ĐÀ LẠT. PART 2

2nd - 5th Jan 2020

Cable Car from Dalat town to Truc Lam.

The day was spent venturing into the surrounding countryside. There is a cable car from the south side of the town to the Truc Lam monastery. It is a 2½ km (15 min) journey over and through the forests. I happened to share, by default, my little gondola with a Russian lady called Tatiana. She was actually quite amusing. Her husband couldn't be bothered to come with her, she told me, and she was keen to improve her English. We had a very jolly chat about her life and family in Moscow as we glided over the trees. On landing at the other end she went her own way and I mine.

Left: The monastery had the normal Buddha shrine which, shoes off, you entered and saw locals all bending over to do their praying bit.

Right: The stupa in the monastery grounds.


















Left: Dress instructions. I do not possess any short skirts and as mentioned before only wear shorts for tennis or special occasions.












It was a 30 minute walk down from the cable car station to what I was told was a roller-coaster ride, called The Datania Ride. Well, I thought I had better give it a go and assumed it woud be a rather stately and gentle ride for timid tourists. You are strapped into a sort of toboggan on rails (right) which has two large brake handles which you pull to release and let go to brake, ie. like a 'dead man's handle' if you fell unconscious it would stop. Braking is for wimps I decided. Off to a gentle start it soon picked up speed and dived through the forest with serious dips and around sharp corners. It was actually very hairy and reminiscent of the Cresta Run. The G forces going around the loops were alarming. I braked! It was 2½ kilometers long and it felt on occasions that it might spin off the rails. I got to the bottom feeling somewhat shaken! I did manage to hold my camera in one hand some of the way; the other on the brake. I recorded a video of part of the ride which may, or may not, work.

If you can open this vid below it is apparent, even with me braking, you can get stuck behind some even more wimpish riders. For future reference (if I do it again, or you do) it is worth waiting at the start for a good few minutes, which you can do, to allow the slowcoaches in front to get well away ahead of you.

Left: A plan of the ride.



















When you get to the bottom you can walk further down to the Datania Falls, another popular tourist spot. They are quite dramatic I suppose (right).
Back to the bottom toboggan station and you are towed up a steep rack and pinion track back towards the top. I thought that was it but about halfway up the toboggan is released again for a further flourish down another series of dips and loops. This took me rather by surprise. It is then a further haul up to the top station. In all quite an exhilarating experience. Recommended.

That little trip took up most of the day and I spent the evening wandering around town. I found, eventually, a little restaurant in the maze of streets to the north of town called The Herb Garden. There are not a lot of decent restaurants in town but this one is a little gem. It is owned and managed by a charming ex-pat American called Chris and serves good sensibly priced steaks. Thoroughly recommended if you ever visit Dalat (and can find it!).

The area around the night market was buzzing. There was a very jolly crowd of people, including many children, out enjoying themselves with lots of music and dancing in the streets and the bars were doing good business.
It really does have a very jolly atmosphere and one thing you don't see is bad behaviour or drunkeness. Or at least I didn't.







Right: More flower rafts on the lake














Left: There were also fleets of these swan shaped pedal boats. Popular, but I didn't!

So that describes my two days in Dalat. Well worth the visit I thought.

Back on the bus the next morning for the return journey to Saigon. Same as before in reverse although, having mentioned no delays on the way up, about 20 miles out from Saigon, on a dual carriageway, we met the mother of all traffic jams and were stationary for about 15 minutes. It was due to a road accident. Anyway, back safely and not too late.

Just as a post-script, and now that I have got the hang of uploading/downloading my vids to/from YouTube here below is one I took in the Dalat night market. The children were loving it!

That will have to do from Vietnam......for the time being.