World Vietnam Dalat

Jason and Dawn - Around the world 2011

Vietnam - Days 10 - 12 - Dalat mountain ranges Apr 13, 2012

We spent part of the day on the 11th traveling from Mui Ne to Dalat. It was a beautiful bus ride through the mountain ranges and some great hill tribe villages nestled within huge coffee plantations. At one point the road was blocked literally by rock boulders put their by the local hill tribes to stop traffic, since 2001 the government has had an on going “issue” with the tribes not wanting tours or travelers to use the roads going through their villages, in 2004 travel stopped for a period of time until the government was able to negotiate with them to get the road back opened. We were able to maneuver around the rocks and continue on our way. Dalat is a gorgeous mountain city. Population of just over 130,000, the spring-like cool conditions instead of the tropical hot heat offers us a very welcomed retreat from the +35’s we’ve been in for a while now. Nights get a little cold here at an elevation of 1475 meters. The town is dotted with elegant French-colonial villas instead of squat socialist architecture, and the farms around are thick with strawberries and flowers, not rice. As a highland resort it’s been welcoming tourists for a century. Dalat is small enough to remain charming, and the surrounding countryside is blessed with lakes, waterfalls, evergreen forests and gardens; temperate Dalat is nicknamed the ‘City of Eternal Spring’. We found a wonderful hotel room within town center, the Dalat Xua hotel. Awesome clean room with a huge window looking out over the town. There is a small version of the Eifel tower on the hill across from us, part of the French influence here in Vietnam, that and their fresh bakeries with rolls. The streets them selves are nothing but utter chaos, no one watches were the other is going, they all just expect you to look out for them. Crossing the streets can be a challenge. The town is surrounded by beautiful architecture, trees and greenery. The locals all seem very friendly and eager to say Hi and help you with directions if needed. The night market is a great place to walk around and take in all the locals sifting through the massive amounts of clothing and shoes that are for sale. The town of Dalat itself is not full of foreign tourists but rather with local Vietnam tourists that come here on vacation to shop and take their goods back home. This is the major mecca for clothes and coffee. It’s a feeding frenzy for your senses, people watching becomes your “thing” and it’s great to take in the culture and excitement of your surroundings. Saturday and Sundays between the hours of 7 - 10pm they close the town center off to all vehicles and it becomes the “walking town” where locals and tourists alike can enjoy the serenity of no traffic and walk around shopping at their leisure. Kids run around and play soccer, teenage boys ride by on their roller blades, poetry readings take place and local music artists give mini concerts. Great atmosphere. We found a great bakery just down the hill from us called “Lien Hoa” and it serves up the best mini banana bread we’ve had since the beginning of our travels, they also have a great short bread cookie. Plus we’ve been trying out different Vietnamese subs from local street vendors. We’ve found the best just down the hill from our hotel, a little teenage girl who has a hawker stall in from of a restaurant. She spreads vegetable tofu on the bun, slaps on pork and chicken, puts in a cucumber and some pickled mango and carrot, heats it up on her make shift grill and VOILA - the best dam Vietnamese sub ever! We are enjoying the colder weather, I’m actually wearing pants and my sweaters again which I haven’t used since Australia. Pretty sweet. We managed to pack up a box of things to send home to Jason’s mom, 36 pounds worth - that lightened our load in our back packs. I found a Columbia jacket for sale and bought it, this will come in handy when we go to Nepal in September. Jason had a hard time finding one he liked so we will wait until we go to Hanoi and hopefully find him one there. We rented a motorbike for tomorrow, we are going to venture out into the country side and see what kind of trouble we can get into.

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