Đà Lạt

Here's a surprise for you; Đà Lạt is pronounced Dalat - who knew? And here's a surprise for us; it is cold here! Hot and sunny with clear blue sky during the day, but dipping to a positively ice-box 15°C at night. We have broken out the long trousers and socks for the first time since November.

Đà Lạt is located between 1500m and 2000m up in the South Central Highlands of Vietnam and was built as a hill station by the French to escape the heat down on the plains. So agreeable was the place that, during the Vietnam war, both sides agreed not to fight (too much) in this area so that they could both coexist in the balmy environs. The results of this today are: a) masses of Vietnamese come here at weekends and b) there is an Eiffel Tower! The city is based on the shore of a lake which seems partially man-made and which also has a weird and rather luminescent green tinge to it that puzzled us for a while. Until, that is, we bought a local map and noticed "Đà Lạt Nuclear Plant" clearly labelled. The whole place reminds us a little of Sapa which we visited in North Vietnam earlier in this trip, but even more so of Mount Abu which some of you may remember from our rajasthan adventures this time last year.

On the recommendation of the locals we went to Đà Lạt railway station. It is reputed to be the finest railway station in all of IndoChina, which feels like quite a bold claim on the face of it, but probably isn't (most stations we have seen have been pretty grotty). This one is quite pleasant, principally because it is not really operational any more so there are no people or attendant detritus. There is a small, comedy train that rattles about 7km to the next village where you get 45 minutes to look around before returning along the same single line. Whilst they do publish a timetable, the train will only run if there are at least 20 passengers. If you turn up and there are less than this, then you are out of luck. In common with many trains in this part of the world, you are free to go outside during the journey and hang dangerously over the edge to take photos. So we did.

In fact, the actual journey is notable only by its dullness, which is a shame. The train line rambles through a large area of market gardening (judging by the amount of poly-tunnels littering the area, making it look a bit like Andalusia). Everyone yawned and played with their cellphones...except Megan who was in her element checking out what they were managing to grow. They grow so much fruit and veg here, we have even been offered free artichoke tea in the restaurants. Guess they don't have the nerve to try and sell it.

Whilst the journey might have been unremarkable, the train delivered us to the neighbouring village of Trai Mat which contains the Linh Phuoc Pagoda. There are a number of buildings in this complex, but they are notable since they are all decorated with broken ceramic and glass. For example, there is a 49m long dragon made from 12,000 beer bottles and there is an enormous 20m high Buddha figure covered entirely in flowers. However, the highlight was a Buddhist temple housing an enormous statue surrounded by hundreds of gold Buddhas. Interspersed amongst the Buddhas were life-sized and lifelike models of monks meditating. We had to look very closely to determine whether they were models or real monks! The entire, multi-level building is again completely covered in broken ceramics. This is one of the few places we have seen in recent years that has stopped us in our tracks and made us go...wow!

Something that didn't make us (i.e. Steve) go "wow!" was Bảo Đại's Summer Palace. This place is very popular with Vietnamese as Bảo Đại was the last emperor. He renamed the country to Vietnam and his abdication in 1945 gave legitimacy to Uncle Ho and the Vietminh. Bảo Đại appears to have been a French puppet and, with their aid, he constructed the Summer Palace in 1933. We thought the French knew better, but the place was built in the Art Deco style. As a result, it is constructed from curved, reinforced concrete and has those hideous metal windows. Inside it is all mustard coloured Artex and horrible, cheap looking, angular furniture.

In a similar vein is Đà Lạt's Crazy House. An enterprising (and probably batty) 75 year old woman has embarked on a project to turn her house into some kind of weird architectural homage to Gaudi. She may not actually be crazy since the tourists flock in. Again, Steve thought it was rubbish. We only bother mentioning these things since there seems to be some local predilection for inappropriate construction.

Continuing the theme of ad hoc weird stuff, we spent a day exploring the local area. We made enquiries about walking between some of the tourist attractions only to be told that it was not possible because it was too far. In one case, Google maps indicated a massive 2.4km!! We spoke to a local hiking guide who told us that the Vietnamese are simply lazy and won't walk anywhere. In the end, we just set off. Nothing went tremendously wrong and we achieved what we set out to do which was to visit some waterfalls and then a pagoda by a reservoir. The waterfalls in particular demonstrated the indigenous laziness. There are a number of falls at Datanla and it is possible to walk between them. However, you also have the option to take a roller-coaster down to the first one, a cable car down to the second one and then a lift to the third! In the interests of strict honesty, we will admit that we took the roller-coaster (which was enormous fun)...and the cable car...and the lift. When in Rome!

A note on the roller-coaster. Normally these things are poor and rather disappointing. Perhaps due to the lack of health and safety nonsense out here, this thing was a blast. Each single-person car is fitted with a brake lever which, of course, you expect not to use, but boy did you need it? This thing hurtled down hill and around sharp bends like a mad thing. What fun!

After the falls, we trudged along in the mid-day sun for the interminable 2.4km before arriving at Trúc Lâm Meditation Centre wherein we saw some monks doing what they do best - chanting and hitting bells. We stopped at a local restaurant by the reservoir which promised to serve us "Fish boll indigestion" and "chicken chilli werehouse". No wonder the monks stick to rice. We ordered drinks. Another cable car then delivered us back to the outskirts of Đà Lạt. In all, we probably walked about 4 miles! There is something to be said for this Vietnamese laziness.

In common with all of Vietnam and many other countries in this part of the world, it is not possible to go walking on your own with any real degree of success. Most land is owned by someone (often the government) and some villages don't appreciate hoards of tourists ploughing through taking photos of their houses and children. Around this area, there used to be maps showing paths that tourists could follow but these have been withdrawn. Apparently this is because the government did not want locals coming into contact with foreigners with all their foreign ideas and ways. So, notwithstanding Vietnamese laziness, in an effort to actually get some exercise, we paid a local guide to take us out for the day to trek around in the jungle.

As we made our way through said jungle, Steve was keeping his eye out for any VC that might be lurking around. Whilst none were detected, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and it is quite possible Charlie was watching... The point is, it was interesting to try and imagine what it would have been like lugging a load of gear around in this heat trying to stay alive whilst the locals kept appearing and killing you.

In the end, we covered about 16km through farm land and coffee plantations and then up into jungle and then up into pine forest before descending down to the reservoir somewhere near the Meditation Centre we had visited previously. It was quite a scenic walk and we did hear the trumpeting of elephants at one point but, other than a buffalo, the only wildlife we saw was a mouse in the café at the end!

This is truly a tourist destination and at the weekend it fills up with Saigonese. During the day, Xuan Huong Lake seems to be the focal point for the locals and Vietnamese tourists. It is easily possible to walk around the lake (as we found), but of course, they don't. What they will do is sit at one of the cafés on the lake shore and chew the fat. The more energetic ones will take a boat and pedal around for an hour. Đà Lạt is billed as a romantic town, but whereas we would call these boats swan-pedalos or some such, the Vietnamese call them "duck boats", which leaves a little to be desired on the romance front.

In the evening, some of the roads are closed and the night market really takes off. Thousands of people perambulate around, generally eating and buying tourist tat. It is a very amenable atmosphere and everyone seems to enjoy themselves and are very friendly. Like many other countries with an outdoor culture, none of the youths are stumbling around blind drunk and fighting like they would be in the UK and it is nice to be able to mingle. Of course, we ate a few of the weird things on sticks.

In Đà Lạt more than anywhere else we have noticed a substantial number of Russian tourists. We are not sure why this might be. Obviously we would not notice them in Saigon, but Đà Lạt is on the way to the coast and its famous beaches (which is something the Russians seem quite keen on). We shall see what happens when we finally get there ourselves, but we have heard the place is rammed with them. Perhaps Vietnam has replaced Egypt as the go-to destination; it is cheaper and is probably perceived as a safer option right now.

We really enjoyed Đà Lạt. It is always nice to get up into the hills and the fresh mountain air makes a change from the sultry lowlands and it was not foggy and rainy like Sapa. Our next destination is something of a shot in the dark. We are trying to get to a national park half way between here and Saigon, but it seems well off the tourist trial and there is no established way to get there. Everyone we speak to gives us a different story (which means averaging out the responses doesn't get us anywhere). The best we can come up with is to take a Saigon-bound bus and get off somewhere along the highway (km 126 has been mentioned a few times). At this point we will have to find some mode of transport to take us the remaining 20km to the park. We will report how that pans out next time.