Flew from Saigon to Dalat. Slowly climbed a steep, winding mountain road from the airport to the Dalat township, famous for flowers and old French architecture. Dalat was the hill town for the French to escape the humidity and heat of summer in Saigon. We stayed at a resort on the outskirts of the town.
Beautiful flowers but long, sharp thorns.
Lush greenery with flashes of bright colour. Gorgeous gardens everywhere.
This is the resort vegetable garden. Most of the fresh vegetables used in the restaurant comes from this plot, picked, prepared and served within hours. The food was so good!
Green papaya salad, one of many eaten by me in the last month. This one had some chicken pieces, too. Clean and fresh flavours. Delicious.
The resort looking towards a newly developed part of town.
Old Citroen at the resort.
To the resort spa and my reflexology session started with a long, lovely soak in a golden basin of cinnamon scented water. Meanwhile I sipped on a cup of strong, refreshing ginger tea. Lush, green garden outside the window. The resort was a French hill town resort in the 30’s and many of the buildings remain from that time. Our villa was in one of the many old buildings. Very special area.
After the cinnamon soak and reflexology, a hot stone treatment. So relaxing. I actually went to sleep half way through this process but woke in time to enjoy the hot stone massage. This session was truly luxurious and supremely relaxing. So wonderful!
Back to Saigon and interested to see a variety of posters in the lift at our hotel promoting water pollution awareness.
A Canadian artist, Benjamin Von Wong’s installation made entirely of recycled straws, 16 000 of them, in fact. Aiming to bring awareness to the problem of single use plastics, Von Wong’s Parting of the Plastic Sea is on display at Estella Place, in HCMC. Volunteers helped create the 3.3m art installation.
Parting of the Plastic Sea was recognized 22/10/2018 by the Guinness World Records as the largest straw art installation in the world. Starbucks had collection bins throughout Vietnam for six months to accumulate the straws which were cleaned and colour sorted by Zero Waste Saigon. A fascinating and thought provoking piece of art.
Like everyone else, I bought and used bottled water and there was no way I would refill the bottle from the tap. The untreated water isn’t suitable to drink. Everywhere I saw people with plastic bottles of water and plastic cups of fruit juices with plastic lids, plastic straws and plastic carry bags. The river was awash with rubbish, about half of it plastic. I tried to buy soda water in aluminum cans, which are easily and cheaply recycled, but that wasn’t always possible.
I don’t know the answer to the problem but making the local water potable or drinkable and educating the locals not to use the river as a rubbish tip would probably be a starting point.
Did you celebrate St Patrick’s Day, 17th of March?
Plowing Through Life: Chuckles and Chortles