Slipping and Sliding in Dalat

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We arrived in Dalat on the 15th June after a long bus journey from Ho Chi Minh City.

I had booked us a hotel online, YK Home Villa, which was a 10 minute drive from the city centre. When we arrived we were greeted by Lys who runs the hotel along with her husband and other family members. Our time in Dalat was made even more special by her and her family, as well of course all the beautiful scenery.

On our first full day in Dalat we decided to book ourselves onto a Countryside tour and were picked up at 8am by a lovely tour guide called 'Buffalo', well that's what it translated to from Vietnamese apparently! We shared the comfortable mini bus with 2 other men who we had met the day before on the coach to Dalat from Saigon.

We visited a coffee plantation and a small village where we got to taste raw coffee beans and walk through the village and see the farmers homes and way of life. We also visited a silk farm, with thousands of silk worms that make the silk by making a cocoon out of it then they are put into boiling water to kill them, the cocoon is then taken and threaded in to fine silk and the clothes are made from it.

The trip also included a visit to a mushroom farm, flower farm (with stunning views), rice wine making place (and tried the 70% alcohol!) the highlights of the tour were visiting Elephant Falls and Linh An Pagoda.

We arrived at Elephant Falls just before lunchtime and were really excited about seeing our first waterfall in Vietnam as we had been told they are beautiful, and we weren't disappointed. The climb down to the bottom of the waterfall was so scary and absolutely crazy but thankfully we all made it in one piece! We had to climb over some rickety bridges made from metal and then down some slippery stones, we thought this was the end but how wrong we were! We had to climb and navigate over many many wet rocks, which our feet could not fit on to. Below us were steep drops, jagged rocks and fast flowing water. After getting all the way to the bottom of the waterfall our legs felt a bit shaky, but it was definitely worth it in the end. When we made it back to the top, the ladies from a minority village washed our feet and legs down after we got covered in mud (mum fell on her bum in the mud as well!).

Thought we should buy a couple of bits from the little shop and thanked everyone for washing us down, then headed up the hill to Linh An Pagoda. We had a walk around the Pagoda and took in the great views and learnt alot about the different Buddhas that were inside the Pagoda from a friendly old man sitting outside.

Back on the bus we stopped for lunch in Dalat town and then visited a cultural centre with amazing hand stitched silk pictures, ranging from £30-1000 each.

The next day we decided to go for it on our own and create our own mini tour, which turned out to be a great success! First we went to Tuyen Lam Lake where we had heard from Lys at our hotel that we could try out some elephant riding. We took a boat for about half an hour through the lake to where the elephants were. Phil and I have previously been elephant riding in Thailand, so mum and Peter gave it a go on a half hour trek along the lake and through the forest. They had a brilliant time and said it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, really pleased they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Back on the boat and over the lake, we called our taxi man and he came and collected us and took us to Cremaillere Railway Station, which is largely unused now apart from to take tourists a few km's to a small town called Trai Mat Village where there is a beautiful Pagoda covered in mosaics. From the top of the Pagoda there were amazing views and even more beautiful mosaics.

We celebrated Peter's birthday whilst we were in Dalat and Lys prepared us a beautiful meal followed by a delicious cake which was a present from them. The next day we left on the coach to go to the beach town of Nha Trang.


Our Route So Far

Kuala Lumpur - Ipoh - Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands) - Perhentian Kecil - Kota Bharu - Kuala Lumpur - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kota Kinabalu (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuala Lumpur - Melaka - Bangkok - Hi Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Dalat -

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Photos

Elephant Falls
After a scary trek over slippery rocks