Head for the hills!!

Monday.
Today we leave Saigon for Dalat, or Da Lat as the locals say, Central Highlands, Vietnam. I've heard it referred to as "Dull-at" which is very unkind and totally untrue. Morning at leisure after packing and checking out, leaving our bags with the hotel. We all go our separate ways and meet back at 2.30pm to catch a cab to the airport. 115 000VND each taxi and they had a station wagon kind which took 3 of us and our luggage, so we only needed 2 taxis.
Recounting our morning stories, the princesses won with their story of paying a man one dollar to help them cross the street, only to walk further down the road and realising they had to cross back! L'il old lady to the rescue and another dollar later, they're where they wanted to be. L'il old lady walked ahead of them, holding her hand up stopping the traffic for their safe passage.
Smooth check-in and time to sit and relax, before our boarding call to walk down to the tarmac and board the bus to be driven to the outer reaches of the airport where our turbo-prop plane is waiting. The look on the face of one of the passengers (not us) was priceless - her chin hit the floor and her eyes bugged out on stalks............. 'that's our plane????!!!!!!" I remember feeling the same way when I saw our first one of those planes!

Great views of Saigon after take off, we must have gone nearly 360 degrees. The clouds looked beautiful and we experienced a little turbulence, but no worries. Dalat Airport was a surprise, so big and new. They are certainly preparing for the future. Maybe a bid for the 2032 Olympics?? Always nice to see someone waiting for you at the airport. We had arranged for our hotel to collect us and at first we thought $30 USD was a bit steep, but it was easily a 30 minute run, so in the end, we reckon good value and have booked for the return trip.
We are staying at Dreams Hotel, which is where I would have stayed if we were travelling  with just the 2 of us, not knowing how the others would cope with it. It's a basic hotel, what do you want for $25USD per room, per night?? It's clean, warm, and the included breakfast is terrific. Bob and Anke have the 'Presidential Suite' and the princesses, of course have the Princess Room. Only problem is, there is no lift and we are 3 floors up , B & A only 2. They could have had a room on the first floor, but the window wasn't big enough. They ended up in a front facing room, which looked very nice. It's late by the time we get here, just time to arrange our tour for tomorrow, give Mrs Dung (pronounced Zuung) our laundry, $1USD per kg and find some dinner.

Our room at Dreams hotel

We found the 'Art Cafe' just up the road and order several dishes to share. We want some fried spring rolls, so jumping right in, Brenda orders 6 spring rolls, thinking one each. We are taken aback when 6 serves arrive, each holding 8 small spring rolls. We burst into laughter as the plates keep coming, and the staff can barely contain themselves when they realise our mistake too. It was like something out of the 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'.  I think we will all be talking about that night for a long time to come!
Trevor heads home and the rest of us have a little explore, but we are tired so we drag our tired selves back up the 3 flights of stairs and go to bed. We are being picked up at 8.30 tomorrow for our 'countryside tour'.