I want to ride my bicycle

20120227-084228.jpgWe woke up to early alarms, by 0800 we would be picked up by Love for life (not a local brach of some delusional pro-life organization) for a bicycle tour and we needed to have breakfast as well as pack all our stuff since we would need to change rooms sometime later during the day. It’s a hard life being on vacation. We were a group of seven people including the guide and we quickly made our way to the less trafficked roads. I had tried putting on Sunblock but could already feel it wasn’t evenly spread out. Well well, pandas can be good looking too I hear.

We were enjoying the countryside, stopped at temples and sights and the tour guide Han told of legends as well as explained their farming principles and pointed out different vegetables and herbs that we’re grown. His saying “No worry, No hurry” was very nice and there was one guy who took more photos than I did but I would conclude that both his girlfriend as well as Mona was rather patient with us stopping for photos every now and then. I think the quota photos of farmers or fishermen, especially old, are met for this vacation. It reminded me of Swedish politics where the age for retirement is discussed – and I do have to say people who worked hard their entire life look photogenic, so it could be of some comfort for those on the last years of their life that tourists may appreciate their labor.
20120227-084318.jpg
As we got back to the city for lunch we started to recognize the area and to our pleasant surprise the venue chosen for lunch was Cafe 43. After lunch we headed back to start of the tour for another surprise – footpaths and massage with liniments. We however passed on the offer for a free boat ride since we had fittings to attend to. We were close to the finish line at A Dong Silk now, adjusting tiny bubbles on the rather slim vests took was not entirely done. As we went to the cloth market it was very visible that there was a difference in quality of craftsmanship and focus. My jacket had little in common with what I ordered but they got a list of things to change and we would be back tomorrow. Mona had quite a few adjustments herself but easier to fix. As we returned to A Dong Silk they made a few fast iterations while we were there and finally I had nothing to possibly complain about – it was perhaps 5 or 6 fittings in the end for the most difficult items. I realized as we were settling our debts that they had missed to charge for one vest but my conscience convinced me I’m a nice guy so I told them which they were very happy about. Before we left I took a photo of my assistant Thao and the tailor who had been more than patient with me.

We got back to the hotel, and realized we would need to buy another suitcase before we left to fit everything we have bought. After quickly arranging our accommodation in Dalat we headed out for the last dinner and chose a Japanese restaurant, Samurai Kitchen, near the Japanese bridge.

They didn’t have sushi and was out of gyoza, but they did have Shochu. I ordered two Shochu on the rocks in Japanese (the most used phrase from Ulf and my previous travels to Japan). This was understood by a lady at table next to us who was greaty impressed/humored. Mona was not as impressed by the Shochu however. The food was good, and the place very charming with only four tables. As we were done the staff offered to show us how to make origami birds which we thought would be fun. A little alcohol and chattering with the staff later we managed to create two birds before heading home.
20120227-084337.jpg

2 thoughts on “I want to ride my bicycle

  1. Korrekt, den går varm kan jag säga. Smidig för att ta close-ups utan att stå inom armslängds räckvidd också 🙂

Comments are closed.