Đà Lạt trip: Part 2

Langbiang Mountain

Our first full day in Đà Lạt started with sunny bright skies and warm temperatures. After breakfast, we headed out of the city down one of the many valleys towards Langbiang mountain, stopping for a coffee on the way.

Langbiang mountain is one of the highest mountains in the Đà Lạt area, so coming here on such a clear day meant that we got fantastic views across the other peaks and valleys. Maybe I have said it before but the domestic tourism industry in Vietnam is developing at a great pace, so these days Langbiang is not simply a mountain out of town, but a massively-attended full-on tourist experience, combining minority people cultural shows, break-neck speeds by jeep up the mountain (or if you like, a rigorous hike), horse rides and photo opportunities with some Đà Lạt cowboys, and of course, plenty of opportunities to eat and drink. Being a national holiday, the car park was chock full of coaches as well as private cars such as ours.

This meant waiting for some time to secure jeeps to take us to the peak of the mountain, where we had just 40 minutes to look around before the driver was scheduled to take us back down. All the descriptions I have found on-line highlight just how stupendous the views are. They are not wrong. At 2,167 metres above sea-level Langbiang is also a good 600 metres higher than the official height above sea-level of Đà Lạt city (because the city is such an up and down experience being built on the hills around Xuân Hương river/lake it's difficult to say exactly how high it is). The climb, by whatever method and at whatever speed, is also breathtaking for its steepness and beauty, travelling through pine forests and across narrow ridges.

There are a number of legends associated with the mountain. You can read about two of them here.

Golden Valley - Thung Lũng Vàng

After descending from the mountain, we took a trip along one of the innumerable valleys in the area to the Golden Valley tourist resort; in Vietnamese Thung Lũng Vàng. The link I have included here states that the park and resort are built near the water plant, however, I think that this is a euphemism for water/sewage treatment!. The adjacent lake is actually fenced off and although I didn't notice any explanation for this, my guess is that it is not safe to swim, play or fish in it. However, the park is quite beautiful and the range of scenery and landscaping that has been installed also makes it an attractive place for couples to take wedding photo albums.

We had lunch at a restaurant just outside the park entrance, with the highlights being barbecuing wild pork meat for ourselves and drinking can wine, which is a rice wine made in and drunk directly from a ceramic jar. Bi again displayed his curiosity in all things by experimenting with the barbecue fire to see how the grilling system worked and what manner of leftover foods could be cooked this way. All around us were coffee plants: Đà Lạt's temperate climate and high rainfall make it an ideal location for growing coffee, tea, flowers and a very wide range of fruits and vegetables, both Asian and exotic.

On the way back to the city we stopped off to visit a strawberry farm, another famous product of Đà Lạt, although I am not sure the Australian practice of allowing visitors to pay to pick their own strawberries is followed here.

Love Valley - Thung Lũng Tình Yêu

The final destination for the afternoon was Love Valley, Thung Lũng Tình Yêu, a place that surely every visitor to Đà Lạt has been to. Again because of the national holiday it was very busy here, much more so than when I last visited with Michele, Killki and Chaska in 2009. Being partly for lovers, partly for families, there are also plenty of attractions for kids (big ones too!) here such as dodgem cars, mini-roller coasters, and miniature cyclos.