Dalat, the San Francisco of Vietnam

The drive up to Dalat is full of fun windy roads overlooking vast Vietnamese jungles. While enjoying the scenery, my thoughts were of anguish for those foreign soldiers that had to scale unknown mountain forests, wade through damp mosquito filled rice fields, and eat and be eaten by rodents and snakes. OK, not the best thoughts, but those ideas were there and made me finally enjoy the bus for a heartbeat.

On the mountain road we stopped for "ka", the Vietnamese quick saying for "bathroom". The hole was owned by a family that lived on the side of the road selling persimmons, and just persimmons. Their daughter was about 3, shy but letting me take photos of her.

We had a cute girl at about the same age on our bus. From the photos you can tell her attire is slightly different than the mountain girl. They were both super cute!
About twenty minutes later we come to another stop, Datanla. This was the coolest most fantastical place! It rules, hands down. At first glance it seems like a cheesy place with a single cheesy roller coaster ride. In reality, and if you give the people in front of you plenty of space, this ride is the best I've ever been on! It's just you (and your friend/lover if you want) sliding down a railed ride with your own brake to control the speed. While you ride you pass beautiful gardens and foliage. It can be a super fast glimpse of the scenery if you so desire. See my start of the ride down the hill with Tony behind me.


At the end of the ride there is a place to eat, drink, dance (they had music when we landed) and a gorgeous waterfall. To get back up the hill you take a ride back! Like I said, "This ride rules!"

Soon after Datanla we arrive at Dalat. Dalat is much like San Franicso with it's fog layer, cool breezes, and homes on hills. The people seem more laid back and enjoying life more than Hanoi & Saigon...or maybe I just was enjoying Dalat more than the other cities. Dalat is also my Momz favority city of Vietnam. She reserved an apartment in Dalat for 5 weeks after Tony & I left. There she gets to chillax and be with her peeps.

To get the essence of Dalat, I took a series of photos from my hip, literally. This way the people are not posing for photoshots or hiding from the camera. These are my favorite pictures of Vietnam, enjoy!


By now we have made our friends on our bus and they invite us out for drinks. We meet them at a restaurant for a bite and drink then off to go dancing. Now this was precious! This discotheque had live music, a band with a variety of singers that would perform Vietnamese and American/British songs. The dancing was 'different'. Everyone seemed to be dancing the cha cha cha. Some men wore heels...

(Yeah I know, I'm trying to fix the quality of the video)

I did join in when our friends pushed me on the dance floor. Luckily the music changed to some Latina booty shaking sounds. I'm not afraid to dance, shoot I studied dance for 3 years in school, and I'm not afraid to make more people join me on the dance floor. Bring it!