We've been planning it for a while, then postponed it, then almost postponed it again, and now that it came upon us a trip to Da Lat didn't seem like such a good idea. I'd just gotten over a cold. Jenny's mother gets violently car-sick. And why was I taking cousin, aka Dennis the Menace again? So it was with a disbelieving haze that I found myself on a bus with Jenny, her parents and a kid that pushes the chaos theory (if he can do something wrong, he will) for 7 hours until Da Lat. But I wasn't teaching English!
Our first night in Da Lat. It is an extremely intriguing place--founded and designed by the French from a totally uninhabited highland sanctuary, it was intended as a multi-resort town built around a world-class golf course and a lake that was recently drained to build bridges. The population is exploding here, though it's mostly exploding with teenagers--the sort who will ogle your female partner, mimic overheard English phrases, and otherwise could use a backhand to the face. This is a theme that sadly makes Da Lat intolerable. But it's not all bad... 
I was here for the birds, so I called a tour company asking for local bird guides. Turns out they had a tour in progress that I could sit in on. The guide, in typical Vietnamese fashion, let me join them for free and became my instant friend.
We did see many birds, some of them fabulous, but alas we were cut short by heavy rains.
Pushing on, we were able to gleam a few more species. Another note about the weather: It is chilly. Still, I'd been thinking of New York in fall with just a touch of nostalgia, so the temperature was welcome.
My two favorite things, my honey and birdwatching together at last, but not mixing. Here we are, birding on a steep mountain road between speeding motorcycles, trucks and buses--a frequent occupational hazard for bird watchers.
We missed some crucial birds, and it was hard not to tag along with the tour for another day. But I needed to spend some time with Jenny. There are loads of tours in Da Lat and it's all crap. The absolute best way is to rent a motorcycle for about $5 a day and see the sights at your leisure.
The next problem with sightseeing in Da Lat is that everything is over-the-top campy. Here we're on our way to a waterfall which you could either walk to or take a rollercoaster down. And the rollercoasters have manual brakes, which is not very encouraging.
We finally get there and are stuck by more pouring rain.
At a pagoda by the lake. It's nice as pagodas go but inundated with tourists--makes it look really fake.
The hotel has a nice breakfast, specializing in pastries. After a seven hour bus ride through a uniform suburban sprawl, Da Lat is very original. It has French architecture, those horribly planned French streets, and has a feel that's European on the outside but Vietnamese-filled on the inside. It's equally lovable and hateful, though for me it's the birds and natural habitat that are its greatest virtue. We missed a lot of tourist stops, but I'll be happy to come back and see nothing but Grey Crowned Crocias and Vietnamese Cutias.
Finally, here we are waiting for the bus--my camera somehow cropped out the insanity. The first bus was full, even though we had tickets. The second one wasn't much better. I had 1/4 of a butt cheek to sit on and clung with every tooth and toenail for the 4 hour drive, stuck into one of 2 bus-hand's armpit. The bus has a limited number of ticketed seats, but they crammed people into every crevice. It was awful, and definitely illegal. Every time we passed a highway patrol the bus monkeys closed the window and crouched into a pretend seat. When we passed, up goes the window and the bus monkeys call out for yet more passengers. I was really pissed--good thing I didn't speak Vietnamese. I wanted to rat them out to the nearest cop.
But the ride didn't last quite forever. Eventually we were dumped onto the riverbank and got a ferry to the park. Here's the dorm where we stayed. If they put half the care in the dorms as they do with the topiaries, we should be in good shape.
They didn't. We slept on wooden slats and had to go outside to a latrine.
This was really sad. No toilet seats, never been cleaned since the Carter administration, never even had the single-serve shampoo packets cleaned out. The arthropods took over.
Here's a detail of the bathroom stall. A nice katydid. The invertebrate life here is really spectacular.
And also kinda gross. We shared the latrine with many hand-sized wolf spiders. The one in the insert is carefully guarding an egg case, but in vain. The next day all that was left was a hollow assemblage of legs. Must have been a bigger spider.
But the top of the human food chain is the mosquito. This sign probably warns of Dengue Fever. Too bad we brought the useless but dainty-smelling skin-so-soft.
I even had bad luck with the guides. The place was fully booked, and my first day I tagged along with a guide and two surly, SLOW old people. The next day I missed the tour altogether, and the guides were too lazy to work in the afternoon or the next day.
Worth it? Definitely. I see less birds by myself, but I get to do the work and get all the credit. Otherwise I'm too focused on my notebook and don't get to see much but a retreating bunch of feathers. Here's a Great Hornbill, justifying all the hardship in one quick swoop.
And then I ate it (kidding). This was the best chicken I ever had, even after losing points for presentation.
The adorable Vernal Hanging Parrot. Would love to take one home, but they have so much fun in the wild.
Altogether I saw 51 birds--not much, but what I saw was amazing. Not much else to see--just a few monkeys that were to quick to identify. But the inverts continued to astound me. I've seen large foraging trains of ants, but never termites. Their soldiers had powerful jaws like ants too, instead of the usual noxious snout-spike. In this picture they are herding into a tunnel entrance. It looked like a clown trick--thousands of termites pouring into a tiny house.
This spider wins 3 awards--the biggest, scariest, and most beautiful I'd ever seen.
A peacock-colored lizard!
Our guide had a little surprise. He'd been collecting trash and plastic bottles and found a large scorpion inside. The bigger they are the less venomous, so this one must be puppy-like.
Butterflies were constant stage-stealers. Here are some beautiful ones that were innocently feeding on dung when they became roadkill.
I also met a wonderful Irish volunteer who took care of the bear sanctuary. The parks have bears, and also tigers, gaur, and all kinds of things, even a rhino until just a few months ago, but these were confiscated from Bile factories. They are very well taken care of. Here's a moonbear snacking on a banana popsicle. They have great muttonchops and look pretty harmless--more like sloths than bears. The sun bears look like small rottweilers with tremendous claws, and most of them were confiscated pets.
And what better way to end a trip than with dog meat? I knew it was inevitable that I'd try it, but I still haven't. This is organ meat, and I wouldn't eat the organs of any animal, thank you.
I mean the pygmy hippo is cute enough, ok. Still probably not a good idea to give people the opportunity to pet him on the head.
