We flew from Hoi An to Dalat Friday, in the southern part of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It has temperate weather and is at higher elevation (4,900 feet) , a welcome contrast to the tropical climate elsewhere. The city of 205,000 is far more modern than other cities we’ve seen, deviates from the usual Vietnamese architecture to more French style with some wooden structures, and traffic is lighter here.
Our Dalat guide Tuc picked us up at the airport, and after dropping our luggage at the hotel, we walked through the very lively market downtown, which operates all day and late into the evening.
Today we met Tuc at 8:30 a.m. and drove to Lang Bian Mountain (whose name is derived from a Romeo and Juliet-style story) where we took a 3-hour hike through pine forests to the top of the peak. The scenery was gorgeous and unlike anything else we’ve seen so far. In the afternoon we took a boat ride on picturesque Tuyen Lam Lake to an isolated spot in the woods for a short elephant ride.
The return boat ride took us to a modern (built in 1993)pagoda where 60 monks and nuns live, followed by a 1.5 mile cable car ride high above the pine forest back to Dalat.
Our guide, Tuc, is a 26-year-old single man with sparkling eyes, a lively sense of humor, and a helpful, accommodating personality. Of the 4 guides we’ve had so far, we’ve been quite impressed with 3 of them.
Two weird observations: we’ve only seen ONE black person since we arrived in Asia 10 days ago, and this morning at breakfast in our hotel we noted we were the only “Anglo” people; all other guests were Asian. We’re told lots of wealthier folks from Hanoi and Saigon come up to Dalat for vacations to escape the heat of the cities.
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