The City of Eternal Spring

Located in Central Vietnam and surrounded by mountains and hills, Dalat is nicknamed by Vietnamese people as "the City of Eternal Sprỉng" due to its cooler climate. The place is really similar to Sapa - unsurprisingly, it was also built by the French in the early 1920s. But whilst Sapa is largely focused on its scenic rice paddies, the region of Dalat is marked by a greater diversity of farming - coffee, tea, flower plants and silk factories are all over the place.

Near a newly-built meditation centre

Dalat in itself is not so interesting, and tourists come here to see its surroundings. The whole area is fantastic to explore, with waterfalls nested in the middle of the fields. Hiring a motorbike and a driver (if on your own, take a good map) is really good fun. Motorbike drivers take you to several waterfalls and fields, where you can learn that tea and coffee are not grown in supermarkets, and that silk is really made by silkworms.

I did this tour with an Israeli girl, who as Israeli people in this area travels around Asia after her two year military service (three years for men). Quite funnily, her driver had the Buddhist swastika, i.e. the one that inspired the Nazi symbol tattooed on his arm!

For the lucky ones who have been to India, the place is somewhat similar to Mount Abu...as many Vietnamese come here for their honeymoon or on holidays. This provides Dalat with a very kitchy atmosphere - for instance, Vietnamese tourists may be pictured next to a guy in a cowboy outfit. I had my share of fun when a former Vietcong Army Captain (a real one!!) insisted to take the picture below! (that day I travelled with a group made of US, Australians and myself, i.e. very representative of the countries that the guy fought against - despite this he wanted to take pictures with everybody, it looked like the first holidays of his life!).

I have now headed to Mui Ne beach, which is much nicer that Nha Trang. I plan to take a bit of a rest here before slowly moving to Saigon, the Mekong Delta and meeting Celine in Phnom Penh!!

Travellers' advice: Stay at least two full days. You can do a motorbike tour for one day (13-15$) followed by a one day tour (8-10$) with a group to see the main sights. Otherwise, Dalat city is completely dead so do not expect big parties. You can try the 'Saigon Night', the only bar where they do not play some cheesy and boring romantic Vietnamese music. However, do not tell the friendly owner that you're French or face music like Dalida all night long!