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Published: April 2nd 2011
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I'd have stayed longer in Saigon - it's definitely a place I'd like to come back to sometime, but there's a lot to see in Vietnam and I intend to spend some time in Laos and Northern Thailand before my travelling fund runs too low. Da Lat doesn't feature on the traditional south-north backpackers' route through Vietnam - more people go via Mui Ne or straight to Nha Trang - but it sounded like an interesting and attractive place so I took a morning Phuong Trang bus, arriving there mid-afternoon. On the bus a local student with an English grammar workbook sat next to me, we chatted about learning English and she taught me some Vietnamese words, or at least tried to as my attempts at pronunciation were far inferior to her spoken English. Vietnamese is certainly easier to read than Khmer or Thai but speaking is way harder as there are 6 different ways each vowel can be pronounced.
After the experience of trying to find a recommended hotel in Saigon without success I decided before setting off for Da Lat to search the net for complaints and come prepared with a list of places to
avoid instead. I
then went to the part of town I considered the best location and soon I had a room I liked the look of for a good price, checked in to the Hoang Viet hotel and then went to price tours of the sights in the vicinity of the town for the next day. The quotes were all much of a muchness and I decided to go with one of the well-regarded Easy Riders. If there's one place I've visited where a tour by bike is worth it for the journey, it's Da Lat for scenery like that in the photo below left. The tour made me glad I had carried a jumper for the past two months (used only as a pillow on buses up until this point); the temperature here is more like spring in northern Europe - the city is referred to by some as the 'City of Eternal Spring' - and the wind made it feel rather chilly on the back of the bike. We visited some fairly run-of-the-mill outdoorsy sights: a waterfall, a lake, a hill etc as well as some unique places. A village (no prizes for guessing what everyone calls it) that has a
great big statue of a chicken; a pagoda decorated with broken crockery and beer bottles; and hands down my highlight of the tour, the Hang Nga Crazy House.
The Crazy House has been recognised as one of the most bizarre buildings in the world. It looks like a giant surreal tree and is supposedly influenced in design by the natural environment of the area. It was initially a personal project of the architect, who is the daughter of a former president of Vietnam, but is now an unconventional guesthouse with 11 rooms each themed after a different type of animal such as the tigers, kangaroos, eagles and even termites. That number is likely to increase, as building work was underway in parts of the building when I was there. If you've ever gone to a palace or castle and wondered what it's like to live in a tourist attraction you should stay here - many tour groups wander around and kids run up and down the narrow, twisting staircases past the rooms while their parents (as did I) take photos of the marvellous decoration. The uppermost sections of the buildings also afforded some very good views across the town.
The city (seems odd calling it that after Saigon) is very attractive. It was left virtually untouched by the American War, so the original French colonial architecture was preserved. That, combined with the narrow, steep streets and the weather, gives Da Lat a very European feel. In the early evening there were many young Vietnamese outside conversing and playing. One evening I came back to my hotel and in the street was a crowd of young people shouting and cheering - one of them was showing off their driving skills with a large remote-controlled car. For foreigners to meet others there were a couple of backpackers bars, but even these closed quite early and had few customers. In one I met another guy from England who suggested we move onto a bar below a hotel where he had played pool with the barmaid the previous night. He assured me the pool tables were free and on we went and the three of us - along with a well-lubricated Aussie who wandered in, played a couple of games, then left - played pool for a couple of hours. Trouble was, at the end of the night when I asked for
the bill it contained a substantial charge for pool. To say I was not impressed would be an understatement, and in the end I gave the guy who brought me there the money for my drinks and left him to sort it out.
After one more day in Da Lat I hit the road once again, taking the Phuong Trang coach to beach resort Nha Trang. I expected a return to the warmth and humidity that is typical for this time of year in Vietnam, but instead I seemed to have brought the Da Lat weather with me to the coast. The sky was overcast, there were showers of rain, and the sea was rough so swimming in the sea was out of the question. Nha Trang's beach was empty of people. Adding to that the number of touts and irritating drivers, and a restaurant that decided I'd ordered a fish I'd only inquired about and wanted me to pay for it - I declined to do so and after a bit arguing left the place -, and already I was thinking about how I was getting to somewhere other than here.
Although the weather did not improve
in the following two days, my opinion of the resort did. Finding only the second pint of ale I've had since leaving London at the Louisiane Brewhouse helped, as did the friendliness of the staff at the Why Not Bar - which also had the best wireless internet connection I've found so far in Vietnam. The passion fruit cake at Crazy Kim's was another highlight, and a great value dinner at the Com Ngon Lanh restaurant made up for the earlier fish mishap. One thing that surprised me about Nha Trang was the relative lack of shops selling 'beach accessories' compared to the beach places I visited in Thailand, though I'm sure it won't be long before they sprout up. Nor were there any of the 'fish spas' that are such a money-spinner in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, just the occasional massage place. Books were in plentiful supply, though, from hawkers with boxes as well as 'book exchange' shops, and there were lots of tour agencies. I didn't take any tours in my short time here though, and bought a ticket on the sleeper train to Danang from the railway station.
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Mark Iles
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Travails in Vietnam
Glad all going well. The stories about suddenly being charged for the pool that was free the night before even thought you'd spent plenty of ££ drinking there and the fish incident in the restaurant remind me of the many negative stories I've heard about the people in Vietnam. Fish Spas (or Fish Doctors as they're sometimes called) are springing up now in the UK as well.