Đà Lạt Trip: Part 4 (last part!)

(by the way, if you think I have a good memory for the itinerary of this trip it's not true. I would be totally lost without the photographic record - and Bảo who took on the responsibility of pooling and sharing out the photos that each person on the trip took!)

Our last evening concluded with some over-zealous members of the group taking xe vịt (pedal duck/swan boats) out on Xuân Hương lake. Just like swans these vessels look like easy-sailing but to actually pedal them through the water is a rigorous and exhausting activity, and most definitely takes two people to achieve it. My pedalling partner, Dũng, is a competitive person as well so we kept having to race the other swans to imaginary finish lines.

In the morning most people wanted to go to the market and buy fruit, jam, sweaters, etc. Bảo, Bi, Thuận and I opted for coffee and ice cream instead.

Our actual departure from Đà Lạt was in stages, as we visited the Crazy House before leaving the city, and then stopped off at Datanla falls for several hours, including lunch. As a result our final departure time and commencement of the descent from the highlands only came around at about 3pm.

Crazy House - Hằng Nga

(It is a bit lazy of me, but you can take a look at my teaching website for information about this one!)

The Crazy House is a bit of a miniature Disney-land, so it is especially suited to kids who get to do all manner of dangerous things such as walk along narrow, low-sided elevated walkways joining buildings in the complex 10 metres above the ground. I do think the free-form architecture is appealing, but I still feel that actually staying in the rooms of this guesthouse is too much like living in a cement shell. The intention in the design of all the rooms is that they be cosy and inviting, but I really have no desire to stay here.

But it is always fun to visit, to see what has changed and what is still the same from last time, and what is still unfinished!

Datanla Falls

My last visit here was with Michelle, Chaska and Killki, and like that visit we took the toboggan down the steep slope to the waterfall. Bi and Thuận went on a sled of their own but managed fine, which is a bit of a relief now because there were a lot of people, and most disregarded the warning signs to keep 25 metres distance between each sled. The immediate result of this behaviour was that Dũng and Tiệp got smashed into from behind by some other group, and Dũng broke a tooth.

We had a picnic lunch at the falls, and then took a cable car that travels further down a gorge to a second set of waterfalls - quite a new attraction and it seems not yet well-known. The cable car brings you to the head of the next waterfall. From there there is an elevator(!) to take you to the base where you can wander along the stream before it reaches another cascade. We had an enjoyable time down here relaxing in the pleasant air and cool water, but ... Vũng Tàu was still a long way away.

in the background you can see the elevator

Homeward bound

We finally made it home to Phan Chu Trinh Street just before midnight, and put two very tired boys to bed. Along the way Đạt and Dương decided that they needed to buy two cumquat trees, which of course had to join the passengers in the van. We also stopped for dinner at the big Tâm Châu tea and coffee showroom and restaurant near Bảo Lộc, where Đạt and I both invested in a kilogram of delicious coffee each.

one final photo: I took this when Đạt bought the trees but I still don't know what it is!

Đà Lạt Trip: Part 3

Education, flowers, waterfalls, trains and temples

Our first destination of the following day was the railway station in Đà Lạt. I have been a little bit surprised to find out many Vietnamese people don't know about the railway station or the 7km section of track that has been returned to use - along with some lovely old carriages and less lovely diesel locomotive - as a tourist attraction. While writing this entry I also discovered that the French name for the whole works (railway station, track et al) refers to a specific type of track used in three sections of the original route from Đà Lạt to Tháp Chàm on the coast.

Future railway men?

We spent a little time exploring the railway station - and returned in the afternoon to take the train out to the village of Trại Mát. In an area like Đà Lạt which is so hilly my sense of direction gets totally screwed, so that while I felt like we were travelling west, we actually went south-east because ... well, that's where the coast is! The route took us past people's homes built almost up to the track as is quite common in Vietnam, as well as down cuttings bordered by greenhouses and fields growing strawberries, cauliflowers and flowers.

At our destination of Trại Mát we were told we had approximately 70 minutes to explore before we were scheduled to take the return journey. In the end, however, we decided to risk it and wait for the subsequent train back. This allowed us enough time to hoof it up the road to Linh Phước pagoda which is famous for its "living" statue of Quan Âm made of everlasting daisies, as well as having some other stupendous installations such as the largest bell in Vietnam, and a very large mosaic dragon, colloquially known as the beer bottle dragon.

 One of the other interesting cultural practices I noticed during our visit was a small high table in a room adjoining one of the main prayer halls. A group of people were standing around it with their finger-tips resting on the table and their eyes closed. At the time I thought this was some special prayer ritual and didn't want to take photos. But Bảo since told me that actually people believe that the table is magic in some way and that it can move under your command (not touch!). Whether each person notices it happen or not seems to depend on their individual situation. Bảo says that people with a "light" soul will feel the table move; people with a "heavy" soul will not notice anything.

This was the afternoon on which the weather really turned against us, delivering grey skies and rain. The night before, similarly, we had "got trapped" by rain in a coffee shop. When eventually it stopped we also had to compete for the taxis to get the boys back to the hotel and bed.

In between our visits to the railway station, we made our way firstly to the teachers college which has the architectural distinction of a grand, curved building. Being a holiday no-one was in class but in fact this is a working institution notwithstanding it felt a little run-down.

From here we headed out of town again, stopping firstly at a flower farm, before descending far far down into a valley to visit the Elephant Falls - Thác Voi. I have seen pictures of these falls showing the water as pristine, but during our visit - maybe due to heavy rainfall - they were brown and the route down to the base, while worth doing, was muddy and slippery.

I have belatedly found the Lâm Đồng province government website with a lot of tourist information in Vietnamese and English versions. Interestingly, the two language versions are not the same. The Vietnamese one has many more entries, including one about Elephant Falls that is absent in the English language version. However, I included that link above because it gives the origin of the waterfall's name as well as a legend attached to it. You can always use Google Translate!

Also here is a short newspaper item on the restoration of the railway station and the teacher training college.

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.

Đà Lạt trip: Part 1

Early in the year, Bảo and I discussed taking Bi (and maybe another of the P Centre children) on holiday with us. The Centre supported the idea, and so we asked Bi his preference between Đà Lạt and Nha Trang.  He chose Đà Lạt .... and after discussing with Mỹ Hương we decided that Thuận would be Bi's travelling companion.

Our initial plan was to travel from Vũng Tàu to Đà Lạt by bus. There were two options: travelling by day on a seated bus, or at night by a "lying" coach, but I had to work on Friday night, making day travel the only possibility. Then at the beginning of the week some of Bảo's colleagues announced that they also intended to take a trip to Đà Lạt for the 30 April/1 May holidays, so we joined forces with them to hire a mini-van and travel together. All up we made a party of 14 people, with all the driving done by Đạt (a big thanks to him and the copious amounts of coffee he drank!), setting out at 4.30am with the expectation of being able to arrive in Đà Lạt by the early afternoon.

At around 10am near Madagui we happened on a stall selling durian. Travelling with a group of durian lovers sort of made a stop here inevitable :( Oh well, at least there was coffee to be had as well. Being security-minded travellers we locked up the van, but forgot to take out the cameras. Bảo and I both wanted to get some shots so we got the key, tried opening the back to reach our bags, discovered that the lock didn't work well and so opened the door from inside, got our cameras, locked the car, shut the back door, checked to make sure it was locked and ... snap! went the only key in the lock!

After that ensued some very tense moments as we tried and failed to extract the broken part of the key from the lock. The next step was to send for help from the nearest town. Help arrived, managed to get the key out, and by use of a very large file attempted to make a copy that would ultimately fail to work. We needed a more technological approach.

To get this we needed to send someone to the next larger town - Bảo Lộc - which was achieved by Đạt being given a ride by another group, and returning with the locksmith with a group travelling back down the mountains. They arrived with another copy of our original patched together key which .... didn't work. After a lot of refinement, the locksmith eventually put together a key that opened the car door.

The next challenge was to get the key to work in the ignition; a different proposition altogether, confounded by the subsequent discovery that putting a non-authentic key in the ignition too many times triggers a shut-down mechanism. I don't remember how we overcome this one, but eventually this extremely talented locksmith reshaped the key sufficiently to get it to consistently open the driver's door and turn the engine over.

How long did this sorry exercise take? Approximately 6 hours which meant we only got back on the road at around 4pm, the time by which we had originally expected to be well and truly ensconced in our hotels in Đà Lạt! Actual arrival time? 8.30pm with dinner time finally coming along at around 9.30pm. This is not an ideal time to be looking for a solid meal in Vietnam, and we ended up in a snail restaurant (which is more typically a drinking place than one for eating). At least there were some noodles and rice for two very hungry and tired boys.

Here are some pics of waiting - patiently and not so patiently - for a workable key. During this enforced stop-off, Bi's continual comment was "Đà Lạt xa quá!" (Dalat is so far away!). However, he also showed his typical curiosity in all operations, watching the work of the locksmiths closely :)