Da Lat

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Written by Katrina

In between HCMC and Da Lat, we spent 3 nights at the beach in Mui Ne, but this does not merit its own post. It is basically one long street of beach hotels and shops and restaurants and no city center, no old building, and nothing particular of interest. We booked a hotel that was supposed to be “beachfront” but it was NOT and we were not happy. We had a lovely view of the water from our hotel room, but the nearest beach access was a 20 minute walk. Anyway, we still enjoyed the relaxed time at the pool and beach. Here are some pics.

quick snippet of Mui Ne

Now I can get to Da Lat, a city I absolutely LOVED!!! Because of its distance from the coast and higher elevation, it has a cool, sunny spring day temperature pretty much all year. It was probably a bit too cold (and too far from a beach) for us to consider living there, but these lush, green hills and serene lakes were close to convincing otherwise.

First thing we wanted to do here was go see the Trúc Lâm Phụng Hoàng Zen Monastery and cable car. Unfortunately, the cable car was undergoing some kind of maintenance, so we weren’t able to go on it, but we did have a scooter. So, after a quick stop for a scenic coffee, we headed up the hills and around the bends to the Monastery. They call it a Zen Monastery for a reason! This place was so peaceful and lovely with the gong sounds in the background and just LOOK at all the beautiful flowers!!

We think the monks are the ones taking care of the flora and fauna in this place. Those massive dogs were lovingly following them around.

To conclude such an aesthetically awesome day, next is the Datanla Waterfall. We were fully prepared for a bustling and crowded tourist trap with Chinese tour groups as far as the eye can see. Luckily for us, (not for those in a coronavirus inflicted area) it was almost dead empty. Up side is we had the whole place almost to ourselves. Downside is the cable cars, roller coasters and food vendors were all closed up. But that’s ok. I can do a mountain coaster another time and place. The walk down (And then back up 😰) was lovely too and the waterfall was bigger than we expected and very beautiful! Well worth the many steps.

The name of the next place we saw pretty much says it all. The so-called Crazy House is a complex of strange intertwining passageways from building to funky building, containing hidden hotel rooms, multiple little souvenir shops, and a small shrine to the designer’s father. They said it’s supposed to make you feel in touch with nature, which is hard to believe as everything is made of concrete. Strange place but kinda trippy and a bit dangerous even.

There is a huge lake in the center of Da Lat which we massively underestimated and walked around the whole thing. It took about 3hours including a walk around the French quarter…

While in the french quarter, we checked out the old railroad station, that now only functions as a tourist attraction with about 5 trips a day that take you about 30minutes away and then return, and you ride in one of these old wagons. We didn’t do that.

We had to try out this hotpot thing so we found a place and we were not disappointed!

Another sight to see in Da Lat was the old Palace of the last emperor of Vietnam, also called Bao Dai’s Summer Palace. This is a decent sized little summer mansion with a garden, moon-gazing balcony, and a nice view of the city. They kept alot of the rooms furnished as they were in the 40s, when the president Bao Dai and his family lived here. They even have the royal hammock just where he left it… 😉

That’s it! Da Lat is beautiful and if you ever go to Vietnam, you should include this place in your itinerary. Just don’t expect much from the Da Lat locally made wine…

2 Comments

  1. Hallo Katie, es ist zum ersten Mal, dass ihr lange Hosen tragt auf den Fotos, Ungewöhnlich! Liebe Grüße von Karin

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