Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Subject: Day 9
Greetings from
Dalat! We arrived at about 6:15 this evening and had a few minutes at the
hotel before we headed out to dinner. The hotel has free internet service
for 30 minutes. The internet cafe we used in Nha Trang was just across
the street from our hotel and was really cheap - $1000 Vietnamese Dong per
minute.
Today got off to
a shaky start. We were supposed to meet everyone in the hotel lobby at
6:00 and Barb woke me up at 5:47. I guess neither alarm went off or we
slept through both. Anyway, I was glad the guys from the YMCA gave us
baseball caps to wear. We scurried off to see the kids off. It was
so sad. Alot of the girls were crying which just made it harder for
everyone. We were able to hand out our "business cards" with
our picture, email address and mailing address. The kids loved
that. Also we were each given 2 envelopes with postage to address to
ourselves and then give to the kids. I gave one to my friend from the
Little Rose Warm Shelter. Her name is Minh and she is so sweet.
They all were. The boys didn't seem to want too much to do with the women
volunteers but were certainly crazy about the guys. And our guys were so
good with them.
After all the
goodbyes were said, we headed off to the mineral springs where I took a mud
bath. Kinda weird but my skin feels really soft. Then it was lunch
- I haven't had pho in several days! - and back on the bus for the ride to
Dalat.
The highway -
the only highway - is pretty narrow and the bus driver honked the horn nearly
the whole time. They honk as a warning to move over or get run
over! And it works. The ride was about 4 hours and the scenery was
beautiful. Lots of mountains and lots of green. The last hour or so
was all uphill on a VERY narrow road. We were all warned beforehand to
take our Dramamine and I don't think anyone got sick! I guess the way
down is worse though.
Dalat is a very
touristy town. They call it Little Paris - the post office right across
the street from our hotel has a huge Eiffel Tower on top. Speaking of our
hotel - this one is the nicest one yet. Very French Colonial in
style. Very beautiful.
Oh! I
forgot to mention last night that I had my first bah bah bah! It's a beer
made in Vietnam. I'm not at all a beer drinker but I wanted to try
it. Tomorrow I'll try the famous Vietnamese coffee. Who knows,
maybe I'll develop a taste for that! It's strong coffee with sweetened
condensed milk. All the coffee drinkers love it. I'll let you know
how I like it.
Ok, the line for
the computer is getting long.
Thanks for the
emails and support.
Love,
Kathy
Beautiful wedding cake at the hotel
Wedding flowers
Group mud bath with the Watters and Catherine
Eileen enjoying her mud!
Across the street from our lunch stop.
Winding road to Dalat
