Dalat Market

4/13 Saigon to Dalat
300 kilometers by bus. 10 am to 6 pm
Villa Pinkhouse Hotel


Our Saigon hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the backpacker center and the tour company where we had purchased our "open tour" bus tickets to the Central Highland town of Dalat. They promised to deliver us to our hotel in Dalat. The bus …

We arrived 2:00 pm in Dalat city, check in at Nice Dream Hotel. Later, we start our journey roaming around the city.

Dalat or le petit Paris: popular holiday and honeymoon Vietnamese destination and an ideal stop for us on our pre-wedding honeymoon :-) Very different feel to Saigon, in fact on the surface it seemed like we were in Europe. The temperatures in Dalat were much cooler and a welcome break from the humidity of Saigon; outrageously in the evenings we …

... is a quaint small mountain town with winding cobblestone streets and a vaguely European feel, located in the central highlands of Vietnam. Because of the higher altitude of this place, even in the heat of the Vietnamese summer the climate was quite ...

... to sign a 'contract', I agreed to meet him early tomorrow for a spin around the local sights. Dalat appears to be one of the few places in Vietnam not covered in paddy fields and instead is plastered with vegetable fields most of which can be bought ...

Dalat, Vietnam - I caught a very early bus to Dalat. The girls would catch an afternoon bus and join me later, I was expecting a coach but we were squashed into a mini bus and set off. I sat next to a very cool Swiss couple. It was the first journey for ...

... in the world. It was built, and still being added to, by a lady who is the daughter of one of the early Vietnam Presidents. She studied architecture in Moscow but, obviously, did not take on board the lessons of soviet functionality and has attempted to ...

... market with loads of fresh produce and the best beef noodle soup I have had yet (which is the food of choice for breakfast in Vietnam). It also produces wine which of course, I had to try. It actually wasn't bad and was a pleasent reprieve from the ...

... ! The route was pretty simple, many windy roads, mountains, we got off at every stop and had a run down on the history of Vietnam and the part each thing we were looking at plays in their lives. The fields of food we are still confused about, seemed like ...

... , where I had the hottest shower so far during my time in SE Asia (Da Lat average temperature is 65, unlike the rest of Vietnam) and a nap. Tom and I booked our bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh for the next day, enjoyed a fantastic Vietnamese dinner (well mine ...

... like I'd dipped them in henna. Rust is a bitch to get off your feet. At night, the central streets turn into a huge outdoor market selling all kinds of unusual things - mostly really bad clothes. I haven't got much of a fashion sense myself, but I ...

... m & m's on top: The traffic was fairly typical of SE Asia: There was a large lake close to the market area and the surrounding hills gave Dalat the feel of a European town. Sure enough, as we'd been told to expect, we were soon ...

... round the water!!! I walked back by myself and got lost in the fields of vegetables that seemed to go on forever. Dalat is Vietnam's vegetable growing capital and exports to places like China I think. I have never seen so many cauliflowers, or smelt so ...