Dalat

Dalat , The City of Flowers

located 300Km away and 6hours journey from HCMC is one of the most beautiful place of Vietnam also referred as honeymoon capital, Dalat. At an elevation of 1500 m, bears the look of an Old French city. Dalat can be reached through airways as well. Dalat is a bit of french legacy.

You can get continuous running buses from Sinh Café, Thanh Buoi , Phuong Trang.The buses (sleeper150,000VND and sitter110,000VND) are available 24/7- every hour, especially per 15minutes on weekends. Also the buses are available from many bus company offices around the city.It’s better to take bus in night around 11pm or mid night so youcan reach Dalatto(old name) in the early morning by 6. The hotels are easily available provided you are not going in pick tourist time. Better try to rent a hotel near the Cho Dalat , Ho Xuan Huong Lake to enjoy Dalat beauty in night as well. Hotels are available of all the ranges starting from as low as 6 Dollar. Around the Ho xuan Lake there are many spectacular flower gardens.

Try to locate all the tourist places of city and plan the tour accordingly. There are many package tour for one day ranges in 200-300K VND.If you are comfortable driving bike, list out the tourist places of Dalat, can be done easily using a map and enquiring a little with locals, rent a bike which will cost you from 50,000 to 100,000Vnd depends on the Brand and the condition of the bike, and explore the beautiful city of your own. You can find many places where it is Just keep an eye when you are roaming on road and you can find where u can getbike on rent. Every Hotel also provide bike on rent.

Cho Dalat (Dalat Market) Can be your last destination to hang around till midnight. you can have close look on the culture and the specialties of this place. you can happen to






find some souveniers and lot of Dalat special freshy fruits here. Soya bean soup is a popular drink here can be seen sold many places by street vendors. you can buy some tea with medicinal values ie Atiso Tea. helps your hair more black and smooth skin. Don’t forget to try Dalat wine which is famous through out the country. Close to dalat market is a beautiful lake reflecting the colorful lights of city.



Places to Visit:

Since the Dalat is not spread in a wide area, you can get a map and locate tourist places and then can visit all following the map. 30 to 45 minutes is enough to go to the farthest tourist spot.

1)Ho Tuyen Lam (Tuyen Lam Lake) about 15 km from city center. A cable car (2,267 m long) will take you to Thien Vien Truc Lam (Truc Lam Meditation Centre) temple, situated on the hill top. This is the biggest buddha meditation center and education institute of Viet Nam. The temple surrounded with beautiful flowers and greeneries. A Lake at the end of temple adds the beauty to max. An ideal place to do meditation and feel the healing power of nature. The lake at the end of temple is bful and big lakes surrounding some island.You can take a boat (200k VND) for 4 people to Suoi Da Island to enjoy forest meat (chicken, pork, rabbit, fox, deer (mien) etc… riding on elephant, drinking A-ma-cong wine (highland minority’s wine).

2) Dalat train station– the image of Langbian mountain as well as combination of romantic Western and special Highland house construction – located in 01 Quang Trung, Da Lat. You can take the return ticket of 86k to Trai Mat Village (about 7km from Dalat). Good news for Vietnamese – if u are Vietnamese and u act as you are a tour guide you will get a free ticket ;). Go sight seeing the landscape of the suburb and Linh Phuoc pagoda. Once in Trai Mat, u can visit ornate Linh Phuoc pagoda (DSC05897) – decorated with colourful wall carvings all around the temple giving an impression of sounth Indian temples. build in in 1950, the pagoda is a great piece of art. It is said that sometimes a bright circle surrounded the temple. You can see some photos on the entrance of pagoda giving the details of this incidence.

3) Xuan Huong Lake (06052) 5,1km2 square – in the centre of DaLat lies the Xuan Huong , meaning “fragrance of Spring”, aquiring a shape of plantain. Walking around the lake in cool weather of dalat and enjoying the pedal boat ride in lake in a warm sunny day and eating baked eggs, sweet potatoes, corns sold by street vendors on the bank of lake will be a nice experience of Dalat.

4) Dalat Flower Gardens (DSC05922) – 02 Tran Nhan Tong, Da Lat. The area is 7,000m2 square with many colourful and beautiful flowers like hydrangeas (DSC05585), especially orchids (DSC05637) - the most famous and beautiful flower in Vietnam (DSC05942…). If you would like to have a feeling of being a part of minority people you just spend only 10k VND for wearing a traditional dress of minority people here (DSC05965). Women carry their infants on their backs in a long piece of cloth worn over their shoulder and tied in the front .

5) Crazy House - 03 Huynh Thuc Khang, Da Lat – DSC 06041

This weird and creative edifice is the brain child artichect Dang Viet Nga – the daughter of Vietnamese former President – Truong Chinh. The rooms in this hotel are decidedly odd. The carvings and the architecture can not be explained. Moreover the building looks like you are seeing something in an ununiform mirror. You can lay your head in the bamboo forest, Kangaroo room or the Termite room a nice piece of art will leave your mouth wide open.(DSC05980).

There are caves, giant spider web made of wire (DSC05997), concrete tree trunks and scary-looking animals with glowing red eyes (DSC05995).Some part of scary house is carved on the tree stading stiff in the middle of the construction. You can also rent the crazy house rooms though it will be costlier than the normal hotels of Dalat and will cost you around 25-70$ for a night. With a nominal entrance fee you can visit a 5 storey crazy building which is more popular then the architect owned 5 storey hotel few doors from there. With the entrance fee, the crazy house is under construction. Inspite of noisy dove, colorful birds, hens, Crazy house, situated in silent place, is a proper place with relaxing environment.

6. Love Valley ( Valley D’amour) – 07 Mai Anh Dao, Dalat – 5km north of center of city, the valley of love is surrounded by mountains and covered with flowers and manmade attraction points. In the middle lies a beautiful lake placid reflecting the mountains standing over it. Makes you feel like nature have put all the colours here and left a painting from which you can't move your eyes. Coffee shop aided by governemnt situated on Human Paradise Hill, right in the cradle of nature, at the bank of lake surrounded by greeneries will make you feel a experience of heaven. Horses are available in valley to have ride.

Eat & Drink: Considered as a city of flowers is bestowed with lot of juicy fruits. Strawberry is the main fruit here also used for trade. THe city have countless restaurants to serve the delicacies to tourists. Finding western style food is pretty tough since most of the tourist are vietnamese. Even though you will find beautiful restaurants serving really delicious vegetarian food. Most of the tourist leave place loaded with candies, dried fruits, Dalat wine, dalat fruit drinks. Also different type of tea is avaialbe with medicinal value. Dalat doesn't offer many good handicrafts compared to cities.

Enjoy Dalat. Leave comment and queries here.