Dalat daze

Last weekend, we went to Dalat and relaxed for a couple of days in this cool town, which sits at the southern end of the Central Highlands. It was less than an hour by small plane and then 40 minutes by road to get to our villa.



The resort, the Evason Ana Mandara Villas Resort, was built about 80 years ago by the French. After 1975, the government took it over and used it for entertaining big-wigs. But it fell into disrepair (what a surprise) until it was bought by this Thai-based company.

There are at least 12 villas spread across a hilltop overlooking the city. Each villa has 4 - 6 self-contained 'hotel' rooms. Quite old-worldy, but very comfortable. And surounded by pines and beautiful gum trees!



The restaurant is just a stroll away from the villa and the cooking is ooh soo french. The courtyard was great for breakfast, while the table by the fire on Saturday night was all ours. It was amazing to be sitting by a fire in Vietnam and not be watching someone cooking non-descript meat. It was actually that cool up there in the evening!

The pool was a nicely heated 29 degrees.





Despite the lure of the restaurant, we did manage to see some of the countryside. We met up with a couple of blokes offering tours on the back of their motor bikes, so off we went. Four hours of winding roads and visiting pagodas, farms, silk factories and mushroomed basements.

The riding was great fun, but next time we will find the bigger bikes run by a group of tour guides called the Easy Riders.




We saw silk from worm to scarf. We couldn't resist buying a scarf and bag from the girls at a shop near the Laughing Budda.





On Sunday morning, we visited Cho Dalat - the market in the middle of town. Bought some fruit but decided to head back to find lunch.



Back in the airport at HCMC, we bumped into a well-known bluesy, rock'n'roll gituarist musician named Curtis King. I previously met Curtis at the 'Sax n Art' Jazz Club in HCMC (yes, the same one that saw Paddo's bloody fingers beating the stringing a few weeks back) last year. Auscham also had his band play at the Business Awards last year. He told us that he is now travelling to Dalat every weekend where he is living - "been dreaming of escaping the heat of the city for years". He still has to work in town, but he can be heard playing every once in awhile at a small pub in cool Dalat. Sounds like a plan.