Da Lat - Day 1 (part 1)

With work at VStar only starting again on Friday, we decided that an escape from the city was in order. Our destination of choice... Da Lat, a town in the central highlands which we had heard was a must if you're in Vietnam. We packed our bags and headed off to District 1 to catch a sleeper bus that would transport us to our destination. We had never taken a sleeper bus before, so we did not know what to expect. Each person has their own reclining chair or 'bed' with space to stretch your legs out in front of you. We forgot our travel pillows  - which was rookie error number one. We also did not dress very warmly, as Saigon is always so hot. The bus, however, was freezing! Luckily they provided us with blankets and we were able to claim blankets from some empty seats to use as pillows.

Drinks while waiting for our bus.

An awesome mural on the wall of the restaurant.

Settling in to the bus

Somehow we survived the treacherous and extremely bumpy roads, the sounds that the driver was making (it sounded like he was coughing up hairballs the entire journey!) and the Christmas style lights that stayed on in the bus the entire way. We arrived in Da Lat at 4.30am, a bit earlier than expected (200km's took us 6.5 hours!!), to a rainy day and extremely cold temperatures. It seems that these two little birdies have forgotten what cold is, since it was only 19 degrees - a nice balmy winters day in SA - but it felt like arctic temperatures to us! It was still dark, so we sat in the bus terminal until it was a little bit lighter and we could begin our search for a hotel. Luckily a friend had recommended a place for us to stay, so we caught another bus to the hotel and thankfully they had a room open. We swiftly added on some more layers to try and fight the cold, before heading up for breakfast (banh mi's with eggs and steak).

Freezing cold but happy to have arrived safely.

We decided that we would head into town to go and see all of the local tourist attractions. Our first stop was to take some pictures next to some pretty flower beds next to the lake. We were approached by a man who offered to take us on his motorbike to see the local sights. One of the things that is very popular to do here is go on tours with "easy riders". Basically, you hop on the back of a motorbike and you get ferried around to various attractions that lie further out of town. He was wearing an official "easy riders" jacket, his price was fair and his itinerary looked great. So we agreed, he called a friend and off we went!

Gorgeous flowers next to the lake

Our first stop was at a pagoda in town. It was built in 1921 making it almost 100 years old! There were some amazing statues and plenty of pictures were snapped! Da Lat is an extremely fertile area and the climate is very well suited to growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Because of the hilly landscape, farmers have started growing crops on terraces to maximise their yields. They have also introduced green houses, made from plastic and bamboo, in order to further increase their capacity. We stopped off at a few farms, and the guides explained some farming methods and pointed out which crops were growing where.

On our way

The pagoda

Crops in the city

Crazy driving

Next we were dropped off at the bottom of a hill and invited to walk to the top to see a beautiful view of Da Lat. Unfortunately it was a misty day, so we couldn't see as far as we had hoped, but it was still great to get the lungs working as we climbed up the steep hill. We then hopped back on the bikes and started to wind our way further into the countryside. We stopped at a greenhouse that was growing flowers. There were hundreds and hundreds of gerberas (of all colours) in the one that we went into. They have developed irrigation systems and, while their systems may look rudimentary, they certainly get the job done.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

 The road from Da Lat out into the countryside is quite narrow, and there have been quite a few accidents in the past. As a result, the road is currently being widened in the hope of decreasing the frequency of these accidents. It was really interesting to see how the locals break up the granite from the massive rocks in order to make bricks which line the road. The soil is extremely 'clayish' in this area and so the road was rather muddy (and waterlogged) in some places due to all of the rain that the area has been experiencing recently. This made for some treacherous sections and made us very thankful that we were with experienced drivers and not on our own. The road leads down to a village where they grow a lot of coffee. The village is mainly inhabited by mountain tribe people or 'minority groups' as our guide kept saying. They live an extremely simple and rural life there, with one or two roomed 'houses' that reminded us a lot of the types of places you would find in the Transkei back home. The Vietnamese government is trying to give the people who live there some economic empowerment by allowing them to farm coffee beans in the area.

Road works

'Minority people' village

Coffee beans

A 'pet' monkey in the tree

Our next stop was at a coffee house, not far from the village. It had a stunning view over the valley, however it started to rain while we were there and the mist obscured the view quite a bit, so we didn't snap any pictures. We both had an arabica 'drip' coffee which was just what we needed to keep us awake after the minimal amount of sleep we had had on the bus the night before. We then donned our rain jackets (plastic ponchos) and headed on to our next stop.  The tour guides stopped in at another coffee shop to show us the weasels that they keep to produce weasel coffee. We were also shown how they make rice wine, which was a bonus. After trying to snap a few pics of the weasels in their cages, we got back on the bikes and continued on to our next stop.

A weasel in its cage

We went to another pagoda, which had some beautiful statues, and we were told that we had to go around to the side to see the Buddha statue. We turned the corner and bam! there was the biggest Buddah statue that we have ever seen. The visit to the second pagoda was followed by a short walk to a waterfall. Well, after that short walk came a longer, slippery trail down to see the Elephant Waterfall. It's quite a wide waterfall and a lot of water flows over it, however we weren't as wowed by it as we were told we would be. South Africa has some seriously beautiful and impressive waterfalls, and there was so much rubbish everywhere that we were a bit disgusted and disappointed by the whole experience.

The treacherous steps down to see the falls

Exploring

To see part 2 of our day click here.