( Overview
/ WHEREVER THE MOOD TAKES US….
Saturaday 25th through to Sunday 26th January
Arrived about midnight last night after a lot of miracles, my advice to my future self, never travel on Chinese NY again, EVER!
My first flight from Phuket to HCMC was delayed leaving by 2 hours, arriving at 17.45 and my connecting flight was due to leave at 18.35 and with over an hour to queue through passport control I thought there was no way I could make it BUT fortunately the HCMC to Da Lat flight was also running three hours behind schedule. I went to customer services at HCMC thinking I’d missed my flight and they upgraded me (they charged me £10) but it gave me business class so they fast tracked me through security only to find that all the gates were heaving with passengers as most of the VietJet flights were running late just because of the sheer volume of people travelling for Tet. After a 30 minute flight to Da Lat I’m here, another 30 minute taxi ride and J and I meet up at a lovely hotel (Ana Mandara Villas) built in 1930’s by some French colonel. It’s quirky and very
French / Viet vintage, Da Lat looks fabulous and can’t wait to explore but today is going to be a super chilled out day to catch up on some sleep!
Da Lat is in the South Central
Highlands of Vietnam and known as the City of Eternal Spring, it sits at 1,500m above sea level and was discovered by the French in 1893 so also goes by the title of Le Petit Paris. It definitely reminds me of Nuwara Ellia in Sri Lanka. We quite like it here so think we’ll stay for a few days but will move to a different hotel more centrally in town tomorrow.
Monday 27th January
Moving to a hotel in the town itself, although this hotel has been a really nice calm oasis, I can see why a French colonel would build a place like this. We move to our new hotel around midday, they let us check straight in so we dump the bags and head out for a walk. We walk around the lake which is approx 7 km then spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Da Lat. Whilst out we sample the avocado ice cream which J was raving about and sample some locally produced chocolate, also very lovely. We head back to the hotel for a breather and then we’re off out again in search of more food, the restaurants that J researched either appear to be shut for Tet or fully booked. We end up eating at one of the restaurants near the night market back near the lake, it’s actually ok. It’s very cold here at night (8 degrees) so we’re walking around in jumpers and coats again! Not as bad as the Uk but definitely not what we’ve grown used to.
Tuesday 28th Jan
We hire a scooter and plan to head out of town to one of the hiking trails that J has found on Komoot. The hike takes us about 3 hours through the pine forests, quite a lot of up and down and past masses of poly tunnels (Da Lat is the growing capital of Vietnam, mainly due to the cooler climate). We head back into town and stop off to see the old railway station on the way. Back to the hotel to clean up and do some laundry and then back out for food, J wants to try the Nepalese / Indian restaurant that he’d read about although not all places are open today as the Vietnamese are celebrating Tet tonight, so it could be a long and noisy night. We head up to our roof top at midnight to watch the fireworks and they are phenomenal. Get to bed around 1am and it’s amazing quiet.
Wednesday 29th Jan
The equivalent of NYD, so we’re not expecting much to be open. After breakfast we hop on the scooter and head to the ‘Crazy House’, it’s Vietnam’s answer to Salvador Dali and Gaudi’s architecture… completely crazy. Basically a Vietnamese (lady) architect designed and built the house between 1990 and 2010, she just let her imagination run riot and as a result the Crazy House was born. It’s now part hotel and part tourist attraction. We spent an hour or so wandering around, looking at all the various quirky things and nosing around the rooms. We then head off to the cable car, random but that’s how we decided to play today… unbeknownst to us the cable car actually takes you to a monastery called Thein Vien Truc Lam. We wander around and both agree it’s the most immaculate monastery / temple that we’ve ever seen. We wander into one of the rooms and a female monk (surely nun!?) grabs us and sits us down to have lunch. Neither of us usually eat lunch but out of politeness we ask if we can share a plate. The lunch is very tasty (steamed rice, veg and some sort of roasted chilli pork) we both try a little and then ask the same monk how we can pay, she says there’s absolutely no need but I insist… so she takes me to the temple and suggests that if I wish to donate here then I can. She invites us to stay and meditate. It was so unexpected, we both felt very relaxed and zen like (maybe they’d spiked the food 🤣). We then spend a bit more time wandering around the gardens, it’s probably the most immaculate place we’ve found in Vietnam so far. Back on the cable car and we find the scooter and head back into Da Lat. Later we head out on foot to a little bar that J was frequenting whilst I was away diving and we run into another English couple who are also staying at our hotel. We get chatting over drinks, sharing travelling stories, they’re planning to travel for 15 months. As we have dinner plans we head off to Trang’s Cookery School. It’s very delicious… but closing up early so we head back for a final game of Jaipur (I’m beaten again!!).
Thursday 30th Jan
Move hotels (from Le Recit to Win Dat) as the one we’re staying in doesn’t have space and our transport out of Da Lat meant we had to stay another night. Whilst I’m doing yoga James takes our luggage round to the new hotel on the scooter. We check in early (they’ve given us a VIP room which faces onto the lake). Nice room but virtually no soundproofing and we appear to have a three year old staying next door! We dump our bags and head out to walk around the city centre again, a lot of shops appear to be closed still because of Tet and those that are open are charging a premium. We can’t really buy anything anyway as have no space in the backpacks until we start throwing our clothes away! Early evening we head back out and find a cafe / bar called The Maze / 100 Roof’s. It’s a tardis, tiny from the outside but you go in and it has about five or six floors and opens up into a huge garden at the back, on one of the floors, it’s just like the Crazy House that we visited yesterday, at one point we manage to lose each other. After reuniting we head for food and I’ve spotted a street full of locals so that’s where we head. We spot these small half muffin sized things being cooked in a hot skillet pan so we head into the restaurant, although it’s more like an open air, street market type cafe. We sit down looking a bit dazed and a lovely couple of sisters who we happened to be sitting next to end up giving us a mini food tour, suggesting what we should order and what sauces, spices to have with what. One of them even pops out to another cafe and buys us something else to try. It was lovely and fortunately Van Ahn’s English was amazing so we could chat. We say our goodbyes and head back through the busy streets to our noisy hotel. Up early tomorrow as our transport has been brought forward for some reason and they also want a 30% supplement on top of what we’ve already paid for Tet!
Friday. 31st January
On the move from Da Lat to Qui Nhon….
Arrived about midnight last night after a lot of miracles, my advice to my future self, never travel on Chinese NY again, EVER!
My first flight from Phuket to HCMC was delayed leaving by 2 hours, arriving at 17.45 and my connecting flight was due to leave at 18.35 and with over an hour to queue through passport control I thought there was no way I could make it BUT fortunately the HCMC to Da Lat flight was also running three hours behind schedule. I went to customer services at HCMC thinking I’d missed my flight and they upgraded me (they charged me £10) but it gave me business class so they fast tracked me through security only to find that all the gates were heaving with passengers as most of the VietJet flights were running late just because of the sheer volume of people travelling for Tet. After a 30 minute flight to Da Lat I’m here, another 30 minute taxi ride and J and I meet up at a lovely hotel (Ana Mandara Villas) built in 1930’s by some French colonel. It’s quirky and very
French / Viet vintage, Da Lat looks fabulous and can’t wait to explore but today is going to be a super chilled out day to catch up on some sleep!
Da Lat is in the South Central
Highlands of Vietnam and known as the City of Eternal Spring, it sits at 1,500m above sea level and was discovered by the French in 1893 so also goes by the title of Le Petit Paris. It definitely reminds me of Nuwara Ellia in Sri Lanka. We quite like it here so think we’ll stay for a few days but will move to a different hotel more centrally in town tomorrow.
Monday 27th January
Moving to a hotel in the town itself, although this hotel has been a really nice calm oasis, I can see why a French colonel would build a place like this. We move to our new hotel around midday, they let us check straight in so we dump the bags and head out for a walk. We walk around the lake which is approx 7 km then spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Da Lat. Whilst out we sample the avocado ice cream which J was raving about and sample some locally produced chocolate, also very lovely. We head back to the hotel for a breather and then we’re off out again in search of more food, the restaurants that J researched either appear to be shut for Tet or fully booked. We end up eating at one of the restaurants near the night market back near the lake, it’s actually ok. It’s very cold here at night (8 degrees) so we’re walking around in jumpers and coats again! Not as bad as the Uk but definitely not what we’ve grown used to.
Tuesday 28th Jan
We hire a scooter and plan to head out of town to one of the hiking trails that J has found on Komoot. The hike takes us about 3 hours through the pine forests, quite a lot of up and down and past masses of poly tunnels (Da Lat is the growing capital of Vietnam, mainly due to the cooler climate). We head back into town and stop off to see the old railway station on the way. Back to the hotel to clean up and do some laundry and then back out for food, J wants to try the Nepalese / Indian restaurant that he’d read about although not all places are open today as the Vietnamese are celebrating Tet tonight, so it could be a long and noisy night. We head up to our roof top at midnight to watch the fireworks and they are phenomenal. Get to bed around 1am and it’s amazing quiet.
Wednesday 29th Jan
The equivalent of NYD, so we’re not expecting much to be open. After breakfast we hop on the scooter and head to the ‘Crazy House’, it’s Vietnam’s answer to Salvador Dali and Gaudi’s architecture… completely crazy. Basically a Vietnamese (lady) architect designed and built the house between 1990 and 2010, she just let her imagination run riot and as a result the Crazy House was born. It’s now part hotel and part tourist attraction. We spent an hour or so wandering around, looking at all the various quirky things and nosing around the rooms. We then head off to the cable car, random but that’s how we decided to play today… unbeknownst to us the cable car actually takes you to a monastery called Thein Vien Truc Lam. We wander around and both agree it’s the most immaculate monastery / temple that we’ve ever seen. We wander into one of the rooms and a female monk (surely nun!?) grabs us and sits us down to have lunch. Neither of us usually eat lunch but out of politeness we ask if we can share a plate. The lunch is very tasty (steamed rice, veg and some sort of roasted chilli pork) we both try a little and then ask the same monk how we can pay, she says there’s absolutely no need but I insist… so she takes me to the temple and suggests that if I wish to donate here then I can. She invites us to stay and meditate. It was so unexpected, we both felt very relaxed and zen like (maybe they’d spiked the food 🤣). We then spend a bit more time wandering around the gardens, it’s probably the most immaculate place we’ve found in Vietnam so far. Back on the cable car and we find the scooter and head back into Da Lat. Later we head out on foot to a little bar that J was frequenting whilst I was away diving and we run into another English couple who are also staying at our hotel. We get chatting over drinks, sharing travelling stories, they’re planning to travel for 15 months. As we have dinner plans we head off to Trang’s Cookery School. It’s very delicious… but closing up early so we head back for a final game of Jaipur (I’m beaten again!!).
Thursday 30th Jan
Move hotels (from Le Recit to Win Dat) as the one we’re staying in doesn’t have space and our transport out of Da Lat meant we had to stay another night. Whilst I’m doing yoga James takes our luggage round to the new hotel on the scooter. We check in early (they’ve given us a VIP room which faces onto the lake). Nice room but virtually no soundproofing and we appear to have a three year old staying next door! We dump our bags and head out to walk around the city centre again, a lot of shops appear to be closed still because of Tet and those that are open are charging a premium. We can’t really buy anything anyway as have no space in the backpacks until we start throwing our clothes away! Early evening we head back out and find a cafe / bar called The Maze / 100 Roof’s. It’s a tardis, tiny from the outside but you go in and it has about five or six floors and opens up into a huge garden at the back, on one of the floors, it’s just like the Crazy House that we visited yesterday, at one point we manage to lose each other. After reuniting we head for food and I’ve spotted a street full of locals so that’s where we head. We spot these small half muffin sized things being cooked in a hot skillet pan so we head into the restaurant, although it’s more like an open air, street market type cafe. We sit down looking a bit dazed and a lovely couple of sisters who we happened to be sitting next to end up giving us a mini food tour, suggesting what we should order and what sauces, spices to have with what. One of them even pops out to another cafe and buys us something else to try. It was lovely and fortunately Van Ahn’s English was amazing so we could chat. We say our goodbyes and head back through the busy streets to our noisy hotel. Up early tomorrow as our transport has been brought forward for some reason and they also want a 30% supplement on top of what we’ve already paid for Tet!
Friday. 31st January
On the move from Da Lat to Qui Nhon….
Discovered the rubbish tip on our walk!
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