Days 84-87: 2/10-13/24 - Dalat, the "City of Eternal Spring"
2/10
Our bus to Dalat left early, and we barely had time to take advantage of the hotel breakfast before we called a cab to the bus station. Our 7 hours in individual, sleeper compartments flew by with an early stop for lunch. The snaking mountain roads towards the end of the journey tried our patience as we were tossed side to side, and the van ride to our hotel took us through a unique and beautiful cityscape. Nestled in the Langbiang mountains, the hilly Dalat road network is full of tiny alleys with hidden gems.
For dinner, we walked to one of Dalat’s many vegetarian buffets, and wandered through the local Tet festival and night market around its central lake.
Our bus was (obviously) a no shoe zone, and they had a crate of flipflops for us to use at stops for snacks or the bathroom!
A highlight of the Dalat Tet festival was a dancing/lipsyncing/real singing/auction. Not sure if it was a culture difference or people were used to a more exciting show, but the crowd was QUIET.
2/11
A lovely spring-weather day, we spent it wandering through the hills of Dalat. Sometimes with a destination in mind (Quan Cua Thanh Xuan - a silent, outdoor coffee shop with only deaf employees), sometimes stumbling upon a unexpected find (Maitri, a small restaurant on the ground floor of a residential building with delicious noodles and dumplings), we relished in the cold weather (high 60s) and wandered until early evening.
A late dinner restricted our options a bit, but only made our walk to dinner a little longer, the food no less delicious than what we had come to expect.
Dalat has a small replica of the Eiffel tower, for some reason.
2/12
Super Bowl Sunday at home was Monday morning for us, and we woke early to join in the American holiday. Breakfast during Usher’s performance and trip planning during the large portion of dead air during an American football game occupied our morning.
In the afternoon, we headed over towards Dalat’s cable car, and enjoyed some stunning views. On the other end, we made the ill-planned decision to walk to a nearby waterfall that turned out to be inside of an amusement park? Hot and hilly, we were ready for a drink upon our return, and headed to 100 roofs, the maze bar.
A unique experience where, after ordering a drink, you wind through a multilevel, dark, and cave-like structure, emerging to several disparate seating areas, secondary bars, and finally (if you are persistent) a beautifully designed series of roofs and seating arrangements. Whatever you are picturing, it’s not close, and we cannot recommend this unique experience enough.
Superbowl on one screen, flights on the other.
Beautiful view of the mountains before even getting on the cable car!
Beautiful cable car ride up the hill.
Questionable walk along the road to what ended up being some sort of amusement park?
The waterfall. And also King Kong for some reason.
The cable car.... mascot? The implications of them being sentient are less than desirable.
Already surprised/delighted by the interior...
It turns out that this crawl was optional and there were alternate routes, but it was worth the bruised shins.
Living up to its maze name.
Surprise roof section!
Made a friend at the top!
2/13
A lazy day before our only night bus, we had a bit of our first travel scare. Arriving at the bus station for check-in, we discovered that our third-party booking website had failed to secure our ticket to a fully booked bus. We waited, I’d like to say patiently, to see if any people would no-show. With Tet meaning most hotels were booked, we decided to wait until the bus departed to face that sticky problem…and we were rewarded!
The night bus experience was better than expected, but the initial roads out of Dalat again tossed us around, threatening to spill us into the aisle below.
Happily aboard after thinking our ticket was lost!