Our journey to Dalat started when we woke up early to catch our 6am open bus from Mui Ne. We strapped on our heavy packs and walked to the side of the road to wait and I got very nervous thinking that we had missed it/ they forgot about us. We were expecting a giant sleeper bus like the one we took from Saigon to Mui Ne but instead, a dodgy mini bus pulled up along our street and insisted we got on after looking at our ticket.
:/
We finally got on after much reluctance and nervous looks and discovered there was no aircon on the bus (thankfully it was turned on after picking up more passengers). Although the bus was obviously a scam (horrible Viet Nhat travel), it wasn't too bad. The ride to Dalat was quite scenic as we travelled up hills.
Taking a selfie at the toilet stop on our bus ride to Dalat.
We walked to our hotel, Thien An Hotel when we reached Dalat after learning from our previous time in Mui Ne that walking was the way to go even though the scam travel agent said we would be dropped off at our hotel. Thankfully, the weather in Dalat was amazing! It was really cool and a welcome relief as we walked to our hotel in the sun. Following google maps, we had to walk through a construction site (lol) and I fell down.
Our hotel had free bicycles to use and recommended a nice place called Ba Hung at 254 Phan Ding Phung for lunch just down the street where we had the most delicious spring rolls in Vietnam.
After lunch, we rode our bikes down many hills towards the lake which had many funny swan boats and even horses.
We thought we had reached the Dalat Flower park and climbed over a red gate instead of walking a big round. However, we weren't at the flower park just cause there were lots of flowers but just at a tiny island on the lake. We found this amazing looking cafe called Bich Cau Cafe on the tiny island and ordered ice coffee with ice cream and coffee with rum and chilled there till the sunset (which was too cloudy).
After our lovely relaxing day by the lake, we rode our bicycles back to our hotel (lots of uphill walking as well) and I got lost from Cass in the crazy Vietnam traffic because I was afraid to cross the roads. I had also lent my phone to Cass to navigate so basically I was mapless. After lots of thinking to myself "what's the worst that could happen" I got off my bike to ask a local lounging on his motorcycle. It was a good thing I had the address of my hotel in my backpack to get help. The streets were still very confusing despite his directions so it was a great relief when I saw Cass walking towards me with her bicycle.
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