Blogs from Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

Nick: Having taken a few long bus journeys in South America, the prospect of our 6-7 hour overnight trip from HCMC to Da Lat wasn't especially daunting. At around 22:30 we left our hostel, showered and refreshed for our impending journey and walked the short distance to the bus station. As it turned out, there were plenty of buses going to Da Lat from this station, perhaps every twenty minutes or so; however, given that they were all unsigned and arriving/departing at assorted degrees of lateness from their scheduled time, it was no mean feat working out which of the buses we were meant to be on. This wasn't exactly helped by the two individuals working for the bus company who - completely independently, mind - took a look at our preferred tickets and waved us ... read more

Da Lat is a charming little town in the middle of the southern moutains in Vietnam and is dotted with elegant French colonial houses. Da Lat is known for being the biggest city in Vietnam exporting flowers, it is no wonder you can find flowers all over the city. The reason Da Lat can produce that many flowers is due to the very impressive weather changes in one day. Instead of having four seasons in one year, Da Lat has these seasons in one day. Starting in the morning with the spring, followed by the summer during the day, autumn in the afternoon and at last, once the sun is down it gets so cold we have the winter. The surrounding countryside of this town is blessed by little native villages, waterfalls, pagoda's, lakes, coffee farms ... read more

da lat von oben. um den höchsten gipfel der umgebung, den lang biang auf 2.176m, zu besteigen, verlassen wir früh das hotel und fahren mit mountain bikes nördlich aus da lat, über duong lam hamlet in den khu du lich nationalpark. auf dem weg begegnen uns zahlreiche bauern auf ihren mopeds, mit gummistiefel, sichel und spritzkansister ausgestattet vervollständigen sie das bild der flourierenden landwirtschaft. da lat ist keine touristen metropole und obwohl der lang biang in allen reiseführern angepriesen wird, sehen wir uns lediglich in einer horde asiatischer touristen, die alle mit eigenen jeeps den berg hinauf gefahren werden. wir, whities, gehen relativ uncharmant die serpentinenstraße entlang und wundern uns, warum es keinen schöneren, ausgeschilderten weg gibt. schmunzelnd höre ich meinen lieben schwager “wenn man fahren kann, wozu gehen?!”. das denken sich wohl ... read more

Just 5 days in Saigon and we were moving on knowing that we would swing back through the city on our return. We booked seats on a bus to Da Lat in the Central Highlands. We had been here before and that was half the reason we were going back. Saigon and Da Lat are as different as night and day. While Saigon his noisy and frenetic; Da Lat is a lazy, quiet place famed for its food markets and the surrounding farms. Terraced fields and green houses of extraordinary size fill every available square foot of arable land. Coffee is a major product so coffee bushes proliferate up to the edges of the roads. We were riding on an overnight bus which had started out in the Mekong Delta. Overnight buses do not have normal ... read more

Feeling better from my all day hangover, Poppy and I woke up early to go Canyoning. Oh my gosh, this day was so exhilarating. A group of 6 of us got taught to abseil and jump down a small wall. Our first proper abseil was down a 16m wall face next to a waterfall, building us up for the big one in which we went down a roaring waterfall 25m high. The big one, I slipped and hung for a few seconds halfway down. I figured to push myself back up while the force of the waterfall gushed on me. I've got to admit, I was shitting it, but I was ok. I then had to fall from 4 metres down into the water. We also did some cliff jumping, one from 4m and the second ... read more