Advertisement
Published: August 2nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
8/2/10-Dalat The night bus dropped us off in the middle of Dalat at 5 am. We expected forests or jungles in the hillside, instead we were in a sleepy city without any green in sight. Our initial response was disappointment. We parked ourselves at the only open tea stand and waited until the hotels opened.
Once established, we considered our gameplan. Our hotel was the hangout of "the Easy Riders", a group of vets who serve as motorcycle guides to the forest/jungle areas of Dalat. On my first trip to Vietnam, I was both a driver and passenger on motorcycles across the northern countryside. But something was telling me NOT to do this excursion. I don't know if it was the weather, or my weariness from the night bus, but I had a gut instinct that I was going to get hurt and be unable to complete my trip if I hopped on their motorcycle. I am learning to trust my instincts, so I chose not to tour by motorbike.
Instead, we cabbed and hoofed it through Delat. We were frustrated that many of the sites were very spread out and the main attraction in our area, the
lake, was without water. The weather was vascillating between rain and hazy sun, and Dalat was looking to be a bust.
We headed to an attraction called the Crazy House--An architectual playground/hotel that was a cross between
Alice in Wonderland and a Salvador Dali painting. We enjoyed trapesing through the weird hallways, gardens and alcoves, taking crazy pictures of ourselves throughout. It was definitely a unique and bizarre place--Right up my alley.
We visited a few other city sites, but were generally unimpressed. I was beginning to question why I came to this city and we headed to a travel agent to catch the next bus or train elsewhere. As luck would have it, we were stuck--no busses until the morning, and no reasonable tour that would drive us in a car to a waterfall or two without charging us for a full day of trekking.
And then it just happened...
We found an agency that sold us a bus ticket for the morning and found us a driver who would take us to the two sites we wanted to visit: Elephant Falls and some big white Buddha.
After a 25km drive, we ended up on
top of Elephant Falls. There was a bridge and a stone-step pathway heading downward, so we ventured the trail. What followed was worth the trip to Dalat and then some.
The thirty-or-so-minute hike down brought me back to my childhood, when my brother and I would go on outdoor adventures on rocks and in creeks. I'll admit, I wasn't as nimble or steady this time around, but once I rediscovered my confidence, I was able to hop, slide and shimmy down the mossy rocks and reach the base of Elephant Falls without plunging to my death.
And the reward was...
Well,
It was just perfect.
The falling water crashing upon the rock formations,
The mist,
The rainbow in the mist;
The water flowing onward, pushing through the surrounding rocks below the falls;
The sounds.
The trees.
Being there with my friends...
I just loved it.
We savored the view of nature and then reversed our climb to the top.
We ventured to the big white Buddha temple near the falls. The grounds were quite lovely, but after the falls, well... it was just a big white Buddha.
I think Dalat would be a great place to spend a week to trek, raft, hike and explore. But this trip has a different purpose in mind for me, which I will explore during the next week in the DMZ of central Vietnam.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.224s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0575s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jill
non-member comment
Question
I'm assuming this is the group you were taking over to Vietnam. You don't speak of ever being in a group (other than Chris and John). Did you not do the group?