Wandering the World: Da Lat

We are back at the beach in a town called Mui Ne. It's a windsurfers/kiteboarders haven! Dad would love it :) Before leaving Da Lat we tackled Lang Bian Mountain, which was an all day hike for us. The drive between Da Lat and Mui Ne was terrifying and bumpy but we arrived. I'm looking forward to some beach time if the wind ever dies down.

Nov 1 – Lang Bian Mountain

With the research we had done on Lang Bian Mountain we thought it would take us 3-4 hrs to hike round trip. We set off for the mountain after having “egg bread” for breakfast. We didn't end up picking up more food as since we thought it wouldn't be that long of hike. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain around 11am. You can pay 40,000 dong per person for a jeep to take you up to the radio tower and back down. The guy at the admission counter said it was 6km and 3hrs round trip. We decided to walk. We started walking up the road but figured there had to be a path to walk up so we started walking through the trees. The forest here is similar to home with lots of pine trees. After about 1.5hrs of bushwhacking and “trail” following we came to a labelled fork in the road. The sign pointed to the left saying radio tower 2km and the right saying peak (2190m) 3km. We knew we wanted to get to the peak so we went right. This part of the hike started off nice and flat, a relief after the uphill we had just climbed. It did not stay flat though. We started going up again and the vegetation changed to be more jungley. The up became vertical and we had to climb over roots and fallen trees. Finally we made it to the top. It took about an hour from the fork, I'm pretty sure we hiked more than 3km! The view from the top was awesome. We were in much need of a break and sat down for some snacks. Another couple had braved the hike up but other than that we were the only people on the peak. They had taken the walking path up, we would have if we could have found it. It isn't well signed at the bottom. We took some pictures and after catching our breath we headed back down. Down was just as hard as up because we had to try not to slide all the way to the bottom, it went much quicker though. Once we reached the fork Beau wanted to go over to the radio tower. It was only another 2km. The radio tower is where all the jeeps take people. It was an easy walk over to there and surprisingly the area was almost deserted. There were no tourists at that time. We contemplated eating up there but decided after another rest to head back down. It was around 4pm by this time, we figured we should try to get back before dark. We asked the staff about another walking path down and actually found it. It was just a break in some shrubs. Along the path the way up was marked with spray painted arrows. The way down was pretty steep. By this time my legs were quite sore and tired. We made it back to the bike in about an hour and headed back into town while the sun was going down. We had some dinner back in town, returned the bike and headed back to the hotel. We were both pretty tired. The hike was worth it for the view from the top but they could do with better sign postage for the walking path. I guess they just want everyone to take the jeep up.

The mountain as seen from the fork

Going up up up

The view of Da Lat from the top

At the top

Nov 2 – Mui Ne

We caught a bus to Mui Ne this morning. We were sad to see Da Lat go but we have to keep going since our visas expire on the 10^th! Our bus was actually a minibus with 16 seats and 2 people on stools. We also didn't have A/C this time. I think the roads were the worst we have been on so far. Huge, deep post holes everywhere, parts of the road gave out some time ago and the weeds have grown in, the brush along the side of the road was badly encroaching. We almost hit a motorcycle that was in our lane coming around a corner. That put our hearts in our throats, even the locals seemed disconcerted. We fortunately made it to Mui Ne in one piece. The area we are in is called Mui Ne Beach and is essentially one road that runs along the beach with hotels and restaurants on either side, Mui Ne Village is further along. The bus dropped us off around 11am and it was hot. We checked out a few hotels and found one for cheap. It's not on the beach but we only are spending $9. We put on our beach clothes and set off for some lunch and beach. We ate at a little seafood restaurant on the beach and then walked along it. It's very windy here but it's becoming one of the hottest places in Asia for windsurfing and kiteboarding. We walked towards the kitesurfers and watched them for awhile. We asked at one place how much lessons were but it's way out of our price range. There weren't many places to sit on the beach because of the wind and the highish tide. We decided to see if we could find a cheap place on the beach. We looked at a whole bunch but none seemed to have a nice beach front with reasonable priced. Pfft like we were going to pay $30-50 a night for a beach front resort. We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, sand included. Pretty sure my feet were eaten by sand flies. After dinner we went to a bar down the street that had live music. The guy was really good, just him and his guitar. We had a very enjoyable night listening to music while drinking beer!

Mui Ne Beach

Kitesurfers Galore

We've had a good couple of days in Da Lat so far. The weather has been gorgeous although it cools off at night, reminds me of mid September in Kelowna. There is some beautiful scenery and many waterfalls. Da Lat has some interesting architecture, it's still French Colonial for the most part but the colours are not what you would expect. Many houses are very brightly coloured, lime green, sky blue, hot pink. Some have sparkly pillars and clashing roofs. The other thing I have noticed is there are more large houses, typically Vietnamese houses are skinny, tall and long, these much wider. I think it has to go with Western influence, a couple of houses could have fit right in anywhere in North America.

Oct 30 – Da Lat

We were up early since we were told to be at the bus stop for 6:30am. We had Pho for breakfast and by the time we finish our hotel reception had actually opened so we could check out. We trekked down to the bus stop and waited and waited. The bus showed up at 7:30am and then we picked up 2 other people and set off for Da Lat around 8am. It would have been nice to sleep a little more instead of waiting for an hour for the stupid bus. Also there were only 4 passengers on the bus! We are now wondering if the bus was actually full yesterday or else maybe it would have only been us on it. We slept a little on the ride up but as we neared Da Lat, it's 1500m above sea level, there was some incredible scenery. The clouds were lifting from the mountains so it looked almost like it was raining up. Very Cool! We arrived around 11am, much soon than we had expected thank goodness. We checked into the hotel we were dropped off at, it was clean and I was being lazy. We had my computer issue to take care of, the power adapter stopped working last night. We found a computer repair shop very easily (I was shocked how easy it was) and while we had lunch the guy replaced to cord for under $5. SWEET! We had a nice leisurely walk around Lake Xuan Huong, the man-made lake in the middle of Da Lat. It was quite hot in the sunshine but nothing compared to the coast. There's no humidity here. Near the end of the lake are the Da Lat flower gardens. They were quite pretty. Da Lat is apparently known for it's plants and produce. We saw many green houses during the drive up. To cool off we stopped for drink at a cafe and thought the fruit syrup drinks sounded interesting. Beau got lychee and I got apple, they were very sweet, surprise its syrup. Beau watered his down so he could drink it. We cooled off a little too much in the shade. The nice breeze which cooled me while walking now made me cold. We nipped back to the hotel to get some sleeves on before finding some dinner. Dinner was pretty good, chow mein noodles with squid, but we got talking to the guy at the table next to us, he was an Aussie. We had a nice chat with him and walked around the night market a bit. There were some hot drinks being served at some stalls, it was hot soy milk. We had one that was peanut flavoured, it was tasty and weird. It had a fuzzy texture to it but I liked it.

Lake Xuan Huong


Da Lat Gardens

Oct 31 – Elephant Waterfalls and Silk Center

One of the handy things about our hotel is free breakfast. We had “Egg Bread” and coffee; it was scrambled eggs and a baguette. While we ate the motorcycle Beau had rented for us the night before was dropped off. It was only $3 for the day, I guess we've be getting ripped off for $4-5. We knew we wanted to check out some falls and a silk center near Nam Bam village. We set off into the countryside. It was a lovely drive, very lush and scenic but quite a winding road. We stopped a few times for pictures, there were coffee plants growing everywhere and some other big shrubs that looked similar to poinsettias. We saw some easy rider bike pull into a house just outside of the village so we pulled over too. There was sign out front about rice wine/whiskey making and coffee. We tacked on to their little tour about how to make the rice alcohol. The guide poured a shot into a metal pan and lit it on fire. There was a huge flame and all the liquid burned off till the pan was dry again. Pretty potent stuff. In another area the guide showed us were the people kept weasels. They had quite a few of them. The reason for the weasels is because what they call Weasel Coffee is a delicacy. The weasels eat the coffee beans and poop them out. The beans are collected from the poop and then dried and roasted. The price of weasel coffee is about 5 times that of regular coffee. At this same place a couple that had been on our boat trip in Nha Trang came in. We got talking with them and their guide and the guide said we could follow there car to the silk center and Elephant Waterfall. We followed them to the Cuong Hoan Traditional Silk Center. It was so cool! There were all the silk worm cocoons and we could watch the process of making silk. They boil the cocoons, then spin them on to large wheels, the wheels are then spun to dry the threads, the wheels are then spun on to spools and the spools are used in the looms to make fabric. On the looms are these bamboo sheets which are the pattern for the fabric, they tell the loom, mechanically, how the fabric should be woven. I was in a little bit of heaven and they sold fabric... I bought myself some to make a dress. I couldn't resist but the fabric is beautiful and how often do you get to buy silk from the manufacturer which is a traditional silk center in Vietnam! While I was trying to pick fabric the other group had left but we got directions from one of the workers to Elephant Waterfall. Turns out it was just down the road. It's an awkward climb down to the bottom of the falls but the view was spectacular and worth the muddy hands and shoes. You could get quite up close to the falls but you got quite wet too. Beau got up close and wet while I didn't. It didn't take long for him to dry. We got some great photos. There was also a little restaurant at the top by the parking lot. We had some yummy Pho soup, it would have been even better if it was made with rice noodles not instant noodles, they use those a lot here. Next we continued along the road for a bit till we found another waterfall we had read about, Lien Khuong Falls. We stopped at a cafe that over looked the falls while we enjoyed a beer. There was yet another waterfall on Beau's list that was close to Da Lat, Datanla falls, so we decided to stop in there on our way back to the city. The falls were nice but there was this weird roller coaster type thing that could take you up and down through the trees to get to the falls. There were about 6 water falls in the area but only Datanla Falls was accessible by foot. Two others could be viewed from a cable car but we weren't willing to pay. Datanla was a nice looking waterfall, there was a couple there having wedding photos taken. We went back into the city and stopped at the Hang Nga Crazy House. It's this guest house built by some lady architect that is just totally bizarre. It has weird passageways, odd shaped rooms, caves, awkward bridges. It's described by Lonely Planet as Alice-in-Wonderland like. It was very odd and definitely crazy. We got some dinner at a place that advertised the vermicelli bowls I love. Unfortunately for Beau, they only had enough left for one serving, so he had some sort of rice dish with egg and pork. We got some of the hot soy beverage again, although this time we were told it was coco flavoured but tasted like the one last night. We picked up some dried fruit and nuts for a hiking snack for tomorrow. We are going to tackle Lang Bian Mountain, it's going to be a 4hr hike round trip. I think we are going to pick up something more for lunch in the morning.