Hilltop Dalat

   Our bus to Dalat was delayed by hours. After waiting at one bus station for a couple of hours, we were mysteriously taken to another bus station. A short wait there and we were away – my theory is that they forgot about us entirely and had to engage some quick thinking to get us on a bus to Nah Trang. The bus, however, was very high class – we were given bottled water and towels during the bus trip. The trip over the hills to Dalat was beautiful, with waterfalls cascading down the mountainside as the road winded through heavily forested ranges. We were left a bit worried at one point when the bus had to drive on the wrong side of the road for a period – a glance out the window let us know that there was no longer a 'right' side of the road – it had broken off and fallen down the mountainside. Hopefully they'll get that fixed up soon, although I'm not sure if anyone knew about it, as there were no warning signs or witches hat to mark the danger. I'm just glad our bus driver was properly alert!

The reports about Dalat were right – all the buildings look heavily European inspired, and the prevalence of bakeries and cafes indicate the french influence on this Vietnamese holiday town. Unfortunately, only Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk is available in these cafes, which is nice only on occasion. We rented a scooter and rode down to the lake around which Dalat is built. Paddle-boats were being rented for 60 dong for an hour, so we acquired one and spent a nice hour paddling around the lake. After that we headed to the Datanla waterfalls 5km from town. When we arrived we found that a rail-luge had been built to get down to the falls. It was great fun speeding down the mountainside and rocketing around hairpin corners – the best way to get to a waterfall that I've ever experienced. The waterfalls themselves were nice, although the walk back up the mountain was a lot more tiresome than the luge down! We stopped off on the way back to town for a coke at a cafe overlooking pine forests, after which we returned to town with the plan of catching a vintage steam train to a village. The train turned out to be 90,000 dong, and after the luge and waterfall entrance fees I felt I could spend my money better elsewhere. So instead we headed to the flower park on the north site of the lake, which was beautiful. A myriad of differently coloured flowers surrounded us, as well as large bonsai boganvillea and ficus. We will soon head to Ho Chi Minh, as I feel we have done all that Dalat has to offer.