Dalat is a beautiful city in Vietnam that completely takes you away from the feeling of being in south east Asia. It was around 18 degrees Celsius while we were there which was a beautiful change from 30 degrees and humid everywhere else.
The city itself is extremely well looked after, clean, and well thought out. I guess you could call it an alpine city as everything is built on hills and the roads through the city send you winding around, up and down, left and right constantly. While all the locals are walking around wearing jeans and puffer jackets we took advantage of the cold and wore shorts and t shirts. It was extremely refreshing to not be constantly sweating from the heat.
The city is full of quirky little cafes and restaurants if you are willing to do a bit of exploring to find some of these hidden gems. There is a beautiful lake in the middle of Dalat with a walking / cycling path all the way around which makes for a very peaceful walk, and even a chat with some of the friendly locals that hang out there. The place is absolutely buzzing with people out and about getting on with there daily tasks.
We read a blog online about a mountain just out of dalat which you could hike up. It was called Lang Biang. The mountain had two peaks. From the bottom there is jeeps that scream tourists up to the lesser peak and back down all day long, but as we found out you can walk up the highest part of the mountain, starting from the very bottom. We went around the back of the building where the Jeep drivers call you in and found a track which took us up through some local coffee farms and to the start of our first accent.
It started by walking up a steep incline through a pine tree Forrest. Something we never thought we would see in Vietnam? Regardless of that it was absolutely beautiful, and with the cool weather, it made for a very pleasant climb. The peak is 2169m above sea level. So If you didn’t consider yourself relatively fit, I would recommend catching one of the jeeps up to the first peak.
The climb takes you through the pine Forrest, then levels out for a while through some very thick bushland, from there it turns into rain Forrest just as you start to make the next accent toward the top. It gets increasingly steep and thankfully for anyone climbing there has been steps installed. I wouldn’t say they were exactly safe steps, but nevertheless they are extremely helpful! Funnily enough, halfway up we were met by a couple of barking dogs, which put us off a bit at first until we heard a man yell at us saying “keep walking the dogs are alright”. So in the middle of this mountain, so far from anything we met an Australian man named Tim, which just happens to be my name, and I’m from Australia! Great guy and after a quick chat he encouraged us that the top wasn’t too far off!
Once reaching the top we were met by a stunning view of coffe farms and greenhouses as far as the eye could see in one direction, and thick, luscious, untouched jungle in the other direction. It was totally worth the climb and extremely rewarding to have made it up. Of course we had the entire view all to ourselves!
Another destination in Dalat is the crazy house. Doesn’t sound like much at first, but I would not miss out on this. The building was designed by a Vietnamese architect, Dang viet Nga who qualified as an architect at the university of Moscow. The way I saw the building (which is also a guesthouse) was a giant treehouse, with rooms throughout and it is as if you are walking around inside the trunk and branches of the tree. It is truly amazing and quirky, and very easy to get lost! It blew my mind and it is very cheap to walk around and have a look.
Only a short bus ride out of either Mui ne or nha trang, Dalat is a must for anyone traveling to Vietnam. Go and see this beautiful city for yourself!