Now we were on our way to Da Lat, a city in the mountains of Vietnam where they have evergreens. <cây thường xanh> This is a truly special country with such a variety of landscapes. We arrived at our hotel and discovered that it was truly a dump<thực sự là một bãi chứa.>. The agency either lied to us by saying it was brand new, or they were misinformed by the hotel<Cơ quan hoặc nói dối với chúng tôi bằng cách nói rằng nó là thương hiệu mới, hoặc họ đã dối khách sạn.>..... Whatever the case, we were upset. Hair was on the floor, on the bed, pillow cases were yellow, bathroom smelled like a public toilet, closet like mothballs, mold on the walls and ceiling <băng phiến, nấm mốc trên các bức tường và trần nhà>, no hot water or showerhead<vòi hoa sen>, but we had a bucket of water and a pot<xô nước và một nồi>, we did not even want to step inside<bước bên trong.>. So of course, I took pictures because we were going to give the agency a piece of our mind when we got back to Saigon. I hear there are lots of nice hotels in Da Lat though for as low as $7 during non-peak season. But DO NOT stay at Hong Phuoc Hotel.<Tôi nghe có rất nhiều khách sạn tốt đẹp tại Đà Lạt mặc dù thấp $ 7 trong mùa cao điểm. Nhưng KHÔNG ở tại khách sạn Hồng Phước>....

Da Lat is known for its agriculture<nông nghiệp>, vegetables, flowers, strawberry jams, artichoke teas<atisô loại trà> , avocado ice cream<bơ kem>, mountains, evergreens, waterfalls<cây thường xanh, thác nước>..., and cool temperatures. We went to Da Lat for the Flower Festival 2005. We strolled along the city and yea<tản bộ dọc theo thành phố và phải>, there is French influence here, because French colonists<thực dân> decided to make this their playground way back when to escape the heat of Saigon. But I wouldn't describe Da Lat as being a small European village, as you may read in travel books. There is an Eiffel Tower that looks so gimmicky <phô trương.>you'd think you're in a theme< chủ đề.> park. Ho Xuan Huong (spring scent lake) is a pretty walk. Our short stay here did not enable me to hike the forests and see waterfalls<cho phép tôi để đi lang thang các khu rừng và nhìn thấy thác nước>, but Da Lat turned out to be quite a unique experience in ways that I could not have planned.<nhưng Đà Lạt bật ra được một kinh nghiệm khá độc đáo trong cách mà tôi không thể có kế hoạch.>

One thing on my agenda<chương trình nghị sự> was Truong Dai Hoc Da Lat (Da Lat University). I heard this campus was very pretty,<Tôi nghe nói trường này là rất khá> with cobblestone walls and evergreen trees.<với những bức tường đá sỏi và cây thường xanh.> We had that light drizzly rain again as I described in "Da Nang," so I found shelter within a study hall waiting for mom and sis to finish using the WC <nơi trú ẩn trong một phòng nghiên cứu chờ đợi cho mẹ và sis để kết thúc bằng cách sử dụng các WC>(water closet, the VN acronym for public restroom.<hà vệ sinh, từ viết tắt của VN cho nhà vệ sinh công cộng.>) We sat in the quiet room and relaxed a little bit. I noticed some English pronunciation on the chalk board: "Ai em fai(n), thanh kiu = I am fine, thank you." When we got up to leave, another girl was just finishing her tutoring session and left too<phiên làm việc và để lại quá.>. So of course I was gonna talk to her. I spoke English because she was a university student, and I wanted to see how much she knew. "Hello, do you speak English?" I know, not too smooth,<mịn> but I needed to say something simple. And I was astonished<ngạc nhiên> she didn't understand a word I said. So we eventually<sau cung.cuoi cung> got around to asking her questions about university life in Vietnam. She studies math, calculus<tinh toan> now, and is having tons of trouble. She cannot grasp the concepts<nắm bắt các khái niệm>. It costs an equivalent of $100 USD/semester<Nó chi phí tương đương với $ 100 USD / học kỳ>. She failed out of university in Saigon so now she is is Da Lat. She has a younger sister but her parents are rice farmers and can only afford to pay her education through 9th grade. They are financially strapped< day deo>, but she tutors children for extra money. Taking all of this into account, she was overwhelmed and cried<choáng ngợp và khóc.>. Tears rolled down her face as we stood on her misty campus<Nước mắt lăn dài trên khuôn mặt của cô khi chúng tôi đứng trong khuôn viên trường sương mù của mình>. Sis offered her tissue paper<Sis cung cấp khăn giấy của mình> I guess girls are always prepared like that. Mom ended by saying, "Is there anything we can do for you?" She thought about it and asked...."Can I have your address?" I was speechless<không nói nên lời>. I totally expected her to ask for money, because up to this point, we were conditioned to think that Vietnamese people are money driven. So we exchanged addresses and she gave us three of hers, just in case we had trouble contacting her. While she wrote hers, mom pulled out $20 to give to her. She was genuinely hesitant, b<thực sự do dự>ut reluctantly accepted<miễn cưỡng chấp nhận>. She also did not want to trouble us for giving her our banh mi (VN sandwiches). In any case, she needed it more than we did. Mom invited her to the Flower Festival with us, but she couldn't because she had to tutor the children. So we went our separate ways and I hope she is doing fine now. I'll write to her when I get home.

The Flower Festival sucked. As mom said, the display was like a big Home Depot garden. Orchids, bonzai, and tulips were for sale. Not worth the effort to report, however, what we experienced at night was most memorable. As always, we declined to hand over our passports overnight. Apparently in Da Lat, hotels are required to hand deliver our passports to Cong An (Communist VN law enforcement). Not wanting to part from our passports, we found ourselves walking to the office of Cong An. What we saw here was very telling of the oppression VN people experience under this governmental system. There was a huge white bust of Ho Chi Minh's head and we were not allowed to sit at the table directly in front of it. We waited with our hotel guy. Mr. Cong An finally came out with a booming, demanding voice, speaking with a clear tone of intimidation. He berated the hotel guy, questioning the whereabouts of his paperwork, threatening to fine him, using rude VN pronouns of "may and tao" (you and I). All our hotel guy did was politely accept everything Cong An said to him. Any cross words and I can imagine severe punishment would ensue. Again, this is the VN reality, where if you were born of an anti-Communist family, multiple generations of your family will have no hope for a good future, no home ownership, no vocational progress, no socioeconomic mobility, only direct governmental oppression of a life of quality. This fact was exemplified by our waiter in Da Lat who has a university education but has no opportunity to use it due to his family history. If my parents did not succeed in escaping, this waiter's life would be my reality. April 30, 1975, the fall of south Vietnam to Communist rule, and the day my parents escaped, is a date that changed the course of my life in an immeasurable way.