Delightful Dalat

We arrived in Dalat courtesy of the bus journey from hell. We could have coped with no leg room & no air conditioning. However, the kids started to throw up and the icing on the cake was someone had fish sauce in their luggage and it leaked over the floor of the bus. The bus was only a 20 seater and the smell within the confined space was appalling, if there had been drop-down oxygen masks, we would have used them. We checked into our hotel but when we got to our room, we could still smell fish sauce. Upon a lot of sniffing, it was discovered the bottom of my rucksack had a decidedly fishy niff to it. It rapidly went downstairs to the laundry.

Dalat - View near Dalat

Dalat is in the Central Highlands and the temperature is noticeably cooler, it was a welcome relief from the heat of our previous stops. It seemed a little strange to be taking a jumper out in the evening though! The place is a real mixture of architecture, lots of French influence, including a telephone mast that resembles the Eiffel tower, with some Swiss stuff thrown in as well.
On our first night we headed out to a restaurant called Da Quy, from the reviews on trip advisor, it is the number 1 restaurant in Dalat. This may give you visions of grandeur in the price bracket but this impression would be very wrong indeed. The food was amazing, I think my quest for the best fresh spring rolls in Vietnam could have ended! The clay hotpots were also fantastic! It is was here that I tried Dalat red wine for the first time and have to say it is very quaffable. Despite eating like kings, having a few wines and coffee, we still left with plenty of change from 10 bucks!!
Continuing on the food theme, our hotel, Dreams, is legendary for its breakfast. Come the next morning, we were not disappointed, it was an all you can eat affair, there was fresh fruit, yogurt, bacon, marmite for the Brits & Vegemite for the Aussie’s, an incredible spread. The best thing was nothing was “extra” or “finished” which are two words we have become accustomed to in Vietnam. It wasn’t just the breakfast spread that sets this place apart though, they had a rooftop Jacuzzi and sauna which is free to use and the owners are the most lovely people you can imagine. All this for 20 bucks a night!
We rented a moped and rode out to some of the local sights of interest, unfortunately it was a bit of a wet one as it started to rain. First up was Elephant Falls, a waterfall about 30Km from Dalat, we tried to reach the bottom of the falls via a very hazardous path cut into the rocks, we stopped slightly short but apparently with the right guide you can actually go behind the falls themselves.

Dalat - Elephant Falls

From there, we had a brief stop at a silk factory, it was pretty low tech but you got to see the whole process from silk worm cocoons at one end to silk yarn at the other end. There is nothing wasted in the process and once harvested, someone comes to collect the grubs. These are eaten and according to Lonely Planet have a nutty flavour, yummy (not)!

Dalat - Anyone for grubs!?

As we had been out for a while, we decided to head back. We passed a roadside barbeque and the lady made motions for us to stop. I turned round and we had an impromptu lunch, I declined the bit of lung that was barbequing but had some of the local sausage, not sure what it was made from but it was very tasty! Despite hardly speaking any English, the locals were extremely friendly and someone offered us a glass of what we think was rice wine – whatever it was, it was strong stuff. Conscious that I was piloting a moped I had a few polite sips before heading the glass back.
There is a significant amount of agriculture around Dalat growing everything from strawberries to flowers to coffee beans. I have never seen as many commercial greenhouses, most of them growing flowers. The countryside is littered with coffee plantations, I didn’t realise that Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world.
The second day we were off on the moped again. We were heading to what we already knew was a very kitsch attraction but due its name and our newly engaged status, we felt we had to go to the Valley of Love – I joke not! The place was as cheesy as the name suggests and consisted of various romantically themed statues of lurve.

Dalat - Valley of Love (It had to be done!)

The location itself was really beautiful, it was set in a valley with a lake at the bottom. We had quite a long walk and took the appropriate photo’s before heading to the next stop.
Whilst not as Kitsch, equally weird was the Crazy House, this is not a place for lunatics but a house with a Gaudiest style of architecture. I can’t really describe it so check the photo’s out. When we visited, new Crazy wings were being added, it is the brainchild of a local architect who has designed other buildings around Dalat but presumably somewhat tamer than this! You can actually stay here although the rooms don’t look great and its expensive.

Dalat - Crazy house

We liked Dalat a lot so we stayed a night longer than we originally planned, may regret this later in the trip. The final day we wondered around the market, well I did while Em sat it out. Em is becoming increasingly concerned that I have become obsessed with markets but I cant get bored of them, lots of unusual stuff and photo opportunities abound. When I got back to Em, she was being royally chatted up by a local guy. It turned out that he was selling pictures painted onto silk, after negotiation, we took 3 off his hands – the Christmas shopping continues apace!
Tomorrow, another bus, another town and another blog entry....

Dalat - Eiffel tower lookalike

Da Lat, Vietnam