Flowers in the Rain in Dalat...


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Asia » Vietnam » Central Highlands » Lam Dong » Da Lat
March 31st 2009
Published: April 9th 2009
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We made our way to Dalat on the open tour bus, this is basically an open ticket that stops at all the main towns on the way from Saigon to Hanoi. We had only booked it on the way up to Hue though because we wanted the freedom to visit the smaller towns there which are not included on the open tour bus but for our journey up to Hue it suited us perfectly and is pretty cheap too.

We arrived in Dalat at around 3pm and found a good guesthouse opposite the tour agency office where our bus dropped us off. The difference in the weather here compared to Saigon is dramatic. This is because Dalat sits at 1000m above sea level so is much cooler and cloudier than the lowlands we'd been used to, we actually welcomed the cooler air because as much as we like the sunshine we don't like the sweaty mess that accompanies it. Our first afternoon was spent exploring the town, Dalat is quite tricky to navigate though especially when you have a photocopied version of LP with terrible maps so we went in circles a bit to find where we wanted to go but got a bit of a feel for the town and what it had to offer. We had a look in the market and also discovered that Dalat has possibly the most hotel, cafes and restaurants of any towns we'd been in so far!

Dalat is an old French colony hill station but is now more famous for being the honeymoon capital of Vietnam. We actually found this quite difficult to understand becuase it is nice here but not so nice it would be our first choice to spend our honeymoon in.. there weren't even any fabulous hotels that we could see where you could get pampered in luxury so we can only guess that there is something here that the Vietnamese aren't telling us!

Sadly our visit to Dalat was going to be a flying one as we were keen to get up North as soon as we could so for our first and only full day we hired a moto and took to the hills. Our aim was to go to the Elephant Waterfalls and stop at the Silk Farm on the way back but in our eagerness to leave the town we only had our terrible LP area map which showed the general direction we needed to go in but had no exact route. This is never a good idea, so when we arrived in a small village and were told we were basically 50km in the opposite direction to where we needed to be we were only slightly surprised but a little disappointed. Never ones to be beaten, we thought we knew where we'd gone wrong so set off again, went about 10km and ended up at a waterfall sign.. sadly these waterfalls were again in completely the wrong direction.. just a different direction to the previous wrong one! Mental note never to try to find places without a map again!

On our journey we did pass lots of beautiful rolling hills with people in conical hats tending the various fruits & vegetables that grew there. Dalat is also the place where many flowers are grown for sale all across the country so we stopped in a few nurseries and took in the rows and rows of beautiful roses, sunflowers and many other wonderful flowers that grew there. It was quite funny to see them bunching up 100's of red roses in a mat and bundling them on the back of a moto for transport to the trucks, and we had to wonder if they do it like this with the ones in the UK!

After this we abandoned the plan to find Elephant Falls and tried to find the falls we'd seen on the sign but where were they? We drove for another few km's and passed a very pretty lake lined with pine trees and buffalo then came to a road that was obviously still in progress. Going along a still in progress road is very hard on the behind so we gave up going along here after a while and decided that today was just not our day for seeing the many waterfalls of the central highlands. On our way back we think we did see where the signposted waterfall should have been but because a dam had been built upstream we think the waterfall doesn't exist any longer, a bit of a shame for us but more of a shame for the restaurant next to it that obviously didn't get any business anymore!

After the failed expidition we headed back to town and went for our Plan
Fish shopFish shopFish shop

in Dalat high street
B activity.. a trip to the Valley of Lllluuuurrrrrvvvvveeee about 6km outside Dalat town. This was... errr interesting! It's basially a park with lots of strange love statues and exhibits in it which you can get your photo taken with.. swings, love seats & heart things galore to be found here so we had fun taking photos of all this. There is also a nice lake in the valley so we had a walk down here and took in the nice scenery until it started to pour down with rain. We were armed with ponchos so this helped keep the wet out a bit but riding on a moto in ponchos, clear or not, is not easy and you still get pretty soaked as you ride though puddles that splash up your legs. We headed straight for our guesthouse to dry off and enjoy a nice cup of Vietnamese Tea which comes free in all the guesthouses we've been too.

The rain stopped after a while so we headed on up the town to the Crazy House which is indeed very very Crazy! This house has been designed by a Vietnamese architect lady and has been met with much disapproval from the people of Dalat because of it's wacky design. It's a very very strange design with many different rooms to be explored like the Kangaroo Room, the Ant Room and all have mirrors above the beds which we found quite amusing. We enjoyed exploring it but both agreed that it would not be our cup of tea to live in.. Sophie thought that dusting it would just be too much of a nightmare to keep under control and Dale wasn't so keen on the low ceilings in every room.

So that was our time in Dalat, we had had high hopes of this area after hearing how beautiful it was but we didn't feel we got that much out of it which was a shame. This was probably due to our lack of time there and if we do ever come back maybe we will partake in the Easy Rider tour (tour on the back of a bike with a guide) which promised a deeper insight into the real Vietnam but at $50 a day our budget would just not stretch to it so we left with visions of sea and sand on our minds...

After our flying visit to Dalat our next stop was Vietnam's premier beach resort of Nha Trang. Sadly for us we didn't get to experience this at all because from the moment we got off the bus to the moment we got on the bus to Hoi An the following evening, it rained and rained and rained. We didn't even see the beach let alone catch any rays on it and our 2 photos of our experience there says it all really.. it's the view from our guesthouse room where we spent nearly all our time! We did have a nice evening there with a group we'd met during the day so thanks to Lana, Mette, Ann and Mark for making our time in Nha Trang at least a bit memorable. To top off our time there Dale got a terrible bout of food poisioning here (from the frozen chicken we were served the night before) so on the second day we had to re-book into our hotel room for the day so he could rest and try to be ok for the sleeper bus journey that evening to the tailoring central town of Hoi An. ...


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Central HighlandsCentral Highlands
Central Highlands

around Dalat
Statues in the Valley of LoveStatues in the Valley of Love
Statues in the Valley of Love

this place was too funny!
An eagle in the Valley of LoveAn eagle in the Valley of Love
An eagle in the Valley of Love

it looked so evil and out of place amongst the other love statues


21st June 2009

fell in love
walked the jungle from dalat to kontum to border loas in 1968 and after all these years i never forgot how beauiful it was,we use to sneak into the city of dalat the people were great

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