After a not so fun, cramped, 6:30am bus ride from Mui Ne we arrived in Dalat. Dalat is a cute little city up in the mountains of Vietnam. The weather is 20 degrees cooler (hence the title). It was refreshing and we immediately knew we would like it.
Once again, Conor's research paid off and he found us an amazing hotel. Dreams Hotel is located in the center of town. It's owned by a sweet older Vietnamese woman and her husband. Our room was so nice. The hotel has a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. Also, the family style breakfast every morning was so good. This was one of the best hotels we've stayed at so far.
Our main reason for visiting Dalat was to do a canyoning tour. So once we were settled in, we signed up for a tour the next day. We explored the little town for a bit and ate lunch at a cute art cafe. The owner of the restaurant is a finger paint artist (which sounds weird), but he painted us a small picture before we left. It was interesting and really good!
The following day was our adventure day. Since it is low season for tourists, Conor and I lucked out and were the only people on our tour. We got picked up and drove up a little farther into the mountains. We did a few practices of abseiling before hiking a bit to the waterfalls we were going to repel from. It was so fun and not too scary! We repelled from 3 or 4 waterfalls, some more dry than others. Also, we went down "natural" water slides which are just rocks you can slide down. It was so fun, and for some reason I found it hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing. We jumped off some cliffs, which was the scariest part. This was such an awesome experience that I would've never done in any other circumstances. Just another reminder of how lucky Conor and I are for all these new experiences!
That night we ate some delicious street Pho for about $1. It's always better on the street than in a restaurant. We found a great bakery that sold home made chocolates. Obviously we bought an embarrassing amount and ate it all (and went back the following night for more). Another exhausting day and another night early to bed.
On our final full day in Dalat we went to go for a ride in a cable car. We got to see some beautiful views. At the top of the ride is a beautiful pagoda with beautiful gardens. Afterwards, we walked around a lake and took a paddle boat out for a little. It started thundering so we headed back to our hotel area. We had a good lunch, and got stuck inside the restaurant for a while due to the heavy downpour.
That night we met the grand kids of the woman who owns the hotel. They were so adorable and entertained us for a while. They have learned English just from their grandmother. At 4 years old, the girl was basically fluent (as fluent as a 4 year old could be) and her 2 year old brother was not far behind. Seeing them made me miss my students in Korea!
After another great breakfast it was time to say goodbye to Dalat. The people here were so nice and kind to us, we were sad to leave. But we are off to Nha Trang, back to hot weather and beaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment