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Dalat
Dec 11th - 13th 2007
We arrived at Dalat after another 8 hour coach journey but unlike the coaches of Laos and Thailand, the Vietnam coaches appeared to be newer, faster, air conditioned and didn't leak when it rained. So, apart from the odd dodgy bathroom at the rest stops it was a pretty comfortable journey.
In the Lonely Planet, Dalat is described as "quite different from anywhere else you will visit in Vietnam".At first view, as the coach drove through the town towards our drop off point, I would definitely agree with this.We arrived through wooded hills into a smart looking town with attractive colonial buildings complete with a (slightly smaller than original), version of the Eiffel Tower. It was actually a telecommunications mast but it set the scene for the sights to come.The main part of the town overlooked a picture-pretty lake with cafés and white swan pedelos … we had arrived at the town of Vietnamese kitsch and Jemma was going to love it.
The bus dropped us off at the Trung Cang Hotel which was about 15 minutes walk from the centre of town.It looked expensive, but as we were outside and couldn't be bothered to carry the bags into town we had a look.Luckily for us the bargain basement rooms were within our budget… 'bargain basement' being a very accurate description… these rooms were actually in the basement and we were apparently lucky to have a window even if it was a view (a close up view of about 8 inches), of a concrete wall.Still, we were tired and were only planning to stay for two nights at the most. After all, it did have TV, air con and a fridge, even if there was no way of telling if it was day or night.
After our customary post bus journey sleep, we headed to a nearby restaurant called the V Café and had surprisingly good Mexican food. Especially for me, as I ate Jemma's by accident.It was really tasty, possibly better than the food I ordered, which Jemma ended up with. After dinner we walked back across to the hotel and, as we both felt the drop in temperature, realized that it was only the second time we had been cold in four months, (the first being in Phonsavan, Laos). The feeling was strangely familiar and comforting, almost like a bit of a taste of home.On getting back to the room we realized that the lack of light was not the only special feature of our underground bunker- there was a distinct damp smell through the whole room and by this point most of our clothes.We decided that this added to the overall ambience of the place and did the best thing we could think of… ignored it and went to sleep.
The next morning we visited a place in the book we had both read about and sounded a really 'interesting' thing to see - the Hang Nga Crazy House. Basically, it was one (slightly strange) female architect's idea of an innovative guest house, and essentially is still a guest house but has rooms embedded within huge concrete sculptures of large trees, giraffes, a bees nest,a castle and even a kangaroo with glowing red eyes.The lady who designed and built it is quite famous around Dalat and has designed other buildings in and around the town.None of them are as 'special' as this place apparently.You can still stay there but it's more of a tourist attraction now I think, and the beds didn't really look too comfortable - some of them were half moon or kidney shaped.It was certainly an 'interesting' place and gave the town some character but we both came out asking 'but would I like it if it was next door to me?'.Answer, Me - No, Jemma - Probably yeah!!!
After that we headed towards the town centre via the cathedral and had a drink overlooking the lake.A pleasant place, made all the more amusing by a pair of Chinese tourists making a poor attempt at steering a swan pedalo.After about 25 minutes, they decided that the two feet they had travelled and the 4 or 5 visits between the bank and pier was quite enough for one day.
The next stop was the train station. This was once a fully running station but the line was damaged during the 'American' war and it has never been repaired. It's now pretty much a tourist attraction with a few short trips to a nearby village in the morning or afternoon. Unfortunately, we arrived at lunch time, so after waking up the woman working in the attached souvenir shop and establishing that nothing whatsoever was going to happen for at least the next two hours, we decided to take the few obligatory photos (it was a nice looking place), and headed for Dalat's next big attraction… the cable cars.
The cable car was a 2.3km long run to a reservoir, and apparently offered stunning views of the surrounding valley. We arrived there to find that it also was closed for lunch, but a sign promised that it would reopen at 2pm.Undeterred, we had some lunch and a drink looking across the valley one way and the Dalat roofs the other, and at 2pm we headed for the entrance.By 2.15pm we assumed that the place was running on South East Asia time and would surely open soon. By 2.30pm we actually asked someone and we were informed that it was not open today, but helpfully advised that it would be open tomorrow. So, we had missed the only train trip and were about 3km out of town at a closed tourist attraction with no taxis to be seen.I think after walking about 1.5km and getting back on to the main road we managed to get a cab back into town.
There wasn't really that much to do in Dalat after that so we had a walk round the market which was less French Colonial and more stereotypical Vietnamese (lots of produce on the floors and women in conical hats), and walked back to the hotel after a brief milk shake stop on the way. We booked our coach to Nha Trang for the next morning and headed for V Café again via a patch of wet concrete which now has my everlasting footprint in it. Overall Dalat was pretty and the scenery was amazing… it just would have been better if it was open!
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