(Yet another) Easy Rider adventure
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2006
1
28
53
Trip End
Sep 16, 2006
Dalat, Vietnam
Friday, June 2, 2006
Dalat is a quaint small mountain town with winding cobblestone streets and a vaguely European feel, located in the central highlands of Vietnam. Because of the higher altitude of this place, even in the heat of the Vietnamese summer the climate was quite cool and very comfortable.
In all the various countries and regions of Southeast Asia that we've visited on our travels, this is the only place where we saw jackets for sale. And in true Asian fashion, there aren't just one or two jacket vendors-- every other market stall is selling them. (Someone needs to teach these people about market diversification!) After traveling in the oppresive southeast Asian heat for months it was very strange to see.
The roads of Dalat curve and wind every which way, up and down small hills and around small stairs, much in the way you would expect to see a winding cobblestone road in a provincial village in France.
The cool weather attracts some unique characters. There's an informal group of guys on motorcycles running around the town, calling themselves the "Easy Riders". Riding on their vintage motorcycles, they regularly approach tourists on their motorcycles offering tours of the area. Vietnam was made for travel by motorbike, and having a local guide show you the twists and turns, the coffee plantations and breathtaking vistas of the central highlands is an experience not to be missed. (And at $15 for the day, there's really no excuse not to do this.)
Our photo album for this entry shows our journey with our driver (Eva drove her own motorcycle while I clung precariously on the back of our guide's bike.)
Eva's thoughts:
This place reminds me of a little town in the eastern Taiwan. The streets are narrow like this and all the houses are built aruond the mountain. Very laid back. In fact as we continued on our tour of the region around Dalat, many of the places we visited reminded me of Taiwan: my silkworms (a school assignment, they died under my bed), overpopulated mountainsides, the climate.
