Seasons Greetings from Dalat! 7/12-9/12

After a 22hr bus journey via Na Trang we arrived at Dalat in the Central Highlands. The Central Highlands covers the southern part of the Truong Son Mountain Range. The drive up to the town was quite hair-raising at times, steep winding roads, sheer drops and a crazy bus driver is not the best recipe for a relaxing journey! The mountain scenery was beautiful though and made a pleasant change from the coast.

We ended up staying in a hotel right in the centre of Dalat, the room was definitely one of our more comfortable- floor to ceiling windows gave us a picture post card outlook. Hot or luke warm water seems to be pretty much standard throughout Vietnam and this time we even had a bath! Julie was determined to have a lovely hot soak the night before we left but ended up bathing in inch deep tepid water- much to Kristy’s amusement!

We only ended up staying a couple of nights as there was a limit of things to see or do and we were conscious that our time was running out, so we decided to join a tour the following day that would include most of the sights.

That morning we woke with the sun streaming through the window, wonderfully refreshed after a very long sleep. So after breakfast we, along with four others, were on our way.

We began by taking a cable car across a lush valley, women in conical hats could be seen below hard at work in the rice paddies. The cable car dropped us off at our second destination, which was a monastery- quite interesting if you like monks and stuff, but it was a modern build and didn't particularly float our boat, although it was in a beautiful setting.

Even though the two of us are certainly no strangers to attention, (beauty and attention tend to go hand in hand you see) we felt acutely aware of being gawped at- (subtlety seems to be more of a western thang). Women and men, girls and boys would cross the path to have a closer look and whilst walking through the gardens a Vietnamese father thrust his baby daughter into Julie’s arms and positioned the rest of his brood around us and proceeded to shoot a reel of film- tres strange! They obviously mean no harm, the Vietnamese on the whole have been very kind and helpful, the culture is just so very different. You can't be offended if a local asks your age, weight, job etc it’s just the way it is.

A short time later we reached the Datanla Falls, a very beautiful spot. The highlight however was reaching the base of the falls on individual roller-coster cars, very fast and a lot of fun. You could even choose to use your legs or to go back to the top in the roller costar car- I’ll leave it up to you to decide which option we went with!

Next we stopped for a short time at the Linh Phuoc Pagoda, built around 1950 and renovated recently. The facade of the pagoda, and the ten-foot dragon living in the garden, is decorated entirely out of broken up pieces of colourful glazed tiles, pottery and beer bottles. You really have to appreciate the work and time that went into creating such a place.

We made a brief visit to the Cremaillaire Railway. Built in 1943, the Dalat station offers an atmospheric slice of Dalat's colonial history. We saw an authentic old wood-burning steamer train on the tracks, and we were free to stroll around inside looking at the iron-grilled ticket windows, which are now empty. Although the steamer train no longer makes tourist runs, a newer Japanese train makes a trip to Trai Mat Street and the Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

Next we dropped in on one the nine hamlets that make the Lat Village, about 12km northwest of Dalat at  the base ot the Lang Bian Mountains. Lat Village inhabitants are ethnic minorities and have their own dialect, but no written language. It was interesting to see how these people live and we were lucky enough to meet with the head chief of the village who was an intelligent and funny guy, he is one of the few who can speak several languages. He also explained that in his village the norm is for the women to buy their husbands with buffalo! The chief played music for us and we all had a sip of the local wine- it was'nt made from fruit but from trees. It actually tasted pretty gross- thick, fermented liquid Mmmm!

Our penultimate stop was the 'Valley of Love.' Quite a pretty spot, not so much a valley, just a park. It was very quiet whilst we were there, just a few Vietnamese men dressed as cowboys with their ponnies and a few miserable monkeys going crazy in their empty cages, very sad- won't be recommending the 'Valley of love' to anyone in a hurry!

 Finally we visited Hang Nga Guest House, nicknamed the 'Crazy House.' The building of the house began in the early 90's- designed by a female architect who still lives there. The house looks like a huge old tree with a maze of unique looking rooms and a magical garden- think Alice in Wonderland.

I found this place quite enchanting although a little scruffy in places, it was reminiscent of the Faraway Tree in the Encanted Forest, reminded me of my childhood, I know at least the Marshall's will understand!