Da Lat - Day 1 (part 2)

To see part 1, click here.

Afte a little break at the waterfall, we got back onto the bikes and continued on to a silk factory. There, we were shown the whole process of 'farming' silk. First, they place the cocoons on shelves and let the silkworms do their thing. Next they soak them in hot water to get the larvae out and they try to find the end of the cocoon. They then stretch it out and spin it onto reels (one cocoon can contain a single thread as long as 1km!). After that, the silk is ready to be used, spun into fabric and dyed. There was a shop at the end of the tour where Ross bought a tie. As he was paying, there was a bowl of larvae ready to be eaten. Feeling very brave, he decided to sample one. Unfortunately, Mel decided that that was a good moment to be technologically challenged and she managed to stop the video before he ate the larvae! So while there is no evidence, we can promise that he did do it!

Cocoons lined up and ready

Unravelling the cocoons

Larvae

Spinning the silk

We thought that after the silk factory we would be driven back to Da Lat, as we had covered all the places listed on our itinerary. However, our guides had way more in store for us. Earlier in the day, the guides pointed out a grass that is dried and then used to make the brooms that everyone, everywhere, uses. We  stopped off at someone's house, where we were lead around the back and shown how the brooms are assembled. Our next stop was at an oyster mushroom farm. 

Making brooms

Oyster mushrooms

After seeing how the mushrooms are grown, we stopped off to see how rice noodles are made. First, rice is soaked until it is soft. It's then placed into a machine which compresses it and then spits the noodles out. The noodles come out really sticky so they need to be soaked before being placed into banana leaves. Much to the amusement of the people who owned the noodle factory, we were completely besotted with a crate full of ducklings! They were by far the highlight of this stop.

Washing banana leaves to place the rice into after it is made. 

Rice noodles - the finished product

So many cute duckies!

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!

Our guides insisted on stopping to take photos of people wearing traditional hats while working in the fields. They were quite far away, so Mel had to jump over a ditch and wade through spiderwebs to try get a good shot. Luckily there were some people working in a rice paddy a little bit further down the road, and we were able to get a much better shot there. We then stopped to see a modern day blacksmith who repurposes old shells from the war. Next, we wound our way back up the treacherous mountain road and had a little pit stop - to see how the people who work on the road break up the rocks. Our next stop was at a flower 'warehouse' where there were ladies assembling bouquets to send to Ho Chi Minh City. The roses were absolutely stunning and Mel was lucky to be given a gerbera from one of the guides.

Working in the rice paddies

Ross with Mel's gerbera

Our final stop was at The Crazy House, a very apt name for this house, built by a famous Vietnamese architect. She studied in Russia before coming back to Vietnam to build this house. It comprises of a number of branches with staircases that sprawl out and connect all of the different parts of the house. It is a functional hotel and there are rooms for people to stay in. The architect and her family actually live in the central unit. Unfortunately, there were bus loads of rude Russian tourists with very little manners and they were very intrusive. As a result, we made our visit to The Crazy House a very quick one.

The Da Lat skyline

A giant spider web at The Crazy House

The guides then dropped us off at the Da Lat Flower Park. After they very kindly insisting that we keep the ponchos that we were wearing, as it was still raining, they bid us goodbye. We then meandered around the beautiful gardens admiring all of the insane topiaries. Unfortunately there were quite a few rude people around who ruined the experience a bit (a theme for the day?), but it was still very pretty and well worth a visit.

Funny characters in the beds

A very impressive dragon topiary

The rose house

After the flower park, we went and found some food since we'd only had an ice-cream to eat all day! It was then straight back to the hotel where we had an awesome, hot shower to thaw out our cold limbs before hitting the sack. We had an absolutely wonderful day and ended up walking a whopping 14.5 kms! If anyone is ever in Da Lat, then we highly recommend doing an easy rider tour - and more specifically get in touch with our guides (we'll give you their numbers!).