Da Lat part two

Decided on a relaxed day, arranged a mini bus tour to see some sights. Part of a group, 8 others.
First stop flower farms. Various flowers are grown the year round under polyurethane green houses and sold all over Vietnam. All very exciting....

Went to a cricket farm. No, not the place where they grow Gooch'es and Gatting's, rather Jiminy (out of Pinocchio), and very tasty too, with a bit of chilly sauce!!

Then to a silk worm farm/factory, where they boil the cocoon with the live caterpillar inside, to soften the silk surrounding the cocoon, before pulling the fibres off. Tens of thousands of cocoons to make a nice silk hankie to blow your nose on. Just saying!!

Finished the morning by visiting the famous ' Elephant Falls'. Lots of lovely slippery steps to climb. Oh joy, exclaimed Mike... Oh and a quick dash to a Pagoda with a laughing Buddha. Then lunch.

The trip continued with a visit to a coffee plantation, where they specialise in producing ' Weasel Coffee'. This is the most expensive coffee in the world. The beans are eaten by the Asian Palm Civet. Passes through the digestive tract, defecated and collected.
Traditionally this has been done by collecting the faeces of wild civets, but now done in an intensive way, which is how it was at this farm.
The animals are kept in shocking conditions and force fed beans. Needless to say there were very few taker's for Weasel Coffee.
If you don't believe an animal can be depressed, then a visit to this place may change your mind!!

Final two places were a visit to the crazy house. A kind of fantasy construction based on trees. Finished off with a visit to an old French colonial railway station, which used to connect Dalat with Saigon, but no longer...And that was our day.
Oh yes, went on the lake in a swan boat.

We decided to catch a bus to Saigon at midnight, rather than wait until the next morning. Our sleep was being interrupted by a couple of young Americans who had voices like fog horns and didn't know how to keep their noise level to reasonable volumes past midnight, or indeed could not close doors without slamming. After a couple of requests to keep the noise down being ignored, Yvonne lost it a bit hammered on their door and gave them a piece of her mind. Thankfully, they then settled..

Leave you with some pictures. Mike with non weasel coffee; The happy Buddha; Yvonne at Elephant Falls; Yvonne with a tasty cricket; Flowers; Yvonne in swan boat.