Dalat, Vietnam

HCMC to Dalat

I've just returned from a 3 day trip to a place in Vietnam called Dalat. It a place in Vietnam's central highlands. Everyone told me it would be cold before I went but I didn't believe them as I didn't think Vietnam does cold. We took an overnight sleeper from HCMC, leaving at 11:30pm and arriving at 6am.

When I woke up surprisingly refreshed at 6am in Dalat the first thing I noticed was that everyone was wearing coats. When I got off the bus, it turns out what I was told is true... it was very cold. I've not been cold outside since I arrived in Vietnam over a year ago so the fresh, cold air was very nice..... for bout 5 minutes, I think all this time in a hot place has made me a wuss when it comes to the cold. Fortunately I had my hoody which I'd not worn since leaving heathrow airport.

Nice valley in Dalat

The reason it was so cold is that Dalat is over 1,500m above sea level which is pretty high when you consider Ben Nevis is only around 1,300m above sea level.

We went on a couple of tours and hired a motorbike. Its a very pretty town as its set in the mountains. On the tour we went to a flower farm, a cricket farm (where they breed them for restaurants), a coffee farm and a silk farm. All of these were quite interesting.

Some great views in Dalat

One thing I had been looking forward to ever since England was the 'crazy house' which is a tall house done in a kind of 'Alicce in Wonderland' way. This was very disappointing. It was being renovated but I still think it would have been rubbish, fortunately it was only about $1.50 to enter. We also went to see a great waterfall and a valley in the hills. (see the video below)

One thing I really wanted to do was walk up the Dalat mountain which was 2,100m above sea level. you can see it in the picture to the left. However I really didn't have the clothes so had to give it a miss. There is lots of our door things to do here such as mountain biking, canyoning, canoeing so I may come back here sometime in the future.

Indiana Jones bridge

In the evenings there was a night market where they sell all the fruit, vegetables and flowers. There was also a couple of nice restaurants.

One thing also worth a mention is the bridge in the town which goes across a river. It had a couple of plans missing and many of the others were close to breaking, however it works so I doubt it will be fixed anytime soon.

I've added another album with some nice photos so have a look.

Ive added a couple of videos below. The first one is of the waterfall which was cool. We we got to walk down to it which was pretty dangerous in the flip flops I was wearing.

The second is of a view across the Dalat mountains. It was on our way to visit a 'minority village'. I've seen a few of these on my travels and they never really live up to the imagination. Most of them had TVs and satellite dishes. We even walked past one house and could hear them singing karaoke.