As November dawned, After 6 months of being on the road I finally made my way to South East Asia.
I had heard so much of the region and was super excited to spend the next couple of months living and traveling the entire region.
I took a night flight out of Colombo, Sri Lanka and transited through Malaysia and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning. After clearing immigration I grabbed a bus from the Airport and made my way to a hostel I booked.
Since
everything I own fits in a single bag
, I explored the city a bit on foot before checking in.
I wasn’t really fond of the busy city so I grabbed a night bus and decided to go to a place called Da Lat. I had done no research so I just chose a place randomly on the map.
I arrived early in the morning in the middle of Da Lat and it was a hilly area and was pretty chilly!
It was a mildly urban area that is centered around a lake and golf course and surrounded by hills, pine forests, lakes, and waterfalls. It is known as the “City of Eternal Spring”, I loved it from the first sunrise.
The next day, was an adventure to say the least. I went on a ride around the countryside. Da Lat is known for it’s flowers, just a couple minutes away from the center of the city we went to massive fields of flowers! There grow the flowers in Dalat and then send it out to Ho Chi Minh City for festivals.
The ride around the countryside was amazing! Mountains, forests and amazing valleys. Ended up going to a cafe and had weasel coffee, ie the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet aka weasel.
After a much-needed coffee, I finally made my way to a massive waterfall called Elephant waterfall. Dalat is well known for it’s multiple beautiful waterfalls.
After climbing back up after the waterfall we heading to a silk factory. I got to see how the silk is made I got to try some roasted silk worm larvae.
I had never tried any insects before but I’m not one to say no to new experiences, they were pretty nice and honestly nutrition wise it’s better than meat! I honestly liked it :’D
After having weasel coffee and silk worm larvae I thought that was the end of the “weird” tastings, but it wasn’t the end of it. I got taken to a cricket farm,
and well we got we plate of roasted crickets with chili sauce. Apparently, I could also buy packed crickets like you could normally buy crisps.
After that I finally came back to the city, but leading the life I do the surprises rarely end, later I visited the night market in Da Lat and found t-shirts for sale for half a dollar! OMG!
I had some street food before coming back to the hostel, don’t ask me what I had cause I have absolutely no idea. With Vietnamese street food I use the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy”
As I entered I was invited by some locals to have a tiny bite before going to my room. I’ve always loved spiciness and used to eating chilies, however the locals gave me some salmon and wasabi and having not tried it before I soaked it, and well ended up crying with the burn.
Fact: Most Indians can’t handle wasabi, now you know our weakness.
The
Hobbit Hostel
I was staying in was amazing and I would definitely recommend it! The locals who managed it are the friendliest ever :D!
Adventures through South East Asia have begun, let’s see where the roads lead.
