During my one-month travel in Vietnam one of the places I planned to visit was Dalat. This place felt very familiar to me and reminded me of my mother’s hometown in the Dominican Republic called ‘’Jarabacoa’’. A city high up in the mountain, to get there you have to drive up a steep long road up into the sky, chili in the evenings and hot during day time, a place with no seasons, a place where it is always spring (sounds like Jarabacoa to me). The smell of the pine trees, the numerous streams and waterfalls and off course plenty of horses to be spotted in Dalat. If you know me, you know I love horses.
In total I spend 6 days in Dalat, 6 wonderful days. Before Dalat I spend a couple of days at a deserted beach hostel 1 hour from Nha Trang. Unfortunately, this hostel was a party hostel and the parties were held exactly next to my dorm room. So, I didn’t manage to sleep much and ended up shortening my stay there to escape to Dalat.
When I arrived in Dalat, I remember that after the bus from Nha Trang dropped all the passengers somewhere in the center I walked a lot with my suitcase trying to find my hostel. It was quite hot so on the way I saw a convenience shop that also happened to sell nuoc ep cam (orange juice). I had to buy some; I swear this was the best nuoc ep cam I had ever had. Maybe it was the heat and the fatigue that was kicking in but that orange juice was really delicious.
After some more minutes walking uphill, I found my hostel and got welcomed by puppies. The best welcome ever!
This hostel seemed very nice they had a big garden to relax and puppies. What else to you need? Whilst I was settling down from the long bus drive and walk to get to the hostel, I got a message from my colleague whom I had a huge crush on, he was also travelling in Vietnam at that moment. He texted me saying that he was in Dalat and asking me where I was at the moment. I’m also in Dalat! Let’s meet up!
So, I quickly prepared to go out, we were meeting up at the night market.
I walked all the way to the night market were my colleague or by now my ex-colleague was sitting at one of those outdoor beer places together with 3 other guys, one Australian, one brit and a guy from Canada and himself (he is American). Oh gosh! I always feel awkward in social settings, now I have to sit down with these guys and watch them drink beer… After all, they were all really nice.
After they finished drinking, we all kind of split up in search of street food at the night market. At some point I also saw that there was a stand selling underwear, I hadn’t had the chance to do my washing yet and had run out of clean underwear to wear. The guys that were accompanying me stood still for a second and then realized I need some space to pick out the undies. At the end of our food tour, we found some non-Vietnamese food, I think the owner of the stand was Malaysian, serving some sort of pancake with either banana, chocolate and or strawberry. It was sweet and for me having a sweet tooth ngon ngon (delicious).
The night was not over yet but it was getting late, my ex-colleague invited me to play some card games at their hostel. Their hostel was on the other side of the town in the opposite direction of mine. Before we went, we went to a supermarket to buy some snacks and drinks.
As we arrived, the cards appeared and we played for hours. I don’t remember the name of the card game we played; I had never played it before. Nevertheless, I was pretty good at it. It was already midnight so I had a decision to make go back to my hostel which probably had already closed the front gate or book one night at the hostel my colleague was staying. I decided to book one night at his hostel (or the hostel where he was staying). The receptionist decided to place me in the same room as the guys! Oh..Okey? Luckily, I had new clean underwear I could wear from the night market and they gave me one of those cheap plastic toothbrushes. In short it was a sleepless night again... some of the guys were snoring loudly. In the morning I had breakfast (free) at the hostel. The guys were already up and ready to leave soon to their next destination in Vietnam. One of them had a special motorbike I don’t know the name but they told me this motorbike is known and often bought by backpackers when they decide to travel Vietnam by motorbike. It looked really cool. After taking some group photos we said our goodbyes and I walked back to my hostel up the hill.
Washing day! After arriving at my hostel, I took a long nap I was so exhausted. Afterwards I gathered all my dirty clothes and went to a laundry place to wash my clothes. That day I took it easy and just wondered around Dalat city.
The next day I decided to visit a waterfall called Datanla waterfall. I took many many photos at this place.
The waterfall was inside a park and the park almost was about to close. Whilst I was taking also some selfpotraits by putting the camera on my tripod, a stranger approached me and asked if I needed help taking photos. He told me he saw me from the top taking many many pictures. He took some photos of me and I helped him to create a video that he was going to post on his Instagram. He was a travel blogger, a good one just like me he also was into making videos, video editing etc. Adrian was his name and he was from Spain. So, most of the time we spoke Spanish to each other. I got to the waterfall with a grab motorbike and Adrian had rented a motorbike, so he asked me if I wanted a ride. Vale! Let’s go. We went to the lake and afterwards had some delicious Bun Cha (this was my first time trying it, loved it). Adrian told me he would eat Bun Cha almost every day. I was very happy I made a new friend. We did many things together, ate many bun cha’s and visited many spots in Dalat city.
I wish I could have stayed longer in Dalat but after my friend also left it was also time for me to head to my next destination.
Sunset at the lake in Dalat
Bun cha, this dish is actually from the north of Vietnam but if you are lucky enough you find some good Bun Cha in other cities in Vietnam.
Crazy house Dalat
Elephant waterfall
Memories of Dalat 😍...