of imbedded river rocks. Animism is a strong element in local religious beliefs.  

The menu, at this local tourist attraction, gives you an idea of the local cuisine.

DALAT and ITS ENVIRONS

As we got closer to the City of Dalat the French influence became stronger. Dalat’s cool, high altitude and fertile landscape were attractive to the French, who had colonized Vietnam as part of French Indochina from the late 19th century to 1954. (Think Catherine Deneuve in the movie Indochine). They brought with them French-style architecture, Catholicism, an extensive railroad, flowers, plants, and coffee in addition to the cruel and abusive colonial dominance.

A French style country house.

Ancient traditions were kept alive through indigenous groups such as the matriarchal  K’ho Chil, pictured above. K’Ho Chil is the oldest ethnic group in the southern central highlands. Previously, they lived mainly in the higher mountains and their lives were quite isolated. The K’ho have a rich folklore culture with beautiful poems and music which they perform for tourists.

We visited a flower growing operation. A number of these greenhouses utilize Israeli technology, and they cover hundreds of acres in the greater Delat region. Flowers are a growing export industry. The Vingroup, the nation’s largest domestically owned capitalist conglomerate, has invested heavily in this industry through its subsidiary, VinEco.

This woman owns and operates this florist green house.

After several days this Gerber Daisy was “fresh as a daisy.”

We stopped at the Montagnard (Mountain people) Buon Chi village where Catholicism is the primary religion. The Montagnards worked closely with the American CIA during the war and have had a rocky relationship with the central government since the war ended. However, rural electrification, government funded schools and housing, and the flower, coffee, and rubber industries have led to their greater integration into the nation state.

Outside the church, villagers pay homage to their ancient animist religion. 

This man is the village chief, and below is his wife. She made his vest.

We stopped in at this woman’s place, a very Spartan hut with dirt floor and minimal cooking facilities preferred, she told us, by older residents like her late father.

This little boy was fearful that someone would take his kitten.

We travelled high into the mountains where the fog was dense and the roads were curvy and narrow. 

A couple was celebrating their wedding by posing at the edge of a cliff. There is an interesting and very scary roller coaster ride that weaves through the mountainous terrain…that was not part of our trip.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1OrAUshkjE)

Coffee is Vietnam’s major agricultural export item, and this is the heart of the coffee growing industry.

We toured a facility that specializes in weasel shit coffee. That’s right. Weasel shit coffee. The process involves feeding the weasels the coffee fruit which they love, collecting the weasel poop which contains the whole beans, and then separating out, cleaning, and roasting the beans. There is something about the enzymes in the weasel digestive tract that creates a very desirable flavor.

Weasel shit coffee is sold all over the world at extraordinarily high prices.  We bought some. It’s ok.

The City of Dalat, which is 5000 feet above sea level, surrounds the man-made Xuan Huong Lake. It  is known as the “Land of Perpetual Spring” for its year round temperate weather and is highly touted on the internet as the ideal place for ex-pats. In fact, we did have lunch at a restaurant owned by an American.

The Dalat Palace Hotel, built in 1922, was a conspicuous symbol of French domination and continues to this day as the place to host dignitaries. 

We visited with a young upper middle class family, who spoke in English with us about their lives and aspirations. 

Shown above are the father and daughter. The house they live in is  tall and narrow, in the Vietnamese style of building. There are four floors accommodating his parents, his younger brother and his wife, and the couple and their two daughters. Here the older daughter was showing us her room. The father explained to us that the two most important things are their ancestors and their children’s education. He works in the tech industry and his wife works in the medical field. The family also owns green houses. His mother, a former teacher, tutors the neighborhood children. 

The family are Buddhist and the top floor of the house is devoted to religious observance.

They pay homage to their ancestors.

The kitchen has all the modern appliances one might find in the US.

School boys in blue and white uniforms.

Waterside cafes.

Dalat Cathedral.

And then there is the “Crazy House” or Hang Nga built by the daughter of a former Communist leader.  Disney on acid, this sometimes guest house attracts hundreds of people a day who climb across concrete ramps and crawl through tunnels and into nooks and crannies. Is this what happens when you OD on baguettes?