Skip to main content

Dalat - City of Eternal Spring

 

For two nights I came to Dalat to cool down. Here the weather is spring-like instead of tropically hot. The daily temperatures hover between 15℃ and 24℃. For this climate the colonial French came here, fleeing the heat of Saigon. They left behind their holiday homes and a resort vibe, which the Vietnamese have added to with their own unique touches. Dalat is Vietnam's honeymoon capital and extremely popular with domestic tourists.

From Hoi An I was thinking to go to Nha Trang first, and then here. From Danang to Nha Trang there was only one early morning flight and to Dalat there were more options, so I booked the flight to Dalat.

The city itself doesn't have too many sights, the area around has more to offer, but I didn't organize myself to book a tour to explore the sights around. 

Although in the first day I arrived early I didn't see much because after I had lunch I fall asleep and woke up in the evening to go for dinner.

Yellow noodles salad with tofu and mushrooms @Le Chalet Dalat

Room view
I noticed that in the afternoon it gets cloudy.

Street under the moonlight


Coconut curry tofu @Goc ha thanh
Coconut curry is a Southern Vietnam comfort food. For the first time in 2 weeks I had to put a jacket in the evening. This creamy coconut curry was heartful. 

Night market
The second day I didn't rush to do anything. I started with breakfast at An Cafe.

Street view from the cafe
After breakfast I headed to Da Lat Cable Car station. I've read that from there I can get really nice views with the city and the cable car ride takes you to Truc Lam Pagoda, a buddhist temple next to Tuyen Lam Lake.
Le Petit Paris - A telephone company has built a replica of Eiffel Tower

Dalat central lake

View from Robin Hill
The views from the Robin Hill where the cable car station is, didn't disappoint me. The return ticket for the cable car was 100000₫. The ride takes about 10 minutes and soars over majestic pine forests.
View from the cable car

Pine forest
At the other end of the cable car ride it's the Truc Lam Pagoda. This is an active monastery and it has immaculately tended flowers and bonsai gardens.




Did I mention that Dalat is also the land of beautiful flowers? Around the city a multitude of colourful flowers can be spotted: azaleas, hibiscus, angel's trumpet and many others that I haven't taken a photo of.



Fish and vegetables market
For dinner I have returned to the restaurant from first night to try another speciality from the menu.

Caramelised fish clay pot 
From here I'm taking the bus to get to Nha Trang to chill on the beach for a few days.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stories from Hamburg

Lately I've heard a lot about Hamburg, how awesome it is and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Being in Berlin these days, was the perfect moment to do it. I bought train tickets and here I am in a train going to Hamburg. With my book, enjoying a 2h train ride  The weather was not favorable to me, but I still have all my fingers. I must say, the rainy day enhanced the colors of this city. I was not kidding about the cold It took me a few time to get used with the temperature, but after that I forgot it was cold. I had set in mind to see the canals. I came here for that. I read some articles about this and I was impressed. It's said that it has more than Venice or Amsterdam. From what I've seen, it looks a lot with both of them, but on a different scale. If in the two cities mentioned the buildings are not so tall, here we find massive constructions. #wanderlust #urbanphotography #enthusiastictraveller A post shared by Madalina G. (@gmadalina92)

Magnificent Florence

After reading Dan Brown's Inferno I wanted to go to Florence! That was two years ago and I had booked a trip for March 2020 but it was canceled due to the pandemic. This year I booked another trip for March, but that one got canceled too because I got covid. One month later I finally managed to visit Florence, but the plan doesn't always works out the way one expects. Initially the trip was for 3 nights but the airline with which I got the flight tickets changed the timetable and the first direct flight to return was after another 2 days, therefore I ended up spending 5 nights. Which turned out to be better! The journey to reach Florence was hellish! Apparently the airport is small, between cities, with only one runway, fairly short and not very wide. Additionally to that, the place is surrounded by high mountains, which is why it can be approached only in one direction. Not only does the terrain brings this challenge with it, but it also effectuates in a very unusual microclim

Kasteel de Haar - a luxurious castle

During the rainy days and with the current restrictions, my only consolation is writing about magical places I discovered in the past months in Netherlands. The subject of this post is De Haar Castle, a place rich in stories!  The joy of exploring this flamboyant castle De Haar is the largest castle in the Netherlands, once the private residence of the Van Zuylen family, whose descendants still stay there yearly. In the last century, the castle also frequently hosted members of the international jet set with their lavish lifestyle; from Coco Chanel to Roger Moore, they too left their mark on the sumptuous rooms of the most opulent spot in Utrecht. I visited the castle a couple of weeks ago, together with my dearest friend, Ioana, and it was a lovely Sunday, even with some warm sunshine!  This year I bought  Museumkaart  which allows free entrance to about 400 museums in the Netherlands, De Haar Castle included! Despite the months when the museums were/are closed, I got to use it a coup