I expressed disappointment to my Saigon tour guide that SE Asia lacks any mountain towns to escape the heat. I further explained to him that Mexico is filled with charming high altitude villages when he asked, “have you not heard of Da Lat?”
To be fair I’d heard of it but only as the region from which Vietnam, a former French colony, produces grapes to make its famous Da Lat wine. Leave it to the French to figure out how to establish vineyards in a landscape incompatible with growing grapes. I can attest that Da Lat wine exceeds expectations for a varietal grown in the tropics. My guide went on to say that Da Lat is considered the Switzerland of SE Asia and that the French had attempted to build a resort community there. I was intrigued.
While Vora had visited Hoi An before our trip, she had never been to Da Lat and was also interested in going there. We booked our flights from Da Nang, to avoid a miserably long bus trip and were delighted to see the mountainous landscape upon our descent to the airport. Because of those mountains, the airport is a good distance from the city, and it took about 45 minutes to get there by cab. The drive offered glimpses of lakes, farms and temples as the road wound through the tree covered mountains.
I rolled down the window since the air outside was cooler than inside, and I was impressed that it smelled so much cleaner than anything I’d breathed in the last couple months. I’d heard that but was impressed to find it to be true. Even the distance you could see was much greater due to the lack of pollution. The approach to Da Lat was in stark contrast to the experience we had once we got there.
The city was surprisingly noisy and the traffic heavy. Even as we approached the city, our driver rolled up the windows. At 425,000 people, the population of Da Lat was half that of Da Nang, but it seemed much more chaotic. Because of the mountains there were fewer options for roadways, and they were all heavily traveled. Da Nang, with a grid system, allowed an infinite variety of options for getting around. The streets of Da Lat were narrow which made even walking around the city difficult without doing so in the roadway.
Like the rest of Vietnam, the sidewalks are used for motorbike parking, and very little thought is put into how pedestrians get around the city. Perhaps the assumption is that everyone travels from place to place by motorbike. As a result, I looked at my map for places we might walk around and enjoy the town.
There is a lake in the center of Da Lat, and it has a pedestrian path around its entire 4.5 mile crescent shaped circumference. Surrounding the lake is a highway so in order to get to the pedestrian path you must navigate four lanes of traffic before you can relax. Fortunately, I’d had plenty of practice crossing much wider streets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.
We didn’t complete the loop since it was getting dark by the time we arrived at the lake. Instead, we headed to a night market to get dinner. You’d think a market would be free of motorbikes, but even there we had to move aside for the occasional one weaving through. I wondered why they didn’t just go avoid the market until I saw a driver stop to do his shopping from the bike. This confirmed my earlier thought that perhaps people don’t walk from place to place in Vietnam but move about primarily by motorbike.
I definitely wasn’t getting a sense of Switzerland in SE Asia so I did a search for Western food and found a collection of restaurants up the hill from the market. We headed over there, and indeed it did have the feel of a little European street. It had some charming street facing restaurants and shops lining a curved road. The best part is that there was very little traffic on it, and we were able to stroll the street without constant vigilance. We made a note of places to visit another tomorrow as we’d already eaten at the night market.
Mountain lake
I was anxious to get out of the city both because it was more hectic than I’d expected and because of the beauty I saw during the cab ride the day before. We rented a motorbike, and after a quick stop for gas, we headed into the mountains. In Vietnam, they always provide a motorbike with an empty tank, and it is your responsibility to fill it. This is because they siphon any fuel left in the tank when you return the bike and resell it or use it for themselves.
We found a fuel station on the way out of town, and it was pretty much the last commercial property before entering the mountains. The road was surprisingly new, and when we got to the section on Google maps that said it was closed, we found it without a barrier. It turns out that the long trip from the airport the day before was due also to the fact that the road was being repaved, and it had just opened that morning. It made for a smooth surface that allowed me to enjoy the view as opposed to scanning the road for constant potholes.
About 30 minutes after we left town, we arrived at Tuyền Lâm Lake. Being a reservoir, it wasn’t particularly attractive, but I decided to follow the signs pointing to a place called Happy Hill Coffee. We weren’t disappointed. Someone creative had transformed an ordinary mountain slope into a cafe and a collection of photo opportunities. I’ve found that a lot of Asia is developed for capturing images for social media, kind of like the Kodak moments campaign in the United States.
We took advantage of both by ordering a couple of smoothies and sitting on a selfie platform above the lake. It was a delightful break from the city, and I loved the immersive sensory experience: looking out over the lake, smelling the pine trees, and feeling the crisp air against our faces. It didn’t seem we could be any more relaxed, but then we made our way to the other side of the lake.
Truc Lam Buddhist Monastery is a beautiful Zen Buddhist monastery overlooking the lake. Like the Marble mountains, there are a variety of temple styles, one containing a gift of a Golden Buddha from Thailand. We talked a bit with one of the monks who had visited our home state of Oregon. His peaceful demeanor led to an even more relaxed visit. It was nice to know such a getaway existed only 30 minutes from the city, and I had similar hopes when he headed north out of the city the next day.
Flower theme parks
Looking at the map, the area to the north of Da Lat is as undeveloped as the south, but it can’t be more different. While the countryside is wide open, there are very few trees. The landscape is instead covered with farms. It turns out this is the region that much of Vietnam’s produce comes from. It was also the flower growing region.
We pulled into one of the flower farms and were surprised at the number of tour buses parked in the lot. Clearly this was not like any flower farm I’d seen in the US. We paid our admission fee and walked into what seemed like a theme park of flowers.
There were school kids everywhere taking selfies with the floral arrangements, and I noticed several staged exhibits provided specifically for this activity. It reminded me of an idea Joan once shared about doing Instagramable tours.The flower farms had figured out exactly how to cater to the posting generation!
As we continued on, it was just more of the same floral theme parks so we headed back to the city to explore further. We visited the old train station and walked along the peak road above the town. It was the only other quiet street we found in Da Lat. In addition to being peaceful, it was also lined with pieces of art and a coffee shop.
We held out though as we wanted to try the coffee shop across from our hotel. It was built into the side of the hill and was filled with foreigners so we figured it must appear in someone’s travel blog or a travel site. We weren’t disappointed. The food choices were amazing and we got to meet the owner who was able to flawlessly switch between speaking Vietnamese to his staff while speaking English, French, and Russian to his customers. Perhaps it was this phenomenon that brought people from all over the world.
Our dinner that evening featured a star of a different variety. We headed back up to the European street, but instead of eating at one of the western style restaurants, we plopped ourselves into a couple of pink plastic chairs and ate with the locals; well all but one.
We were talking with the guy next to us when someone came up and asked if they could take their picture with him. Caught off guard, we asked him, “are you famous?” to which he replied “kind of”. It turns out he was a Vietnamese rap star Vsoul. We had to look him up in order to learn about him, but the songs I found online were pretty good. He was on tour and was performing that night. Had the show not been sold out, I think Vora probably would have gone!
Bus to Nha Trang
On tour ourselves, Vora and I hopped a bus the next day and headed to the coastal town of Nha Trang. When offered a seat map to choose our seats, we selected two on the upper level, assuming it to be similar to every bus we’d ridden before, with an upper deck and a lower deck. It was not.
Though our trip was during the day, the bus appeared to be a sleeper, and instead of seats there were beds. This made our choice of “upper” seats a mistake as we had to both climb into our upper bunks. The only riding option was to recline, and while this would have been a great option for an overnight trip, it didn’t lend itself to enjoying the scenery outside the window. I did take advantage of the recliner to enjoy a nap during the 4 hour mountain ride to the sea.
The best part of the trip was the descent at the end. Because the road dropped out of steep mountains, we were treated to a view of the ocean as we approached Nha Trang. While I enjoyed the trip, I was most looking forward to my reunion with Dave, a friend I hadn’t seen since Saigon. While I wouldn’t characterize Da Lat as the Switzerland of Asia, Dave with his northern English accent added a bit of Europe to Vietnam.