Blogs from Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 30

Apres la chaleur de Nha Trang, c'est assez surprenant de retrouver le froid en altitude. Dalat se situe a 1400m de hauteur, ce qui se traduit par une baisse de temperature d'au moins 10 degres, ca change! Alors que les canadiens sont directement alle a la plage de Mui Ne, je suis parti avec les ricains dans l'arriere-pays. Autrefois surnomme le Petit Paris, Dalat est aujourd'hui une bonne ville vietnamienne bien dynamique, donc j'avais que j'ai du mal a voir la ressemblance avec Paris, meme si c'est qd meme assez joli, autour d'un lac et entoure de montagne. Forcement il a fallu profiter de ce paysage pour faire un petit trek bien sympa: debut dans un paysage un peu mediterraneen ou landais, a base de pins et de sol sableux, puis passage assez abrupte dans la ... read more

We arrived in the mountain city of Dalat after spending a cramped day on a bus (well, I was cramped, Sharon could fit into a Mini behind the Hulk and still have space). We were now heading back up into the clouds and the curving uphill roads proved difficult on both the bus and our nerves. It was with great relief that we got off the bus, amazed to still be alive. We immediately went in search of the famous Easy Riders, our only reason for making the journey. We were told they hang out at the Peace Cafe, and this proved both true and easy to locate. Sitting down to a banana pancake with chocolate sauce we met Khoa (Dave) & Lucky who spent the better part of an hour poring over maps and putting ... read more

We arrived in Da Lat on Thursday evening and once we had found somewhere to stay we went out to eat. We went to a French place that we had read about and tried there home made strawberry wine, which was so sweet even my nana wouldn't like it! On Thursday we walked around the town, we bought some breakfast from a local bakery and then headed to the lake in the centre of town to eat it. We then headed to the flower gardens and on the way we saw a naked man at the side of the lake doing what can only be described as having a number two (although he didn't even have an trousers around his ankles)! The flower garden was a little disappointing, the only good thing about it was the ... read more

Up early again for me, Darren and Scott for our mamouth bike ride to Nha Trang, well half way but its still 40 miles on the bike. After a bit of confusion at the hotel regarding the bill we eventually got picked up by the bike company at the hotel and taken to the shop to get kitted out with Bikes, Helmet and Gloves. In our group were the three of us, 4 middle aged woman and a guy from the Checz republic who looked like an assassin, he didn't talk just glared. Off we set from the shop through Da Lat center avoiding motorbikes, scooters, lorries etc. the guide didn't seem to mind flying off at the front but surprisingly we all made it to the first stop as any number of us could have ... read more

We've booked an open bus ticket to go via several stops further north in Vietnam. Our first stop was DaLat, a hill station in 1500m altitude that was refreshingly cool but by no means cold. (Apparantly it hasn't changed much in the past 50 years as the Americans and Vietnamese had agreed not to bomb it during the war... why couldn't they generally agree this for the whole country???) On the bus we saw country side how I had imagined Vietnam to look like: Paddy fields and Palmtrees, with Mountains in the background. DaLat didn't seem as idylic as we had emagined but we think that was partly due to quite a numbar of concrete buildings and an overcast sky and we havn't seen many clouds in the past 2 months (sorry..) There was a little ... read more