All About Your Child

Continuation from previous post “First Vietnam Trip ~ Day 3/5 : Part 1/3“……

The cable car ride made everyone happy as it brought us high above ground, but we were also nearer to Mr. Sun now. Its definitely getting warmer as the sun shone bright on the almost cloudless sky.

It was truly a refreshing sight from such great heights. Everyone had to chip-chip-chop-chop to get out of the cable car, or else we will end up going back again…

When we alighted, we were back to where we went in the morning, when the cable car was not in operation yet (Read previous post to understand better “First Vietnam Trip ~ Day 3/5 : Part 1/3“)

Hopped back into Mr. Ting’s 7-seater car and in no time, we were at the railway station for a choo-choo ride!

Lan, my tour guide was telling Allan the ‘story‘ behind the structure of the Railway Station.

The last time the kids had a train ride (NOT MRT) was back in May 2011, read post “KTM train ride“, so my boys were really excited to be on this type of old train again.

After Lan bought the tickets, we proceeded and saw the staff ‘changing the train heads’.

So while we waited, our camera went clicking….

Yeah!
Finally, it was time to board…

It was just another hour or so to noon and the sun was at its best, so the wind from the moving train was very much welcomed!
It was also a good time for some catnapping too…

While the above 2 kept their eyes shut, Kitkit and my eyes were looking at the plantations up close. The plantations which we SAW when we were on our cable car ride.

The train reached the destination, where we were supposed to visit Linh Phuoc Pagoda, a temple built by beer bottles; but I could see NO temple anywhere!

Ohhhh……it was not beside the train station. We needed to take a 5-6mins walk before we could reach the temple.

As most of you know, this is not my religion, so I was just admiring the work of art on the ground floor, while Lan brought Allan and the boys for a much deeper exploration at the 2nd level.

Its amazing how glass bottles can create such beautiful structures…..

Allan and the kids saw another Goddess statue on the 2nd level. A different Goddess statue from what I saw on the ground floor, which was a bigger statue.

Lan told us that this bigger Goddess Statue was made from flowers that would not die. Can see the small flowers? Photo is taken from the bottom of the statue.

I think its beautiful, so I took a photo of it.
Then something VERY UNUSUAL happened!!!

Allan’s photo turned out like this:

But MINE turned out to be like THIS!!!!!!

In disbelief, we tried to use different phones at the same angle or same phone at different angles. But it just did not show up the same way as the one I had captured!

My photo of the statue had rainbows ‘covering‘ the statue from every direction. It felt like it ‘came to life’.
Lan said that its a good sign for me.
She said I am Lucky.
*grin*

With that, we walked back to the train station.
On the way back, Binbin saw a group of people packing up thousands of strawberries in their shop.
Being a Fruit King, he just could not resist and we bought him a big packet.
Then we saw another Vietnam fruit, small and tomato-look-alike, but much harder than tomato. Lan bought that and we took some to try. Its always good to try new things. It tasted ok. Not sour, not sweet, not bitter. *laugh* I also don’t know how to describe! Go try it yourself and watch out for the seeds! *smile*

The sun was truly killing during our walk back to the train station.
*sweat*

The old train took us back to our initial boarding place where nice Mr Ting waited  patiently in the car.

It was LUNCH TIME!!!
He drove us to this beautiful restaurant!
My oh My! The FOOD was YUMMILICIOUS!!!!!!

Before I get down to the food, I MUST share something else first…

The boys were getting really comfortable with Lan, our tour guide.

So much so that they were willing to travel away from us, but still within our sight (BUT ITS FAAAARRRRRR SIGHT! Photo Below was taken with Full Zoom on my camera phone), and went with Lan to see people fishing at a big pond OPPOSITE the restaurant.

They had to cross a big road and walk half the size of the big pond before they could see what fish or shrimp were caught by the locals. Talking about road. The traffic here and the traffic in Ho Chi Minh city are miles apart!

Here, in Da Lat, traffic is smooth and HARDLY congested.
Even the air smells fresher!

So, that was how much we trusted Lan. Of ‘cos, Lan sought our permission first before she took the kids away from us. Since our food was still in the kitchen and the surroundings looked really peaceful and safe, we agreed without hesitation.

The food arrived before they came back.
EVERYTHING tasted wonderful!
Though the food here at Moulin Rouge Restaurant was NOT as thrilling as the seafood we ate at the seafood restaurant mentioned in a couple of blog posts back, this is a place I would want to come back again!

SERIOUSLY YUMMY!

But we were too exhausted from the traveling and did not have good appetite. So there were lots of leftover.
Thank goodness Lan was willing to ta-bao some back home, or else we would feel very guilty.

We were supposed to go somewhere else after lunch, but we chose to check-in to the hotel instead and take a nap. We were REALLY WORN OUT!!!! So the initial itinerary had a small LAST MINUTE change. One visiting spot was missed.

We are happy with our decision as the nap really helped to recharge our ‘batteries‘. One less visiting spot did not bother us at all.

Next post will begin with photos of our super big hotel room! The biggest hotel room we had ever stayed in before! Felt more like an apartment to us, but its definitely a hotel room!
*Super Duper Grin*

First Vietnam Trip ~ Day 3/5 : Part 2/3

20th March 2013:

We have reached Da Lat!
The weather is so welcoming when we reached there.
So different from Ho Chi Minh City.

The weather is much cooler, or should I say COLDER!
One can feel the heat only between 12noon to about 4pm or so.
Before and after which, the weather reminded me of Cameron Highlands.

I can describe Da Lat in 3 ways:
City of Flowers as flowers can be seen EVERYWHERE!!!
City of Love because it has the name of “The Little Paris”
City of Slopes. Be prepared to get some leg exercise.

It is also because it is high above sea level, that’s why there are slopes.
It is because of its height, one can feel the cool breeze brushing across your face in the morning and the evening.

When we reached our hotel lobby, it was dawn.
The sun has just risen.
But we could not check-in, ‘cos its not check-in time yet and our room was not ready.

Lan, our tour guide is all excited because THIS IS HER HOMETOWN!
We agreed that she should go to her Mother’s house first to put down her stuff, freshen up, then come back to meet us again at the hotel lobby and bring us out for breatkfast.
She must have missed her parents much….having to work so far away from home….

It was also a great time for Allan and I to rest on the comfortable sofa at the lobby. Allan and I chatted, while the kids played internet games, as we waited for Lan to return.

When we reached, the lobby was dimmed. Warm lights were switched on only at certain corners. Minutes after Lan left, the sun started to shine INTO the lobby and we could see the lobby with better view. Clean and Bright. Nice!

Somehow, I was expecting more of their room, after seeing the way they maintain their lobby. Actually my jaws dropped when I saw our room when we finally checked-in during the afternoon!!!! *laugh*

Not going to jump to how our room looked like. Let me complete what we did in Da Lat during the morning first. I think you will also like our room as much as we did when I show you the photos in the next post. *wink*

Lan came back with our chauffeur, Mr. Ting.
Yeah!
We can set off now….

Before we had breakfast, a high/secondary school just started their morning assembly. The inquisitive us went to check it out. See the stairs? Told you its a land of slopes…. *giggle*

Its breakfast time and Lan told us that Da Lat has beef noodles too, but a different kind. We were soooooooo looking forward to it, especially after tasting the beef noodles in Ho Chi Minh City. Read post here “First Vietnam Trip ~ Day 1/5 : Part 1/3”

The beef noodles in two different cities were VERY different.
My first response was “The meat is so big!”
Instead of sliced beef, we get the whole chunk, including the bone!

We, especially the kids, had problem finishing the meat as we were not used to biting into such a big piece of meat.

So after finishing our noodles only, Allan and I told Lan that we still prefer the beef noodles we had in Ho Chi Minh City and reminded her once again that we want to go back and eat before we leave Vietnam on Friday. The thought of it now, as I type this down, is already making me drool. *Super Grin*

With a full tummy, its time for exercise!
*laugh*
More stairs to climb as nice Mr. Ting drove us to the top of a hill where we could ride on the cable car.

From the top, we had a bird’s eye view of the city.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Lan took several photos for us, but I shall post only one here.

Alas!
We were too early!
The cable car station is not ready for operation yet!
*faint*

But this turned out to be something that made the kids cheered more!
‘Cos they were going to have MORE FUN in another place!
Lan told us that we will come back here again for the cable car ride later…..

So where did we go? Look at those excited faces below!!!!
Mr. Ting drove us here:

We took the Alpine-Coaster (some may know it as Toboggan Rail Ride) down the curvy wavy slope!
It was sooooooooooooooo fun!!!!!

It looked pretty dangerous, but as a thrill-ride-lover me, I sped when the sign said “SLOW” and the ‘security guard’ beeped at me! Ooops!  So after that, I went slooooooow. *laugh*

All of us agreed to go AGAIN!!!!!!
Too fun to go just once!
*laugh*

Now that we are at the bottom, the kids cheered EVEN LOUDER because we agreed to let them play THESE:

and KITKIT ACTUALLY HIT a TARGET!!!!
Future Sniper in the making man!
*laugh*

As a result, he won a bottle of wine!
Cool!

As we had already planned to meet Lan’s parents at their house this evening, we decided to give this wine to them as a gift. *smile*

The kids wanted to play more, but time was not in our favour, so we had to move on and we came here:

GORGEOUS!!!!

Once again Lan took alot of photos for us here at Beautiful Datanla Waterfall, its too pretty to take just one shot, but I will just post one. Feeling stingy today. *laugh*

The kids wanted to sit on the horse too, which was just beside this lovely waterfall, but it was still getting its bath and did not look ready anytime soon. So we moved on and took our Alpine-Coaster back up to the top for our second ride down.

I was very tempted to take a video of the whole journey but was too afraid that I may drop my camera phone, so I dropped the idea instead. Luckily Allan took. Yeah! But he video-ed it the wrong way. So after editing on YouTube, the viewing screen become smaller. In the video below, you can see that I went REALLY SLOOOOOOWWWW this time in front of Allan. *laugh*

The Alpine-Coaster ride IS FUN! That’s all I can say…..go try it!

Just before we left this fun-filled place, I tasted Artichoke Tea for the very first time. I remember reading how good this is for our body before I came for this trip and so I bought a big packet home to nourish my body.

Then we went back to Mr. Ting’s 7-seater car and back to the cable car station once again.
Its definitely in operation!
See the cable car right at the top, slightly blocked by the trees?

Believe it or not, this is my FIRST TIME on a cable car!
Even my boys had sat it more than once before this day.
Allan sat it once in the past in Singapore and he feels that the cable car ride here in Da Lat is so much more stable.
*phew*
My first ride and it was a good one!
*thumbs Up*

Saw LOTS of plantation of flowers and vegetation from above.

Have you lost count how many TYPES of transport/vehicle we have had so far?
*giggle*

More to come in the next post!

First Vietnam Trip ~ Day 3/5 : Part 1/3