Dalat

---

Last night I slept with a blanket over me for the first time in seven weeks.

We are in Dalat up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and although it’s still warm during the day by about 5pm the temperature dips and by bedtime it’s positively cold! Probably 15 degrees. (well it feels cold to me!)



The drive here yesterday was along steep winding roads that snaked their way up the mountainside giving wonderful views for much of the way. Our little bus had it’s work cut out to make the hills not helped by the fact that in several places the road became a dirt track for several metres at a time with huge potholes.



We arrived around 1pm and set off to explore the place only to get lost several times, our map was a poor photocopy and the roads here wind around all over the place like a maze twisting and turning up and down. The street names are very confusing all having three words each sounding similar, like Trang Hung Dao, Phang Hung Thai, or Ngai Thai Hog. Impossible when you’re trying to map read with traffic honking around you.



Refreshed after a good night’s sleep we set off again this morning. We found the market, town square and the lake. We also climbed a very steep hill and found the cable car station only for it to be closed today for maintenance. Typical!

Actually it didn’t matter as we were already at the top station anyway so got the views. The cable car would have taken us down into a wooded valley but as the sky was rapidly turning dark grey we were keen to head back anyway.



We stopped and had a lunch of Pizza overlooking the town square. Tonight we’re hoping we can find the good bars and restaurants now we know our way around. Last night we went to bed hungry, we stayed close to our hotel and ordered chicken breast in mushroom sauce. What we actually got was stir fried chicken bones with some stringy inedible green vegetables and rubber mushrooms to tough to get your teeth through!



Tomorrow we leave and head back to the coastal area of Na Trang.

---