Dalat - Vietnam's Honeymoon Capital

Trip Start Oct 30, 2005

122

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Vietnam Dalat, Vietnam
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The trip to Dalat was quite long, as we climbed hills working our way up to the central highlands and cooler climate. We spent the afternoon wandering around town and getting ideas for what we could do here. Mountain-biking down to the coast sounded a good idea to Glenn, but after hearing it was only by following roads and not single track through the countryside, we opted for a ride around on motorbike the next day. We had planned to use some of the local motorbike cowboys who called themselves "Easyriders", but after enjoying the sleep-in the next day and failing to come up with destinations to do a tour with an easy rider - the suggested ones didn't sound interesting ("How would you like to visit the Big Chicken?"!), we opted to do it ourselves and got a motorbike.

OK, now biking through islands off Thailand, and through the countryside of Cambodia is one thing, but not in traffic in Vietnam

Dalat Cathedral

! Yes, it was considerably scarier through the town but after we got out of the centre, the traffic disappeared and the riding was much easier. We tried to follow our maps (plural!) but none were very good for touring. So after deciding to follow our noses, we ended up at the Lake of Sighs. Deciding not to enter the area for rides on huge swan paddleboats on the lake, we continued on deciding to pick our path for a while. After a "while", we turned around, although the ride through the countryside was quite enjoyable. Making our way back to town, we stopped at the Cremaillerie Railway Station, an old French relic which still runs a short way for tourism. We then stopped at the Dalat Cathedral, quite an impressive structure, before lunch at the Stop & Go Cafe, or in reality, a gallery of the local poet Duy Viet. Still we managed to fill up on cake, coffee and delicious cherry tea and it was quite an interesting time spent chatting to the lovely eccentric man that is Duy Viet.

Glenn, needing his remote village fix twisted Christie's arm to head out towards Lat "Lak" Village at the base of Long Bian Mountain, even though evening was approaching fast. Passing what we thought could have been the village, we ended up at a mountain entrance at a boom gate, but being late in the evening and with acknowledgement from the attendant that we didn't have enough time to visit the mountain, we headed back with basic directions on how to get to the village. Turning down a rocky path, we bounced past the village. Passing a shop near the beginning, with calls to "come see my shop" we realised that tourism has made its mark here, but considering we were supposed to have a permit to visit we were happy to get a sneak peek for free. It was also nice to hear people yelling out "hello!" to us with big smiles again. We continued down the dirt road for a while, before deciding that we better call it a day, and made our way back to our hotel. After a fun day out, but not inspired to stay longer we decided to continue on the next day to Nha Trang. Somewhere the popularity of Dalat as a honeymooners delight has been a bit exploited and we failed to be captured by its romanticism. Still, we have each other for that :)