Extreme Dalat, Vietnam

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Dalat

Dalat is a small peaceful hill station deep in the mountainous region of Trung Son in the central highlands. Dotted with lakes, waterfalls and evergreen forests makes this town an ideal retreat for some relatively tourist free trekking. Previously named ‘Le Petit Paris’ when Vietnam was a former French colony, this town is unlike any I have previously seen in Asia. Most of the buildings have an odd European feel (They even have a small scale Eiffel tower!) and the older generations of Vietnamese speak fluent French where I was able to practice my fluent GCSE level language skills.

Another first experience for me in Asia was the cold. With the town of Dalat seated at over 1500m high it was no longer shorts and t-shirt time for us! We hired a moped and spent a couple of days driving round checking out the local sites and visited the Vallee D'Amour. Where there was a scenic valley opened up and onto an emerald green lake, but for me it was slightly spoiled by some tacky fairground rides. But we still had a go... ;-)

One of the main reasons to go to to Dalat is the trekking or mountain biking so after agreeing that we would do the biking I slept while Tony went out and shopped around looking for some brochures / guides for trekking in the nearby area. He came across a shop offering some good deals and foolishly left the decision up to Tony.

So the following day while our guide is double checking our bikes I browsed through the brochure and see the different routes available with their experience levels; beginner, intermediate, advanced and extreme. I look at Tony and say “Which did you book?” He just smiles and I call him every name under the sun and some more.

Now at the time, the idea of a full extreme day, which included 45km up and around Lang Bian the second highest peak in Vietnam sounded like good fun. Despite the only time I had been on a bike in the last 10 years was for a couple of hours the week before along the Mekong Delta. I knew this would be challenging but was confident both Tony and myself would be able to manage (hmmm). I could almost hear the peak calling my name...

We started at a gentle pace along a few small winding country roads and then onto a rough track which led steeply up a valley. The first down hill run nearly ended in disaster as I almost lost control, came off the track and narrowly missed an innocent by standing cow which we later named Hien (which translates to kind, innocent and gentle in Vietnamese)... I am happy to report that both myself and Hien were fine and escaped unhurt. Lucky for the cow because he would have come off worse!

The following couple of hours we faced a grueling climb. At times the track was so rough and so steep and we had to climb off and push the bikes up. But it was worth it, once at the top we were presented with some breath taking views completely un-spoilt and with no other tourists in sight. The best part of the trek was the journey down! Without wanting to loose our guide we flew down the peak at a fair rate of knots. Towards the end about 20meters from our hotel my legs had given up. I got cramp (again!) but this time in both the top of my legs and was literally unable to move and was in agony for about 2 minutes. After a rest and massage from the guide I could actually move again.

Despite giving Tony lots of abuse for picking the extreme option we both had a great time and would not have had it any other way.

Next stop Nha Trang...

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Photos

Rodeo rides again!!
I'll grow up one day. Honest!

The view from the cable cars.
I could almost be in Alton Towers

Comments

[David Brent]

I hope you woke up and shouted "Good Morning Vietnam."