We arrive in Da Lat bang on time on Friday 17 December, and within minutes are in the brand new flash airport. The place I'm staying with has ordered me a taxi which is great. The drive to the B&B is a good 30 minutes, but with so much to look at it goes quickly. Da Lat is known for it's produce and flowers and on the drive I see lots of vege farms.
After dropping my bags I head into the city centre for some dinner. It's just under 2km walk which suits me fine given I've been sitting for awhile. Crossing the road in the dark is a little nerve racking however I arrive to the restaurant in one piece.
Da Lat is a hilly town set in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. When I land it's nice and warm however now it's night-time it's rather cold.
I enjoy my Vietnamese meal sitting outside talking with other tourists. I always love hearing their stories and getting info for my next places I'm going to visit.
I started to walk back to the hotel in the hope that a motorbike taxi will stop to harass / collect me, alas not tonight. Typical for me when I’d rather taxi than walk in the semi-darkness. Thankfully there are a few other "walkers" around, along with quite a few motorbikes. I get lots of stares and a few offers to buy the food they are cooking - no thanks I've just eaten I say although they just look blankly at me.
Saturday (18 December) I'm woken up by the Church bells ringing at least 15 times at 5.10am, not a pleasant time to wake up!! After putting in ear plugs I manage to go back to sleep.
At breakfast I meet Claire and Jess (mother and daughter from Sydney), who are planning seeing a few of the same things as me today so we share a taxi (Jess has hurt her leg and has a crutch) into the Central Market.
Walking around the market is very interesting and at times a tad scary - it's mainly fresh produce from local farms. The colours are amazing. There is a constant noise of people trying to get customers. We see some "doggy brothers are us" people run off when the police come, one lady is/was selling crabs and unfortunately misses one when she gathers up her belongings. For a few minutes it thinks it's free running between the motorbikes while being stared at....then a man comes along and just picks it up.
There is a small part of the market which I would absolutely not ever be buying - live chickens, cow legs, frogs, snakes, animal insides and I'm sure the list goes on.
The inside market has stores and stores all selling the same things - coffee, huge variety of fruits made into candy, coffee, coffee and more coffee. Nuts, bags of sea salt and sugar.
By this stage we are all in need of a coffee and go to a place which seems to be very popular - bakery downstairs and restaurant upstairs.
More wandering the streets, we come across a clothes sale on the side of the road. All the vendors were shouting the same thing - come and buy from me, come and buy from me.
After a yummy Vietnamese lunch we head to the Domaine De Marie Convent. This pink building is on a hall with views down the valleys into Da Lat. It use to house around 300 nuns, nowadays the numbers are much less. The nuns are French speaking and support themselves by selling fruit grown in their garden, plants, candies, clothes (some which are made on the premise) and handicrafts.
On arrival two children (boy and girl) adopt us and lead us around, although no words are spoken! The girl loves Jess' camera and snaps away. The boy happily plays with his hand made bow and arrows and
users an empty coke bottle to carry them - super cute!
Both Jess and I end up having photos with some Vietnamese tourists - rather amusing!
We have a relaxing evening at hotel, drinking the local beer before having dinner in the restaurant followed by cards. Lots of laughs.
Sunday I'm woken again by the Church bells then the dogs come out to play - far too early thanks very much! I have breakfast with Claire and Jess then head off at 9am with my easy rider on his motorbike.
I'm having a day tour around the Da Lat area with him. Getting on the bike is rather difficult, my seat is higher than my hip (which yes I realise isn't that high for all you) so it takes a few minutes each time to get on and off.
Driving through the countryside is great - views are amazing! I'm definitely seeing a different side to Da Lat.
Our first stop is at a flower farm where there are many, many green houses filled with flowers. The flowers are shipped off to Saigon for the domestic market. If only I could be buying some and taking them with me. I’m shown some coffee trees, my first time seeing a coffee tree - this is something I must invest in! And more than one.
We keep cruising, stopping off at a Rice Wine factory. Boy its strong! The strongest one is 65% strength. Definitely not my cup of tea. There are large containers of the lower strength rice wine with a variety of things in them – snakes / bananas / herbs / mushrooms to name a few. I leave them all there.
Along the roads are coffee beans drying, a process that seems to take a few days with lots of movement from the humans. There is also a very strong smell that fills the air from the used coffee, not a pleasant smell at all. It’s used as fertilizer.
We seem to come across a few of the same people at our stops, the tourist trail.
Next stop is a silk factory where I’m shown and told every part of the process from the live silkworms spinning, to the threads being separated, to where it is woven, to dying of the silk (the end product). A lot of different steps to end up with a silk scarf, no wonder some have a hefty price tag attached!!
Before going to the Elephant Falls we stop for coffee. The lady that runs/owns the coffee shop is 36 and is about to marry a guy who is 66 years old. We chat through my guide, she says she wants to get to know him more before marrying. Difficult when he lives in the USA.
To get the best view of the Elephant Falls we walk down a very steep, and at times rather scary path to the base. The sound is deafening, but being there with spits of water hitting us is peaceful. Around the walls are bright green scrubs – definitely no need to worry about droughts around here.
In the same area is the Linh An Pagoda, with three large Buddhas taking centre stage. Outside the out the back of the Pagoda is a large Happy Buddha – definitely not a sight I was expecting to see and I am quite amazed it’s there. I didn’t think you could deface a Buddha.
Before stopping for a very local lunch, we stop off at a family owned and run rose garden/factory. They pick the roses in the morning then spent 3-4 hours every afternoon packing the different coloured roses into brunches of 50. Around 4pm the roses are collected and taken to Saigon for both the local and domestic market. Never a dull moment in their lives, there is also a 20 month old baby which craves contact attention.
I have no idea how to describe my lunch, other than its like nothing else I’ve ever had before! It's a rice cake meal with some kind of sauce (am praying it’s not dog) on top with crunching rice pieces. The texture is very unusual but thankfully it doesn’t taste too bad, however I won’t be returning.
We head back in the direction of Da Lat, stopping en-route at another Pagoda which has a very large colourful dragon in the gardens. I come across a group of children playing. When they notice my camera they all jump up and down until I take their photo. Their excitement increases tenfold when they all see themselves on my screen – priceless.
We drove around the “Lake” which is currently waterless, I’ve heard numerous reports on when it’s supposed to be filled again so only time will tell when it gets back to being a lake.
Our final stop is at the Cremaillere Railway Station, which is quite decorative but no longer in use. There are a couple of trains on display, but people generally come here to buy train tickets and have their wedding photos taken.
On arrival back at the hotel I have a couple of hours relaxing before having dinner in the restaurant.
Monday morning I'm woken nice and early yet again, as I have to get up at 6am anyway I decide to get up. I'm off to Nha Trang on the 8am bus.
After breakfast I'm collected at 7.20am by a shuttle bus which then picks up other people. We arrive at the modern bus station 20 minutes later. Paying for my ticket is easy as I just hand over a piece of paper my B&B gave me. They had booked me a seat a couple days ago.
The driver arrives just before 8am and we depart a couple of minutes late, on time for Vietnam :)
Goodbye Da Lat, Nha Trang see you in a few hours - let's hope it's closer to 4 hours rather than 5 hours!
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