20th of September, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Vietnam: Before Dalat
I have my other bread and delicious cake siting in a coffee shop by the river. When I start walking again, I pass by some ladies making my most favourite snack, the crispy rice paper called Khao Taen. It’s so amazing! I ask them if I can have one. They try to give me one package, but as they are filling the packages with five or so, I show them that I only want one. It is the most delicious one I have ever had, and will have, in Vietnam. There are onions and chilly on it, together with the black sesame seeds. Simply amazing!
After eating my delicious snack, while I am still walking to a possibly hitchhiking spot, an orange pick-up stops. A lovely couple, and soon to become my dear friends, are going to a cafe just outside Dalat, so they say I can come. Yay!
Pi helps me with putting the backpack in the trunk, and then we start my delightful next few hours with these two lovely human beings. Pi and Phuong are going to celebrate a special date by spending some time in a very nice cafe outside Dalat called Nắng Thuỷ Tinh. I was planning to go for some viewpoints just nearby this same spot, but as the weather was not great for photos, and after spending some lovely hours with my friends at this lovely cafe, I give up on that.
Phuong is an absolutely adorable woman! She can understand English and speak a little, so we manage to talk about many things and I tell them all about my travel. Pi can also understand most f our conversation. He has just returned from working in Japan for many years, and Phuong has a shop of Japanese products.
The cafe is absolutely adorable! There are plants and flowers everywhere, all over the place, and all seems super clean and tidy, not as it was made and then let to rotten. I loved the attention to the details too, with many small plant vases, all different sources, shapes and colours. Then you have the big plants, trees and flowers, roses too, planted all over the area. And the vegetables which they use to prepare the food, all very fresh and organic. Absolutely amazing! So even though the weather is not that great for photos, the rain keeps coming and going, we have a great photo shoot anyway.
We start simply having coffee, but as the conversation deeps in, and we get more and more connected, time passes and Pi decide we could have lunch in this beautiful place which we three love so much. He orders a buffet of dishes, some of them with very local vegetables, and everything is absolutely delicious! I eat so much that is even a bit shameful. Laugh.
We are also constantly having this delicious tea, which is pineapple ginseng herbal tea, as the lovely waiter cares so much to bring me a package to see it, and use his translator so I can get to know what it is about it. That’s another thing about the place, the stuff are all very sweet and attentive, and we also meet the owner briefly, and he seems like a nice and genuine guy. Last but not the least, the cutest and fluffiest cats are around the cafe, as the owner told me they have seven.
As my dear friends have about two hours driving back, it’s time for them to go back and pick up their daughter from school. They drop me off by the highway which leads to Dalat, and we say our sad goodbye with the promises of seen each other again. Phuong many times repeats that, if I am again passing by Phan Rang, I should definitely contact her so I can stay with them this time. How adorable! I would love that!
10 Years Around the World 