Blog : Da Lat

KV and I caught a really early morning bus from Nha Trang to Da Lat, leaving Al and Christa on the beach for a few more days and allowing Helen to whizz straight down to HCMC to sort her visa problems out. Al wanted to wait for a friend of hers who coincidentally is in Vietnam and would be in Nha Trang at the weekend. We all brought six stop bus tickets however up in Hanoi and it was Da Lat that made the ticket expensive and as we had the time, Kate and I decided we'd still go, even just for one or two nights! We checked out of the room at 6am or something crazy and had calculated what each of us owed in terms of room costs, laundry, minibar etc. but at that time in the morning the receptionist seemed to have no idea what we were talking about, even when we reassured him that the three other girls were not checking out until later and that all the left over bill would be covered by them. He was having none of it and kept pinching numbers into a calculator and showing us. In the end we had to wake Al and explain that they'd have to pay our respective bills as well when they checked out and we left out monies on the side in the bedroom. The receptionist wanted to look into our room to check there was another person in there, as he was a complete psycho! We then had to argue with him about giving our passports back - he again was having none of it and in the end with only about twenty minutes until the bus left (we were meant have checked in already, and the bus office was a good fifteen minute walk away) we had to get quite angry and demand them back. We virtually trotted up to the bus office with our backpacks on and arrived in a bit of a sweat. The bus was late of course but we'd had no time to pick up any breakfast and were worrying that we'd have to go all the way to 2:30pm without having eaten. It was alright in the end though as we had a toilet stop at the swankiest, cleanest, nicest roadside place ever. The toilets were pristine, the food cheap and nice looking, the staff friendly and English speaking and the views pretty spectacular of the mountains and a lovely stream. We both ordered fried egg and were faced with a plate of three eggs each plus a baguette each, all for the same price as a teeny tiny brekky in Nha Trang - we liked going to Da Lat already!

Da Lat is inland and surrounded by lush green rolling hills and countryside and lots of beautiful rivers and streams. We weren't really sure what to expect when we arrived and Lonely planet sounded like it was scraping the barrel a little but when it was listing things to do there, with most stuff sounding like a distraction rather than an attraction! We got off the bus into a pretty big and bustling town, when we'd both been expecting a village or something, with nothing there. We walked to the hotel we'd found on hostel world, up quite a steep hill (thank god for 3G and google maps though else we'd have never found it and just been continually hounded by the locals!) but Villa Pink House was fully booked... We went to another hotel opposite to see if they could accommodate us and yes they could. Our room was basic but clean, with two double beds and an ensuite. And at £2.50 a night each we really couldn't complain! It was a really sweet lady who ran the hotel with her family, who's lounge was the reception area so they were all sat in wooly hats (as it was pretty chilly inland) watching TV on the sofa! There was mum and dad, grandma, big sister who had two gorgeous kids and little sister who was so cute and lent Kate her rain mac when it started pissing it down as we were about to go on search of food! In the torrential rain we were both geared up with floor length rain macs with hoods and a floral umbrella that Vietnamese mum had lent us also. We hooked arms and stepped outside. The rain was cold and coming down so fast the roads just looked like rivers and the river was like a fast flowing rapid, not the calm thing we'd seen earlier! We were aiming for a little cafe we'd found on trip advisor but we didnt make it much past 200m before the heavens and really opened and we could barely even see anything. We hurried into a local cafe on the corner and pulled off all our sipping wet plastic jackets. We were just stared at by all the local men sipping coffee and play chequers in there. We sat down and feeling like we were sticking out like sore thumbs ordered a hot lemon juice and a coffee each - as these were the only things we could make out in the menu!

Once the rain had died down a little we decided to head back out to find this chocolate cafe from tripadvisor for some late lunch/early dinner as we were starving! We found it, but it looked a bit pricey and co platelet empty so we carried on walking around the town a little, looking at the restaurants as we passed. Da Lat was like a ghost town, which we didn't understand how it could be, if the Pink Villa Hotel, which was huge, was fully booked :/Eventually we stopped at a cafe that had two other western looking girls in it, albeit they were laughing and pointing at us, probably from looking like such marshmellows in our rain macs that billowed out at the bottom! (Or elephant condoms as we heard the macs being affectionately called thd next day!) We had a nice little lunch/dinner, we both had tuna, I a steak in spicy tomato sauce and KV a hotpot in caramel sauce. Yummy! When we'd finished the rain had completely cleared and so we wandered home slowly, looking at all the houses built into the hills, in a half French, half shanty town style. And that evening whilst I had a broken convo with the boy at home I found myself a little friend, a gorgeous Asian girl - the daughter of the hostel mum I think, who clambered up into my lap whilst I was sitting outside and pulled an earphone out of my ear and shoved it in hers, before jabbering away on Vietnamese down the phone. I tried teaching her to say hello which she seemed to grasp but she seemed most happy with one earphone listening but not understanding mine and B's convo whilst cuddling into me and as I rubbed her hair absent-mindedly she was basically purring! She had to go though when she started trying to press the end call button! Kids eh! Kate and I watched an episode of our newest tv series Breaking Bad, which was completely not what we'd expected but really good! And then fell to sleep around midnight odd.

The next morning I woke without an alarm at about ten in the morning which was lovely! The room had heated up from the morning sun and was no longer as cold as it had been through the night - we'd had to have two duvets each! And we slowly got up and wandered to a local cafe on the corner of our street for breakfast. I had a hot lemon juice which was full of sugar but really nice and we both had omlets which came out looking only half cooked, with lots of runny white stuff on the top. I flipped mine over in its little serving pan, hoping the last bit if head would cook it through. We had baguettes as well but mine tasted disgusting! We made a plan to go and check out the prices of an Easy Rider tour (sightseeing on motorbikes with a local guide) and on our way we past a 24h bakery, which obviously I had to stop at and but what I thought was a pecan tart but turned out to be some kind of delish pear pastry to nosh down as I was still hungry.

We sat down and chatted to one of the guys at an Easy Rider cafe - there were loads of them and we had no idea which were official and which were imitations of the original brand. He talked us through some of the key sights around Da Lat town and what we could cram into our one afternoon. Then Kate asked him whether we would be driving the bikes or just riding pillion, to which the answer was yes we'd just be passengers. We both fancied actually driving though so he pointed us in the direction of another cafe, which we later figured out was the original 1970s Easy Rider company. We spoke to them about the sights we wanted to see and our desire to drive the bikes ourselves. They asked about our previous driving experience and said they wouldn't take first time drivers out... Obviously we told them we'd done it before and they managed to wt two scooters for us and we had to drive up and down the road to show we were confident and knew how to do i! Thank god for that quick lesson B had given me in Phuket was all I could think! I went first on a speedy looking yellow moped and I was alright to be honest. I found the accelerator a bit jerky to begin with and the driving rules or lack of a bit crazy but I managed to drive down the road, turn and make it back and the men watching nodded, so I assume I'd passed the 'is she capable' test! Kate went next and was the same, a little shaky but fine, good considering she only passed her driving test just before we came away! I figured it probably meant shed be safer than me and my sloppy driving habits! Hao, our guide asked us one last time if we were sure this was what we wanted to do and nervously we both agreed and popped our helmets on.

Hao drove nice and slowly to begin with for us, about 20kph, which did mean we got continually overtaken, bikes speeding past us, bibbing their little horns and massive lorries and coaches thundering along with their deep sounding, novelty horns, which came uncomfortably close to us, as we hugged the side of the road! It took me a few minutes to feel comfortable on the bike and get my footing right and everything, and we both felt quite flustered to begin with, riding a bike for the first time whilst trying to navigate our way behind Hao and through the city. Our first hairy moment was a cross road intersection where bikes, cars, vans, pedestrians and cyclos all went hell for leather in their own direction, with no regard to lane discipline, indicators, or anyone else on the road. It felt a bit like an Asian version of the marble arch roundabout! I had to stop a few times on my crossing and weave in about out of people but we made it safely across and onto a dual carriage way, yes mum, a dual carriage way, less than ten minutes after I'd started riding the bike! It took me about six weeks to build up to dual carriageways when I was learning to drive a car at home - nothing like being thrown in the deep end! We crossed yet more traffic catapulting towards us to get to a petrol station and full up on gas. Hao then asked to borrow money off us for the bill, which neither if us had really liked and in the end he agreed that petrol was included in the cost of the tour ($20/£13) and that we needed to pay half of that to him there. Once he had written a receipt for me confirming my payment, on the back of a map if Hoi An -my only spare paper(!) we coughed up half of the cash. Hao seemed like a genuine and funny local guy to us and he seemed a bit affronted that we'd been quite so stringent about handing money over but understood that some people do try to scam tourists in Vietnam. From the petrol station we drive further into the countryside and to Datlanla Falls, a big waterfall which had another coasterbob/luge thing you could catch down the steep hill, through blossoming gardens to the waterfall at the bottom. We did this, jumping in the same kart so we could take some funny pics! We got stuck behind some Vietnamese granddad though, who was going uber slowly! At the bottom of the track was a pretty impressive waterfall and river which we had a quick walk around and took some piccys of and then we caught the coasterbob back up the hill, to avoid all of the steps and get back on the bikes.

The next stop was a buddist meditation centre, which was full of beautifully landscaped Japanese style gardens, with loads of plants we'd never seen before, set up in the hillside, overlooking a big lake, which we went to next. The temples and pagodas at the meditation centre were absolutely beautiful and so typically oriental looking. The centre was a 'training ground' if you like for new age Buddist missionaries and Hao told us that it was the Chinese that brought Buddhism to Vietnam and that it was the largest religion in the country, followed by Catholicism, which the French brought over when they invaded Vietnam and thirdly Christianity, courtesy of the American invaders. Hao also said these days there are people of all faiths living in Vietnam, which we found interesting. We looked in on lots of people praying and bowing in front of a large gold Buddha statue in the largest of the pagodas and saw a monk sounding a gong every few minutes, which echoed throughout the grounds, creating quite a tranquil atmosphere along with all of the blooming flowers. There was one plant in particular which I liked in one of the beautifully manicured flower beds, called a Mom Sai, which I thought sounded like Mumsy and so Kate and I dubbed it the mummy flower and I picked a little one for my hair. As we were walking around the grounds we were snapping away, as with everyone else with their cameras and an Asian/Indian looking boy came up to me and asked for a picture, which I assumed meant could I take a pic of him and his big group so obviously I said yes and put my things down, reaching out for the camera, but I was faced with three or four people holding cameras directing them at me and this guy that seemed to be posing next to me - he wanted a snap with me!? Bizarre! Kate had exactly the same thing next to me and we had a little Q of teenagers, girls and boys, who wanted their photo taken, posing pulling a peace or OK sign and looking absolutely elated when they shook our hands to say thank you! One 'brave' boy asked for a photo with both KV and I together and we jokingly asked if anyone ekse wanted to be in it and about three quarters of our little crowd leapt forwards! We got one of the shyer boys to take a pic on our camera as well, as we thought it was hilarious! Neither of us even looked hot, with our helmet hair, no make up and backpacks! We asked Hao back at the bikes what that was all about and bless him he said it was because we were beautiful and then said many in the countryside have not seen western people and we look to them like we're from the moon, particularly with my blonde hair! It was absolutely hilarious and a taster of what to expect in India we guessed!

It was only a short drive to the next stop on our tour itinerary, Paradise Lake, the lake that the Meditation Centre had looked out upon. Hao explained that this was where Da Lats drinking water was held an the government had given much of the surrounding land to international property developers, so there were a few large scale and French style buildings surrounding the huge reservoir and on the island in the middle, he said the idea was to encourage tourism in Da Lat and that soon a casino would be built there. It was a pretty random but beautiful location that we both said would be completely ruined by Russians coming and taking over the place and as it was drinking water, swimming was absolutely forbidden, a rule likely to be flouted pretty quickly on a hot day! Using the self timer on the big camera - which is just discovered how to use - I set up a cute picture of Kate, Hao and I in front of the lake, we got him to pull the peace pose which he was chuckling about as we drove off.

We then took quite a big long drive up into the higher lands, and on some pretty narrow but f***ing busy roads, with tractors buses and lorries flying everywhere, across to the famous Linh Phuoc Pagoda. We had to cross the traffic on a number of occasions and we'd get separated shortly, it was quite terrifying driving up the wrong side of the road and having to pull out in front of petrol tankers but as we learnt that was the way of the Vietnamese roads and weaving in and out of each-other was the norm. There was one particularly hairy moment where an over confident and far to fast driving minivan over took us on a blind corner, only to find another massive vehicle bombing it uphill towards him and so after frantic novelty horn beeping and arm gestures he pulled right in front of me, separating me from Hao, so I had no idea where I was going! It did take my breath away a little bit as a close shave but filled me with adrenaline too! The Linh Phuoc Pagoda was incredible and had been build entirely by hand, in a mosaic style, with lots of coloured china and fragments of mirror. We couldn't work out whether the temple was celebrating Buddhism or Hindu though as the statues of gods looked like a combination of the two. Kate had to cover herself with scarves so as to be respectable and looked hilarious in a mismatch of tie die prints! There was one room where a giant female Buddha statue had been constructed entirely our of fresh daisy's and Hao said that every couple of the days the flowers were replaced by some of the monks stationed there. It was a pretty impressive place and made all the better by the fact there was next to no other western tourists there and that there was no extortionate entry fee, just an optional donation box if you wanted a blessing (which we didn't really dare).

On the way to the Cremaillere, an ancient cog railway and station, we stopped at the side of the road, at a particularly high point of the countryside and Hao told us how high above sea level we were. It sounded like a lot of meters but to be honest I never have any idea what that actually means! From what I could see of the sprawling Da Lat countryside and all the greenhouses, growing vegetables for the whole of Vietnam and various other agricultural ventures (because of the good soil quality and favourable farming weather) the view was incredible! We climbed onto the roof of a building near where we'd stopped and got the camera out. A Chinese looking couple on bikes ha also stopped and were doing the same thing so we traded cameras and got some snaps with the incredible scenery. Back on the bikes and Hao was trying to teach us how to indicate, which seemed completely pointless as people either drive with theirs continually flashing on one side or the other of never once used them. It completely threw the both of us off though when the right indicator (the one which we would have used to cross traffic) bleeped really at the same time as flashing, making us think we were doing something wrong! On the roads in Vietnam and across all of Asia as we'd noticed so far, horns were not used aggressively but more in a way of letting those in front of you know your position. Longer beeps meant over taking whilst shorter ones we think just meant a sort of 'hello I'm by your side, don't pull out' type thing. So by Vietnamese road etiquette, a bleeping indicator to say you were crossing the traffic was quite a good idea (although most of the time it did get drowned in the cacophony if horns and beepings and engine sounds going on around you!) The old railway station and museum was quite full. There was ANOTHER wedding photography shoot happening on the biggest of the stationary steam trains, the Vietnamese love a good lot of wedding dress modelling! Either that or a hell if a lot of people get married in bizarre places! We were in and out of The Cremaillere station pretty quickly and ready for the last stop - Crazy House.

Hao told us that the extremely privileged daughter of the third Vietnamese president was university educated and studied Architecture lived and designed the building dubbed Crazy House. Lonely Planet described it as very Alice in Wonderland -esque, which was pretty accurate, with giant fairy light spiders webs and concrete mushroom shaped tables and chairs and sprawling tree roots concealing hotel rooms which were as equally weird, although noticeably void of any guests staying in any of them. We had to pay an entry fee which was about triple what the two year outdated LP quoted but we coughed up, knowing were weren't going to win the argument. As we were setting off to drive back into Central Da Lat town Kate had a little bit of an accident, where she lots control of the bike as she was trying to turn it and follow Hao up the road. She jerked across the street, revving the throttle rather than breaking - a pretty easy mistake and she fell at the side if the road, half into the gutter, half into a flower bed and the bike toppled over too. A bloke dashed over to help her lift it up and she said she was absolutely fine and not hurt (phew!) but she was a little shaken afterwards, for the last leg of our return journey, which was right in the middle of rush hour, school finishing and the delivery time of every bulky and weird shaped thing on the back of mopeds! Crazy s***! Back at the Easy Rider base, Hao high-fived us, told us we were now like men driving scooters (I think he meant experienced!) and we wrote a fab review on the wall, which was covered in others from people of all nationalities and in every language!

Next door was the Arts Cafe, which Lonely Planet recommended as a great little place for dinner so we wearily sat down at a table and chatted about how we'd had probably one if not the best day in Vietnam so far. I had delicious tofu in lemongrass and chilli, with brown rice, which really hot the spot and Kate, the vegetarian curry which she said was very good. Next door again was a gorgeously cute and kitsch cafe called Bicycle Up, which looked like it had shot straight from East London to Asia, with its bath tub flower beds, bell jars as cake covers and blackboard menus. It had just opened and was run by a really funky little Vietnamese couple and we went in for an ice cream pudding for Kate and a fresh watermelon smoothie for me. We then stopped in at another French looking cafe that we thought was adorable looking for a coffee nightcap on the way home (my Americano at 8pm was the worst idea ever, because not only did it not help me move my four day old bowles, it kept me up a night, as awake as an owl!) The cafe was lovely though, all decked out on a Cath Kidson style and weirdly with West life, One Direction etc playing in the background. And oh what a treat, on the book table there was a January version of Aussie OK, so KV and I sat and drooled over all the pages of beautiful couture dresses and ring of shame snaps of celebs! We read every page, the simple pleasures of a magazine eh!

Back in our ridiculously cheap hotel room that we'd just covered the bill for, we packed, showered, watched another heart racing episode of breaking bad and tried to book ourselves some accommodation in Mui Ne, our next stop in the morning, to no avail though... The Internet told us all the guest houses we came across were fully booked. We fell asleep thinking we'd have to try the turn up and hope method in the morning...