dalat

Dalat is a nice town set in the central highlands of Vietnam. A perfect place to escape the heat and also take in some dazzling sunsets. This was meant to be a passing through point on my way to Ho Chi Minh City, a quick one night, have a sniff around, leave the next day affair. It matured to four days with good reason. Maybe it was the motorbike I ventured out with everyday, maybe it was the chilled air but likely it was just a place where it was so easy to relax.

The main features in this area are waterfalls (much dependent on the recent rain for effect) and the expansive mountains. It is incredibly pleasing on the eye. I scrambled around on my own 100cc Honda Fabulous for one day and then took on a guide. He was informative and spoke pretty good English. Our bike ride took in a coffee plantation, a silk worm farm (this knocked my socks off!), a mushroom factory (normal mushrooms, ok!), a mango plantation. Add to this loads of waterfalls, where I once drenched myself in sheer excitement at being at the bottom of a waterfalls, it was just great.

I suppose part of the great sight of the waterfalls was guaranteed as between the hours of 2pm and 6pm each day, the sky open would open up with an intense downpour. During those hours I knew to put the bike aside and just wait. Sometimes I would entertain myself with a little sewing! But the real wait was for sunset. A swirl of crazy colours. Magnificient.