DAY 7 of SDARL CLASS X LEADERHSIP TRIP to VIETNAM and CAMBODIA

We left Ho Chi Minh City to catch a flight for the 145 mile trip to Da Lat, capital of Lam Dong
Province in the central highlands of Vietnam.

Garrett shows the way to Da Lat

 The plane ride is under an hour but it would take 8 hours by bus.  After busing since we have been in Vietnam we understand the slow pace of traffic on two lane roads that must accommodate buses, trucks, cars, pickups, scooter and pedestrians though large urban and heavily populated rural areas.

Landing in Da Lat we noticed three things immediately:  less traffic, 15 degree cooler temperature and lower humidity.  Da lat sits at 1500 meters (4900 feet above sea level) compared to 60 feet at Ho Chi Minh City.  Da Lat was heavily influenced by the French and their architecture in its many Years of attempted colonization of the country that ended in the mid-1950’s.  The city was not heavily damaged during the Vietnam war.  Lunch was in a French styled restaurant at Ha Noi #1in the Duc Trong district.   Lunch  included rice, assorted prawn dishes, chicken, pork, fish soup and Longans Fruit for desert.  Longans Fruit is a strawberry tasting, gelatinous fruit inside a large marble sized skin that has has to be peeled.

On the way to the day’s tours we noticed that it is more rural and felt smaller because Da Lat has a population of  “only” 500,000.   The roads were lined with houses interspersed among fields instead of the endless array of shops and stores we have become accustomed to.  The terrain is hilly and from a distance parts are reminiscent of the drive between Rapid City and Sturgis.  Other parts were very similar to the Black Hills only here the pines are more interspersed among deciduous trees.

The soils are red and evidently fertile judging from the amount of vegetable crops, coffee trees and gardens.  It appears dry.  The grass has a brownish tinge with a drought look to it - something we from South Dakota can relate to.

The first stop was Cuong Hoan silk.  There we were shown how and when the silk worm works its magic in the making of one of the world’s softest and strongest threads.  The worm makes a silk cocoon which is gathered by the workers.

We watched as a worker takes the harvested bolls and places them in hot water.  Then she pulls a hair from the boll and catches it on a spinner that is attached to a machine that pulls the fine fiber from the balls and wraps them onto a cylinder.  She does this in a simple and efficient motion, never stopping the spinners or machine.  Her technique is as smooth as the silk she is working.

Worker attaching silk worm bolls to machine for spinning the thread

Chris examines the first machine in the silk process

The reels of spun silk are carried to another machine that weaves the silk into a finished pattern and onto a wider reel.  The weaving machine uses folds of thick paper with a pattern cut into it for the template.  The machines are dated but the factory has a Craftsman-like feel to the process.  Many in the class bought silk scarves from the factory.

 Weaving machine

Weaving machine with folds of template paper at the top

Lorrin and class looking at raw silk 

Finished silk 

The next stop was the cricket farm where crickets are raised for human consumption.

According to our guide crickets are able to be sexed at 4 to 5 weeks.  One cricket of each sex is placed in a plastic box where many “honeymoons” make for many crickets.

A cricket pasture

 Crickets are harvested at 45 to 60 days.  Processing for market involves 5 minutes in cold water and then to an oil fryer.  Most of the crickets are sold to specialty stores, restaurants or exported.  Several of the class sampled the crunchy critters.

The Crickets are ready 

 Jen and Chris are ready for the cricket taste testing

The last stop was the Me Lin coffee plantation.

The plantation was started 10 years ago by a young businesswoman who loved coffee and found a way to develop her love into a successful business.  Coffee trees in Vietnam originated in Africa.  In Da Lat, three main types of beans can be grown on the areas hills.  Arabica is gown at the highest elevation, Mocha in the middle and Cherry at the lowest.

Coffee trees and beans:

Me Lin coffee specializes in a very unique coffee using weasels.

Weasels love the beans but cannot fully digest them.  The weasels eat and defecate the beans which, once gathered, cleaned, washed, dried and roasted create a unique flavor.  Before going to market a professional taster determines which beans make grade and which do not.

 Don, ReEtta and Lance choose their coffee

 Lance makes a final selection of beans

Weasel coffee brews through Ca Phe Da which is a Vietnamese coffee press

 The coffee is served espresso style and is very robust.  The value of the weasel processed beans is 8 times over the traditional beans and averages $75 US dollars per pound.

The businesses we observed today appears to follow a theme of industrious, entrepreneurial spirit consistent with what we have experienced elsewhere in other Vietnamese Ag based business.  Understanding their system that encourages or allows private development is not possible in two weeks.  However what we can see, touch and experience does demonstrate a new perspective of leadership in Agriculture.

Jay Esser, Reproter; Lorrin Naasz, Lee Friesen and Ryan Vanden Berge, photographers.