Blogs from Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 12

The trip from Hanoi to Hoi An introduced me to a new transportation method: the sleeper bus. A sleeper bus is like a regular bus, only instead of seats they have bunk beds. The one we took had three rows of bunk beds. I ended up sleeping in the middle top bunk, which unfortunately is for those of... average Asian height.. and my seat belt was broken so I had to tie myself into the bed. Also the Vietnamese highway is composed almost entirely of potholes and craters, so the effect was something like sleeping in a small metal cage during a long and terrible earthquake. Otherwise, it is a fine way to travel. At least- I tell myself this since almost every leg of our trip will be on sleeper buses. Hoi An was a ... read more

We left Mui Ne on christmas eve for the mountain town of Da Lat. The bus ride was really bumpy - hard to do anything besides listen to music, look out the window and brace for impact. But the views going up into the mountains were awesome. Somehow steph slept through most of it, until a big bump jarred her awake. Four hours later we arrived in Da Lat. Da Lat was actually kind of cold when we got there in the evening - something we had not felt for quite a while. Two months, even. I had to put on pants! It is at 1500 meters above sea level so it gets chilly at night. It's a pretty city. Supposedly the honeymoon capital of vietnam. In the center of town there is a lake where ... read more

What a difference a day makes. Got up at 4.30am (again) to meet a 5am taxi at the hotel. Predictably enough there was no taxi waiting for us. Anyway one was rustled up from somewhere on short notice. You might think that the streets of HCMC would be empty(ish) at 5 am. Not so. Still a bun fight to get across your average intersection. Vietnamese Airlines were a model of efficiency and after 50 minutes we were on the runway at Dalat. As Milla astutely pointed out, "look Dad, there's nature right up to the edge of the runway..." Clearly she prefers the verdant hills of Dalat to the seething mass of humanity and motorbikes that is HCMC. A short taxi ride had us in Dalat where we needed to find a hotel. The kids were ... read more

After spending 10 days in the UNESCO heritage city of Luang Prabang, Loas where no one was allowed to beep their horns we took a flight with Loas airlines on a plane which looked something like a WW2 bomber, propellers on the outside... that kind of thing. Luckily inside was brand new. After a quick, calm hour long flight we landed in Hanoi to begin the next leg of our journey.....Vietnam. The calm, continued when we got off the plane, a hassle free jaunt through customs, visa checks and hardly the hordes of taxi drivers - known here as the taxi mafia that we were expecting. This would be the calm before the storm and after ten minutes crammed in a minibus with the other fresh white-faced arrivals we began to hear the horns and grimace ... read more

The Governor-General of Indochina, in te late 19th Century, ordered a hill station be founded in DaLat. The town is at an elevation of about 1500m, which leaves it a bit cooler than the areas I have traveled throughout Vietnam so far. Nonetheless it is an amazing area with many natural beauties to be explored. During the war there was no bombing on this town so everything retained its pre-war structure. I stayed in the Peace Hotel and was confused when I did not have a fan or anything in my room. The receptionist told me I didn't need one. I didn't understand at the time, but found out in the evening. It was definitely cold, about 10c at night. The majority of the locals are wearing winter coats and lots of knitted items are sold ... read more