Dalat - Vietnam

With a constant spring climate lots of sunshine and rain this place is perfect for growing vegetables, fruit and pretty much everything. It was also one of the few places spared from Bombing during the war due to its beauty. During the war it was used by Southern Vietnamese high ranking commanders as a place to come and relax in their villas but little did they know, the VC were doing the same here in their villas. Its climate was refreshingly cool for us arriving from Saigon where it was humid and soooo hot. Dalat has a prefect climate not toooo hot and never really cold, so no AC or fans are needed in any of the hotel rooms. Dalat has a lot to see and hugs around a huge lake, which we done the 7km walk around on the second day.

The only way to really see all the surrounding area of Dalat is by motorbike or tour bus because its very hilly and certain things are quite a distance away. So the lonely planet recommends using the services of “The Easy Riders”. A motley crew of motorbike drivers that have very good English know a lot about the area and are all characters. You don’t have to go looking for them they find you. Approaching you with their cap on and their book of recommendations and big ups from previous travellers from all over the world, it was hard to say no. So we booked a guy and his mate for the 12 dollar Dalat tour at 8:30 the following morning.

We woke up grabbed some eggs n baguette and some lipton tea (god I’d kill for a Barrys or Lyons tea bag). Then met our two Easy Riders for the day. They weren’t the two guys we met yesterday but were sent by them. One man was about 60 and had very good English. The other was about 40 and had shite English lol, he was my guy and all the English I got out of him for the day was “Yes, Cabbage there.” Or “Lots of Coffee plants” hehe luckily for us tho the old guy was leading the way with all the talking at all the places we visited throughout the day.

It was a great day. The wind was in our hair. The sun was in Our first stop was to a Buddhist temple place with a giant dragon sprawled about the whole complex and various other colourful Buddhist figures in a garden. We pried the camera lense out and tried our best to take some cheesy pics. J The dragon itself was hella cool.

Then it was back on the bikes and onto our second stop to take pictures of a fantastic view of the vegetable terraces.