Dalat-Not all what is seems

Saturday 22nd March 2014

The thought of a four hour coach journey back home would have me preparing a ruck sack full of food, books and gadgets to fill the time on such a monster journey.

This is from the Website

The Real Thing. Where are the trees?

But we are now seasoned travelers and a four hour stint is kids play. We didn't even bother with breakfast for such a small trip. Not far out of Nha Trang we started climbing into the mountains and through the clouds passing many cyclists out training.
The taxi driver looked puzzled when I showed him a photo of our hotel "The sunny" and when we arrived here I knew why. The Agoda photo showed a dreamy looking building set in green trees and surrounded by flowers. It was also described as overlooking the lake.

Cute little daughter of the hotel manager

The fact is the hotel is about a mile away from the lake and the hotel is located in a Brazilian favelo district out of town.
This would not be so bad if the hotel was clean but the dust in the room was disgusting and Deb soon had them cleaning up. Also the room door did not lock so we stayed put until some bloke arrived and fixed it.
I can't say I am too enraptured by Dalat. It was described as being like in the French Alps by one book I read. Well I have traveled through many towns in the French Alps and this place is a poor second in terms of Beauty, quality and cleanliness.

We have only two nights here so I wont complain too much. Tomorrow we are going on a landscape tour including many stops in flower and vegetable farms, rice wine making, coffee plantations among other things but the real purpose of the trip is to visit the Elephant Waterfalls. 30 meters in height they are a must for any self respecting photographer.

 A parade in Dalat

These girls asked us to talk to them about "The Environment".What ?

We found more friends who love talking to us just to practice their English

 Local characters

I'm really disappointed in Dalat. It might be because of being shattered with all the moving around but in general I do love this Country. The people are tough, hard working and uncomplaining. Tomorrow should be better and then we are off again on Monday for our penultimate destination at Mu Ne for two nights before the last leg down to Saigon.