Off On Our Next Adventure

An Exciting Bus Ride

Turning up at the Ho Chi Minh City Western Bus Station was slightly overwhelming, where hundreds of buses were lined up in neat rows. We walked through what felt like several different terminals saying the name of our bus company to the various people who noticed us wandering along through the maze of buses in a bewildered fashion. Eventually, having been pointed in the right direction by several kind people, we arrived at the correct terminal.

We hadn’t told the kids that we had booked a VIP sleeper type bus for the long journey. Anyone who calls a 7 hour bus ride exciting must surely be mad, yes? Well, when the kids boarded our bus to Dalat, they were beyond excited! The bus also had wifi and USB chargers on board, so they were very happy indeed.

They stayed pretty content for the entire journey, enjoying their own little curtained cocoons. We had plenty of snacks with us so we all loved our ‘rest day’ on the move.

While Leo, Anna, and I fitted into these seats reasonably comfortably, poor old Shaun was, as usual, a little too big for this bus!

He was squished into one of the slightly shorter back compartments until our first rest stop, when we figured that Anna would be better off in the smallest seat, so they swapped.

With Shaun feeling much more comfortable, we continued on our way.

I was even able to find time to catch up on the blog a bit. As the trip has gone on, and we have shorter stays in each place, there is much less free time to catch up with writing, so having an entire 7 hours on my hands was bliss!

A Chilly Evening

By the time we wound our way up the mountain roads and arrived in Dalat, it was dark and coming up to 6.30pm in the evening. After dumping our bags in our cheap and cheerful family room (NZ$20 a night), we went out for dinner. Anna and I had thrown our jumpers  on because the temperature was considerably colder than Hoi Chi Minh City.

On our way to dinner, it started raining and Shaun quickly bought a cheap plastic umbrella to keep the rain off the kids, as we’d come out without jackets on. We quickly found a burger place recommended online, and hurriedly followed the Google maps directions through a rabbit warren of little streets as the drizzle turned into a heavy rain shower.

The place we’d found was tiny, but their burgers with homemade, well seasoned patties were delicious and exactly what we needed!

Exploring Dalat

Dalat is a central highlands city, famous for its relaxed atmosphere and for its agricultural products including coffee, wine, fresh milk and various fruits and vegetables. On the outskirts, it is surrounded by thousands of greenhouses lining the hillsides.

There is a big farmers market in the middle of town selling all varieties of fruit and flowers. Dried fruit and nuts are sold everywhere as well.

We thought we might be able to get something to eat for breakfast there, but it wasn’t a street food type market. We walked down the main road a bit further and found this lovely man making banh mi, so we got some of those.

Once again, the stools were a little too small for Shaun! We found out through one of our travel forums that the reason why street food vendors use these tiny stools is that they can quickly pack them away if the police come, because there are strict laws in Vietnam about selling food on the street, and if vendors are missing the paperwork or don’t meet one of the requirements, they risk having their stall and equipment confiscated.

While we waited for our banh mi, we watched this guy next door preparing soup stock…there were a lot of ingredients in the pot, being heated before flavouring the water.

A Walk Around The Lake

Dalat is very picturesque, and favoured as a holiday destination by Vietnamese people, who go there to experience the milder temperatures and the laid-back vibes of the place. After our breakfast, we took a walk around the lake.

We noticed straight away that there were very few other Westerners around, although we’ve gotten pretty used to that by now.

As a side note, I think it’s worth mentioning that throughout our travels across Southeast Asia, we’ve noticed very little trouble when we’re out and about. By this, I mean that we haven’t really witnessed any violence or conflict anywhere, not even a drunken shouting match. This includes countless nights out in busy city centres, and both Shaun and I think that it is a significant and positive cultural difference from New Zealand, influenced largely by strong codes of social etiquette and religious beliefs. It’s also been funny reflecting back to our safety concerns before we even left NZ…we have realised that we’re just as safe, if not safer, than at home when travelling through SEA. I do think that having our children with us might have something to do with that, as we’ve been very well looked after.

As our lake walk came to an end, it began to rain, so we hailed one of the nearby, snazzy electric vehicles to take us to our next destination.

The Crazy House

The Crazy House is actually a guesthouse called Hang Nga guesthouse, and you can stay at this quirky, avant garde place in a themed room for a pretty reasonable price. Designed by Dang Viet Nga, an architect who worked on many state buildings, she decided to unleash her creativity and express herself artistically through the creation of her guesthouse, which is a true house of wonders and an absolute delight to wander through, for both old and young alike.

We were dropped off by our stylish little electric car and paid our entrance fee. The roadside in front of the Crazy House was teeming with tourists. When we walked through the front gate in the rain, the kids’ eyes were immediately drawn to a large Totaro statue. This piqued their interest immediately, as our whole family are fans of Japanese kids animè films, and there was more to come, with No Face from Spirited Away.

After this entrance area, we made our way inside to get out of the rain, exploring the guesthouse rooms that weren’t currently occupied by guests.

The rooms are named after animals or certain themes from nature, and each have their own personality.

After exploring the inside of the building, we decided to get a drink and a snack before continuing. We found a cosy little nook to eat our brownie and biscuits in.

As we finished, the sun came out, so we went outside to explore the exterior of the property, which looks like something out of a fairytale.

There are vine-line, concrete staircases running across the rooftops and linking the different buildings. They resemble the beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk, or the enormous briars that overran Sleeping Beauty’s castle during the 100 year slumber. While sturdy as anything, the handrails are quite low, so if you have any issue with heights, it’s not the place for you!

I was impressed with Shaun and Anna’s willingness to explore the highest staircase. Leo and I chose to head back down into the ocean themed rooms instead.

The artistry involved in creating these rooms is mind-blowing! It’s amazing to walk through them and so calming being surrounded by ocean imagery

There are also exhibition rooms that display plans, drawings, paintings, and designs for the different parts of the house, which evolved from paintings rather than your typical architect’s blueprints.

After wandering around the garden at the rear of the Crazy House, we decided to move on to another work of art in architecture: the Linh Phuoc Pagoda. We called a Grab and made our way across town. Our driver was lovely and started a Google translate conversation on his handsfree setup, giving us an informal tour as we travelled through the Old French Quarter on our way there.

Linh Phuoc Pagoda

Linh Phuoc Pagoda is an incredible temple that is covered in stunning mosaic artwork made from broken ceramic bottles and dishes.

If you look closely at the photos, you can see that every single inch of walls, ceilings, and outside embellishments are mosaics. It is a stunning sight to behold!

It also houses the tallest bell tower in Vietnam at 36 metres high.

The bell at the top of the tower is the largest and heaviest bell in Vietnam, at 4.3m tall and weighing 8500kgs.

There is also this huge Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara statue which is covered from head to toe in everlasting strawflowers that are replaced every couple of years.

The main hall is also beautiful to behold with more gorgeous mosaic work.

Adjacent to the main hall is another large Buddha statue surrounded by an incredible dragon that is 45m long.

Phò for Dinner

Shaun and I were keen to try a yummy phò place for dinner, which was just up the road from our guesthouse. We had stopped in there for a cold drink earlier that day on our way home, enjoying the late afternoon sun.

While we waited for our food, the family’s children came along with their toy dinosaurs to play with Leo and Anna. We said the dinosaur names in English, while they said them in Vietnamese. It’s always lovely to see that there are no barriers in the language of play!

A Mixue Treat

After dinner, we walked down to the main street so the children could try a Mixue sundae. They were very impressed!

Datanla Falls by Shaun

We took a taxi out to Datanla Falls not really knowing what to expect. When we got there we were quite surprised to see that the place was much more than a spot to enjoy scenic waterfalls. It was a well established mountain park of sorts. It offered abseiling, zip lining and alpine coasters over and above its nature walks, beautiful rivers and falls.

The place was teeming with tourists but much like the rest of Dalat, they were dominantly Asian tourists rather than Westerners. We were once again the minority and had the translating app at the ready as we entered.
I was immediately keen to jump on the alpine coaster. It was a small one or two seater car that rode down the hill and ended up where the main falls were found. Unfortunately Anna was a bit scared of the idea and had strong opposition to getting on one. At this stage of our journey she has zero trust in the rest of us when it comes to reassuring her about rides. She’s been mischievously misled by Leo and I too often at previous parks visited.

We walked down the lengthy steep path to where the falls were and discovered that there was some really impressive rapids down the bottom. Because we are traveling to some areas during rainy season we really do get to see rapids and waterfalls in all their glory. These ones were no exception.

After all our sightseeing, we were facing the daunting prospect of dragging the kids all the way back up the steep walkway to the exit. Thankfully, Anna finally agreed to get on the alpine coaster. It was an up hill journey this time so looked very tame. After we had all queued up for our turn, she hopped in with Amelia, and Leo and I shared another coaster.

When we reached the top I was really feeling disappointed that we hadn’t experienced the downward journey. Amelia and Leo felt the same way so I announced that we’d just do it and then rather than queuing to come back up (like we just had), we’d all power walk back up the steep path……this immediately caused Leo to pull out of the plan! Lol. Having Leo stay back with Anna was better for Amelia and I though, because it meant that they could look after each other for a bit. We gave them some money for a soft drink so that they could wait in the cafe and then escaped from them like it was us who were the kids!

We had such a fun ride down. It’s a clever winding track and the lever on the side allowed me to control the speed. I was basically going full throttle until Amelia screamed to slow down, then we giggled the rest of the way with bursts of speed at different points giving us a thrill. I was so glad we did it.

At the bottom we took a quick selfie in front of one of the falls and then started our climb back to the kids. We just looked at it as good exercise and although it was a pretty tough climb it was actually quite enjoyable without moaning kids! We joked about how much we enjoyed our 30 minute date away from the children…..who were waiting patiently at the top for us when we returned.

The Rugby World Cup Final

Being a huge sports fan, Shaun had researched places to watch the RWC final between the All Blacks and South Africa on the upcoming Saturday night. Unfortunately, despite every effort, he couldn’t find anywhere that would be screening the game in Dalat. It seemed that most people there had not even heard of Rugby before.

We had booked budget accommodation in Dalat for three nights but realised that we could fit everything that we wanted to see into two days and nights, so I did some research on flights and accommodation and found cheap flights to Danang and an awesome looking aparthotel for the Saturday afternoon. It was a no-brainer…our budget room was ok but we weren’t attached to it at all and so the next day, after feasting on delicious fresh spring rolls for lunch, we set off to the airport.

Anna’s Dalat Highlights