Downtime in Da Lat

After spending nearly a week in Saigon, we decided it was time to move.   Vietnam is a relatively large country, with plenty to offer, and to be honest, it took us some time to figure where we would go next.   After a few days of slowly thinking about it and doing a bit of research,  we settled on going inland towards the central highlands and the resort town of Da Lat.  

It was admittedly hard to leave Saigon.  We really took to the city and for the first time since we practically started our trip, felt fully relaxed in a big city.   Nothing against Bangkok or  Chiang Mai, but Saigon had this little big city feel to it that somehow stuck to us.   In between our walks, visits, and multiple trips to a nearby cofeee shop, we were able to get our bearings and set out a loose plan of how we want to see Vietnam.  We only have one month on our tourist visa (although this can be extended, if need be), and we would like to see as much of the country as possible while avoiding the burn out we felt earlier in our trip.   

We had a few choices:  we could go down south towards the Mekong river delta and explore the southern tip of the country; we could head out to Phu Quoc (SP), an island on the edge of the gulf of Thailand and get some more beach time; we could fly up to Da Nang, in the center of the country and go from there, or we could go a bit inland and slowly work our way northwards.   

Da Lat city center

In the end, we chose the final option, opting to head towards Da Lat, a resort town about an eight-hour bus ride from Saigon, and known for it's cool weather, outdoor activities, and as a gateway to the Central highlands.  Easy.   

Nathalie and I learned fairly early on that we're not fans of long bus rides.  Most of the time the buses here, while somewhat comfortable, don't have toilets.  Additionally, the air gets stale and after a while, we tend to get sore and cranky.  Overall, it's just no bueno.   We agreed that our time cap for bus travel is maxed out  at five hours.  As mentioned, the ride up to Da Lat was eight hours, meaning that we had to look for alternative ways of getting there.   

Thanks to the magic of a somewhat competitive airline market and a lower domestic incomes, we were able to find a low-cost flight up to  Da Lat for around 30 euros/33 USD.   Given it was three times the price of a bus ticket, but when faced with an 8 hour bus ride versus an 45 minute flight, the choice was pretty easy to make.    Getting out of Saigon and to the airport was painless (we took a taxi, it was only 7 dollars) and, having left the hotel in central Saigon at ten in the morning, we arrived in Da Lat before one in the afternoon.  

Da Lat at dusk from the lake

The absolute first thing we noticed was the weather.  Ever since we got into Thailand back in mid January, we've only dealt with one real climate: hot.   We haven't felt anything below 25C/78F when walking outside and have comfortably slipped into wearing short clothing pretty much all day long.   Da Lat, by contrast, was cold!  

Up in the mountains nearly one mile about sea level (1500 meters), we entered into a cool rainy town.   The weather, in a lot of ways, reminded us of Belgian summer.  The temperature during the day was a humid 24C/75F with overcast skies and light drizzle.   By itself, it probably wasn't so bad.  However,  we were completely unused to it.   In the evening, the temperature would drop down to 14C/58F.   

Back home in Brussels, this would be considered warm for summer.  Here, we were frozen.  We had pulled out the jackets in our backpacks that had gone unused up until this point.   It felt abnormal to be cold which shocked both of us considering where we were coming from.   To be fair, many of the locals were wrapped up in parkas, scarves and beanies, but still we were a bit perplexed by it all.   

Cool weather aside, we were there to do outdoor activities and to visit a town that has long been used by the Vietnamese  as a cool weather vacation resort.  The city itself was established by the French at the end of the 19th century  as a getaway town for expat colonists who wanted to escape the incessant heat in Indochina.  During the Vietnam war, the town was largely untouched as officers from both sides of the conflict had holiday homes there and reached a gentleman's agreement to leave Da Lat as neutral territory.

Given the French influence, the architecture is heavily derived from the alps with chalets adorning the lake front.  There's even a replica Eiffel tower in the city center.  The town consists of a large lake that's surrounded by various districts in the city.  The city center is anchored by a large market and has two main roads running through it.

Rainy Da Lat

We arrived at our hotel and quickly checked in.  After we had dropped our bags off, we set out to have lunch and figure out what we'd do for the rest of the day.   We wound up eating at a western-Vietnamese fusion restaurant, indulging in club sandwiches and spring rolls.   We burned off lunch by walking around the lake (it was an 7 Km/4 mile circuit).

After we finished off our walk, we set out looking for a travel agency to find our what sorts of activities we could do outdoors.  Da Lat is well known for its alfresco adventures and we were looking  to do something that would let us get the most out of the fresh air.   We wound up choosing a canyoning excursion.  

Canyoning is a relatively new activity.  It combines a blend of hiking, mountain climbing, repelling, cliff jumping and exploring a waterway.    We had a few different items to choose from (mountain biking, hiking, canoeing), but this one seemed to mix everything that we were looking for into one activity.   We booked via Pine Track Adventures which is a travel agency in Da Lat and while a bit more expensive than some of the other options, they promised small groups and were highly professional.

Indeed, the next morning when we were picked up at our hotel, we met the rest of the group going out with us, which turned out to be just a couple from the UK, Louis and Eleanor, doing a very similar trip as us.  After a quick 20 minute drive to the drop point, we set off down trail to the start point.  I won't go into too much detail about the canyoning itself other than to say it was a blast!   Nathalie and I put together a video that you can see here if you're interested (totally worth it).

Outside of getting the chance to experience some of the gorgeous natural beauty Vietnam has to offer, we finally got  to meet people of our age doing the same sort of trip as us.   If you were to ask either Nathalie or myself what's been the hardest part of our trip, we would flatly tell you it's meeting people.  We've put a lot of thought into this and here's how we've seen it: both of us are 32 years old.   We both have at least five years of professional work experience and don't have any kids nor a mortgage.   The majority of people our age either have children or a large loan to repay and as such, can't risk jetting off from work for a year just to travel.  Therefore, the majority of the people our age are here on vacation with fixed itineraries, and more importantly, bigger budgets.

For us, this means that we're not likely to run into anyone our age as we a) we're staying out of the way of most tourists by taking our time when we decide to sight-see and b) we simply can't afford to eat at in stay in the types of hotels people vacationing for a week or two would stay in.    Indeed, we've gotten pretty good at finding comfy budget lodging (especially here in Vietnam), but we almost always stay out of the tourist district (it works out being cheaper) and kind of do our own thing.

Now, the argument could be made that we should start heading to the backpacker's part of town where people doing these types of trips tend to converge.  The problem, at least for us, is that we're on average 10 years older than these people, and to be honest, we've found it really difficult to have meaningful conversation with kids taking a gap year between either after high school or after finishing college.

We've tried it and it just comes out awkward.   When telling people I work in a bank and then being looked at like I just sit and crunch numbers all day, it's kind of hard to explain that there's a lot more to the industry than that and I never really did any serious number crunching in my job to begin with.  I guess the joke's on them; they'll probably wind up in a back office once they come back to the real world.

Weirdly, we've found it easier to strike up a conversation with people much older than us; young retirees just traveling around in a bit more comfort and without the constraints of a job, young children or a mortgage to pay.

So when we met Louis and Eleanor and found out that our stories were also so similar, we were delighted to have finally met people we could relate to!  Both of them are in their thirties and both of them have worked extensively before deciding to take six months off and travel.   We hit it off really well and wound up going to dinner the evening of our canyoning trip.    We were able to talk about what it's like to travel at our age and be  an outlier amongst different demographics; too hold for youth hostels, not nearly close enough to retirement for our trip to make sense.

The hills and jungle coming down from Da Lat heading towards NHA Trang

We shared our other views on  this style of trip, and it was more than comforting to know that our opinions and experiences were very similar to theirs.  We decided to meet up the next night for dinner, and after spending the day chilling out, we had another great evening we each other.   We decided that it'd be cool to meet up again at some point in Vietnam if our paths crossed.  Here's to hoping that will happen.

Nathalie and I took the next day to rest up.  We had been moving non-stop since we had arrived in Vietnam and we felt our bodies asking for a break.   The weather was also helped us with this decision as it poured rain pretty much non-stop after the canyoning trip.

We booked our ticket our of town to head down to NHA Trang the next morning and set out away from the highlands and down from the coast.  The scenery was absolutely incredible and with only four hours spent in the back of a mini-bus, we arrived on the coast ready for the third part of our trip here.

We had an excellent time up in mountains.   Canyoning was loads of fun and finally meeting people doing the same thing as us was just as refreshing as the cool mountain air.   Maybe the next time we decide to go jump off of a waterfall, the experience will be just as broadening.