The scenery as we approached Dalat on the bus was amazing. We had climed to 1500ft above sea level and were surrounded by mountains. They call it the city of eternal spring. We spotted a cable car on the way in too, and made a mental note to have a go, we were both pretty excited!
Then we got into Dalat and spotted the lake. It was huge, and we thought wow, that will be nice to walk around! The bus dropped us off and we walked the 20 minutes to our hotel. It was actually in a fairly quiet area but on the 3rd floor (six flights of stairs) with no lift, which didn't impress one of us!!! The room they gave us was basic but huge, with three double beds! Matt was happy, having a tv with discovery so he could watch deadliest catch!
Dalat has a mini Eiffel Tower
We went out to have a walk around, it was already dark and we needed jumpers, which made a nice change! Unfortunately the lake had been 'Vietnamesed', loads of concrete around the edges and loads of swan peddalos for the decerning Vietnamese and Chinese tourist! We did find an amazing little place called Bistro M though. Matt was sick of rice so ordered the steak, which was really nice but the size of a fifty pence piece, so he had to help me eat an absolutely amazing fish hot pot that you cook yourself over a hot flame. It was the best meal I'd had in Vietnam so far!
Matt waiting to tuck into my dinner
Matt liked the waitresses glasses so we asked her roughly how much prescription glasses cost (remember he left his on a bus in Cambodia). She said she got from around the corner, they were about £20 and they did them in about 15 minutes, complete with prescription lenses so after dinner we went to check it out..........they did a free eye test, made the prescription lenses and fitted them into chosen frames all in less than 1/2hour, and all for £27. No more reading menus to him, yay!
We had read a few information sheets with suggested tours so thought we'd copy the itinary and do our own. The next day we hired a moped from the hotel and set out on our own mystery tour. The mountain road to Ta Nang was amazing and we found a nice little stop there for an iced coffee before happening across the first place on our intinary, the coffee plantation. They had a cafe overlooking the plantation where they sold various coffee.
Coffee plantation
We then headed on to Elephant waterfall. We weren't expecting too much out of the waterfall but were pleasantly surprised! The waterfall it's self was a fair old size and you started at the top and clambered down rough steps to the bottom. There were thousands of dragonflies everywhere you looked and you could get in behind the waterfall if you had swimming gear on, which we didn't. Besides, the water was tumbling down at some force.
Just up the road from the waterfall was the Laughing Buddha so we thought we would pay him a visit. It was ok, but the Vietnamese idea of Buddhas is to make it big and shiny in a Hannah barberra kind of way. Not anywhere near as impressive as the Thai's take on Buddhism!
You couldn't help smiling though, he looked so jolly. Well I couldn't, Matt thought it was naff.
There's a room in his belly, the belly button is the window. Get in my belly.
Next stop was the silk farm which was crap, so we made a sharp exit and headed back to Dalat to ride the cable car....Here is Matt enjoying the ride...
After that we thought we'd head off to find the natural lake and we'd read that there were cafes around it, drove past one we liked the look of and were just turning around when we realised we had a flat tyre! We pulled into the cafe and the girl said 'you need repair? My brother can fix'. He'd just left on his moped but she phoned him, he turned around, came back, got changed and got to work. The inner tube had been badly repaired before, it was in a right old state, we needed a new one. Looking worried they said it would be 100,000 VND for a new one, it would have only been 20VND if he could have fixed it. Amazingly he had a spare tube in his tool box. As it was only $4.50 we were chuffed and told him to go ahead. What a relief.
We ordered lunch and drinks whilst the bike was getting fixed, left 45 mins later with a total bill of $7.50! And what a nice spot to get a puncture.
Matt getting his tyre fixed
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