Da Lat market in October morning!

Part I

In what month is Da Lat beautiful?

Some people say Da Lat is most beautiful in autumn, some people say it is early winter in Da Lat, and some people say spring is the best season… Every person we love is different, and so are our perspectives. This beautiful city is also different. All beauty lies in the self-definition of each person.

There are strangely calm days, in October, crossing the Ong Dao Bridge in the morning, looking towards Xuan Huong Lake, the wind blowing from the direction of Cuu Hill makes the waves gently roll and undulate towards here, that is the time of autumn. Da Lat and get ready for winter. In the gentle breeze you can smell the sweet grass that grows somewhere on Sheep Hill, the scent of yellow calla lilies, the green scent of pine needles, the rosemary that radiates fragrance every time someone touches it or the wind. It moves it, and in the Smell That wind also contained the sweet aroma of you, the girl from the other side of the lake that I only dared to stand from afar and look and long for.

There are many beauties in this life that we can only see and admire from afar, just like the shadow of the moon and the mind of a fish. There are many beauties that arise from slight sadness, but when people are too happy, they have nothing to share. When Trinh Cong Son lay in the cold wooden attic where B’lao was exposed to dust and rain, what could she dream of without Nguyen Vu Dao Anh? If he wasn’t broken up with his sister, how could we have a Diem Xua love song? how that. If every day in that first-floor penthouse he didn’t see the English teacher in a white ao dai and shoulder-length hair, how would he have the masterpiece Sad Holy Word? If everything in life is too peaceful, does this mean that life is very boring? Every broken piece in the present makes people regret the beautiful memories of the past, become attached, and then suffer.

As I passed this bridge, looking around the lake, everyone was walking, running, some couples, and I said to myself: “I was like that too.” So let’s appreciate all the happiness we have now because even though what we have now is loneliness, do you know that every day when we still wake up and watch the sunlight move over the rosemary branch in the fog? by the window, that was It’s already a gift, a great favor. Stop complaining about heaven and earth! Ask yourself, have you lived a good life to receive many blessings?

When we love someone and go to Da Lat together, it is happy, but if we are alone, this place turns a dull brown color. Therefore, musician Lam Phuong wrote a song imbued with melancholic feelings in the song Sad City:

“The city is very sad

The cold wind of the afternoon chills the soul

And the road used to have bean leaves.

Now without me I am stony and sad.

Now without you the streets are deserted

The evening bell rings slowly and sadly.”

Because without you I would still be sad and sad, let alone with such a warm heart, how can I not feel pain? The streets of Da Lat in recent decades have never been as deserted as during this pandemic, but without you I see nothing but desolation. When we are in love, everything looks beautiful, everything is bright in color, everything is bustling and bustling, but happiness lasts a long time. Lam Phuong added some beautiful lines between her sad tears:

“Let me tell you all my sad words.

Because our love is like that.

Forget late love in a hurry

Before I could finish my words, the night ended quickly.

When they first left the bustling city, many young people came here to start a business with coffee plantations. Oh, everywhere you look is beautiful, just breathing is beautiful, you can’t eat or drink, just breathe the cold air of Da Lat. and then carry out photosynthesis. It’s okay to live like a plant day after day. People don’t see that in addition to photosynthesis, trees also need to have very deep roots to find a source of water. At first, everything was so romantic and so easy when all we needed was love, just each other’s eyes and smiles, and we could sleep through the Da Lat winter without a warm blanket. But then a few months passed and life repeated itself, everything around became familiar. On misty September mornings, there were weeks when it rained non-stop, so I could only sit with my knees up, sipping the last beans of coffee before heading to the store to let certain young CEOs carry on. starting their businesses. When I started, Da Lat was a whole world of hope for success, but now it’s just memories.

After the annual holiday on September 2, Da Lat entered the slow months. At the beginning of the school year, parents are busy worrying about their children returning to school. They try to accumulate enough numbers during the last quarter of the year to earn a small bonus and get apricot, peach and kumquat branches for Tet. Hotels and restaurants compensate for the losses of the last three months of the year. The woman who sells soy milk only cooks a quarter pot of water so she can eat the so-called rice with fish every day. Usually, strawberries picked from the garden are sold to tourists who rush to buy them as gifts before the bus leaves for Saigon; now they cost only 35,000 VND per box. The saddest thing is still the old people selling baskets for 5,000 each. When it’s crowded, people compete to buy vegetables, buy tubers, then buy baskets to take to town… Now, looking around the morning market, there are 5 more sellers than buyers. If I don’t go out to sell, I don’t know what to do with the merchandise and the ripe strawberries on the trellis. When I go to sell I have to sit on my knees and wait, some buyers sell fresh strawberries, otherwise they go back to making jam or juice.

Life is usually like that, it’s a cycle of sad and happy moods. On sunny days, you can sit quietly and chat about how to show off your child’s grades and scholarships, while on rainy days, you can only sit curled up in the cold and gloom, occasionally taking a few sips of hot artichokes. . There are many strange things I have heard in this city: like the grapes that the street vendors say are Da Lat grapes, the millers never eat strawberries, the artichoke makers never drink them, the coffee roasters never drink them. some trees for me… Oh! Why do we sell and give away something we dare not touch? Thinking like this, how can we compete with the world? Why do Americans only drive American cars, Koreans only use Samsung, Japanese prioritize using Mitsubishi… but we never use what we produce… It will probably take a long time to answer that question.

I’ve always been proud of the people in this city, who talk to each other gently, and even stop at intersections to let the person pass first. Of course, now there are people who run and do not give in, but they are not necessarily Da Lat people because we cannot stop you and ask you if you are Da Lat people. Don’t people here run like crazy? As society becomes more and more developed, the old peaceful scenario no longer exists.

In 1958, Da Lat Market was built on a swampy land where lettuce was grown, and was completed in 1960. When the concrete bridge was built, what is now known as “Hong Kong by the Market”, the park, the surrounding buildings were completed by architect Ngo. Viet Nam. There is a photo taken of the Da Lat market in the years before the 60s of the last century. That day, on both sides of the market there were small rows of pine trees. At the beginning of Le Thi Hong Gam Street, on the right, there was a spacious park with flower beds and grass, surrounded by rows of broken stones that lined the path for pedestrians. On the left there is also a lawn interspersed with a walking path that can look directly towards the two-story houses on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street. From Hoa Binh area, we can look directly at the shore of Xuan Huong Lake filled with Anh Sang village without getting stuck in any space. But now those empty spaces have become KFC stores, Langfarm stores, on the left, the Nice Dream hotel, ramshackle shops and cafes cover the entire space, blocking the inherently dreamlike beauty of the place.

But in the past, the land was large and sparsely populated, each house, each garden, each villa was an exchange for thousands of square meters of land. The name sad city, city in the middle of the forest, forest in the city will probably become nostalgic over time. The current city of pines has been replaced by greenhouses and replaced by new names that are equally romantic like “Valley of Lights.” If we want to look at the electric lights, the 36th floor of Bar On Plus while listening to music and relaxing watching “Saigon Lights with Green and Red Tips” is even more beautiful than the Valley of Lights here. If we want to be rich and develop, we cannot always ride a buffalo cart, keep forever the bamboo poles, the banyan trees, the wells and the roofs of the village longhouses. In this city the debate will continue for many years whether to stop to preserve conservation or change to develop it…

Look forward to the next part….