Blogs from Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 14

Hi! So yesterday we did a hike up in the mountains and countryside. There was six of us doing the hike plus three guides! The total distance we walked was 18 Km lots of ups and downs and two very scary bridges going across the river, these bridges are used by the farmers often to take the bags of coffee beans across, we had trouble crossing using both hands to hold on!!! We walked through the coffee plantations and hiked up a mountain from which we had an amazing view! We had lunch at the top of the mountain our guides set up this amazing picnic bread ham, tomatoes, cucumber, pineapple,lichies, bananas, peanut butter, cheese! It was great we all sat down in the middle of nowhere at the top of the mountain. We then hiked ... read more

Mountains and beaches.... After hopping a bus out of Saigon I found myself in some real beautiful country in and around Da Lat. Being the only westerner on the bus it was an interesting 5 days in town as tourist season is not occurring so the only visitors were honey-mooning Vietnamese (per LP). I certainly enjoyed the change in climate, as much as I have had some great experiences at all of the coastal towns I've visited I'm a mountain girl at heart and felt right at home with the fresh but crisp mountain air. Da Lat is located in the southern parts of the Central Highlands at 1500 m (4,920 ft) above sea level on the Langbiang Plateau. The architecture is French Colonial and colorful against the green hilltops. Spent a few days relaxing and ... read more

Day 41 Sunday June 14, 2009 Had breakfast at the fake "Peace Cafe"(64 Truong Cong Dinh). Very good food. Rented a nice motorbike from our hotel for $5 for the day and went around the town to do some sight seeing. Our 1st stop was the Lake of Sighs (and park) to ride horses around the lake (not nearly as romantic as it sounds, it ended up being a pony ride around the park). 2nd stop Datanla Falls to take a roller coaster ride downhill to the base of the falls. We had way more fun than adults should have on this thing=) 3rd stopped for lunch at the real Peace Cafe owned by Tu Anh (57 Truong Cong Dinh). Apparently she rented the building at the other address for her restaurant and when she moved ... read more

10 June (Wednesday) - We started the day with an American breakfast at the restaurant where we ate the evening before. By 10 AM we were ready to explore areas around Dalat. Our first stop was "the peaks" or Langbian Mountain which we had climbed as elementary school kids. I remembering racing to see who could get to the top first. Fortunately, today they have built a road to the top where there is a restaurant and tourist stuff...the ubiquitous horse rides and vendors selling knitted bags. We had to pay to ride a Russian built jeep the fifteen minute ride up the mountain which sure beat hiking! I met several Vietnamese students from Hanoi who wanted to practice their English and have pictures taken with me. After a half hour or so we returned down ... read more

8 June (Monday) - We departed Saigon about 8:30 for the 300 km drive to Dalat. At 100 km/hr that should have taken 3 hours. However, with the heavy traffic getting out of Saigon, the poor road conditions enroute, and stops along the way to take pictures of things we had remembered from our last drive up this road in 1960, the trip took until 5:30 PM. Out first stop was to take pictures of the rubber tree plantations and the harvesting of the white rubber sap. Then it was th large boulders near the half way point. Then it was for late lunch in the region where they grow coffee now. Not being a coffee fanatic I didn't buy any, but Barb did. Finally, about 10 km before arriving in Dalat we stopped at Prenn ... read more