These things happened a little while ago or they didn't just happen now because I am one of those people that tries to enjoy where they are rather than documenting it all the time that it is going on. I probably miss out on some "epic photos' because of this but I don't care. I'm not a phone guy. My phone takes horrible pictures for the most part anyway.
So the first part of my vacation takes me to the mountainous area of Da Lat and this place is know for a couple of things: One of them being that this part of Vietnam is substantially colder than the rest of the country due to its elevation.
It was only about an hour flight from Da Nang and if you follow my stuff you already know about my exploits of the business class portion of this trip. We arrived quite tipsy at a mere 10am in Da Lat so we didn't really do a great deal other than check into our hotel. It was kind of amusing because we didn't know very much about our hotel other than it looked fine on the website. It is actually a string of bungalows that is located INSIDE of an amusement park. Checking in was a bit difficult because of this since there were gates surrounding the amusement park as you would expect and basically no one spoke any English and neither of us speak Vietnamese.
We eventually got into our room though
It doesn't look like much but is really open up on the inside and is spacious. I don't remember how much we paid per night for this but it wasn't much, probably something like $50 a day and normally in Vietnam that would be considered expensive but it is the holiday season here and while non Christian Vietnamese people don't really celebrate Christmas, everyone celebrates New Years, so prices go up during this time of year.
The bathroom was huge in this unit as well and I guess I was lucky that I remembered to take this picture when it happened because not long after this room was a mess of empty beer cans and other trash. We did tidy it up a bit because we don't want to be cruel to the cleaners.
One thing that I have never seen in Vietnam before was inside of our room though
If you follow my posts you probably already know that I do a lot of complaining about how absurdly hot it is in Vietnam and how I spend most of my life sweating. Well I wasn't doing that in Da Lat. It was extremely cold compared to other parts of Vietnam in that it was around 13-17 degrees C while we were there. Now this isn't going to impress anyone that lives in truly cold parts of the world but keep in mind that this is something that is so much NOT a part of my life that I don't really have any clothes to protect me from it. I only have jeans and a light North Face jacket, so I spent a lot of time very cold. The heater in the room was just what the doctor ordered and we kept it on the entire time we were there.
Now back to our first day. We had already had 2.5 bottles of wine and some beers at this point so we were really too drunk to do anything with day 1. We decided to merely walk around the neighborhood and see what we could suss out for some food. We wandered down the street a bit and came across a restaurant that looked extremely new. We could tell by the flower arrangements at the entrance which is customary in Vietnam for new businesses.
There were a ton of staff here at this point but no customers. We weren't sure if they were open or not. They kind of were and kind of were not but they gave us a table and the one person who spoke some English came over to explain the menu to us. It was a set menu sort of place that seems to cater to busloads of people at a time rather than couples or individuals but in the end we worked something out. The food came fast and furiously as we were the only people in the joint at that time.
We suddenly found ourselves with a relative mountain of food in front of us and we hadn't eaten since the lounge in Da Nang so we tore into it. I regret to inform you that of all the things on that table there, most of it was not to either one of our liking and the food was surprisingly cold. It was kind of like they had the food prepared before we arrived and just served it up without even bothering to reheat it. Of all the things on that table that we were served really the only thing I enjoyed was the morning glory with garlic. This was a pity because on the menu at least, everything looked like it was going to be grand.
We picked around the food and eventually just told them to take everything away. We lied to the staff and told them that it was wonderful but we are full now. It was at that point that they informed us that we were the very first customers to EVER eat there. I suppose that is kind of special but I certainly hope that they are able to improve the quality of their fare over time because honestly, that was one of the worst meals I have ever had in Vietnam. I suppose the fact that I was drunk might have had something to do with it though :) Everything was cold... even the soup.
By the time we finished with this food we merely sought out a minimart to get more beverages and went back to the bungalow. Even though we hadn't done a great deal in this day we did wake up before 6am to catch our flight and also started drinking almost immediately after that so yeah, we were a bit tired by early afternoon.
One thing I have noticed about this place is that I am getting "winded" pretty easily here. If there is a slight hill and I don't slow down I find that I am getting out of breath. I think this isn't because I am terribly out of shape but instead because of the fact that we are in an elevated position at 1500 meters above sea level. Or at least that is what I am hoping the issue is.
Our plan tomorrow is to get out and explore some of the nature that this place has to offer and we never really planned to do a great deal of anything on our travel to get here day. We'll have more Da Lat adventure to share tomorrow!