Saigon to Dalat – Days 5-7

I got one piece of feedback that they liked the details, so I guess I will see what I feel like as we go.  I am currently sitting in a hostel in Nha Trang with a bit of time to myself so decided to put some work in on the blog.  I will see what happens as time progresses and I get lazier, but for now here is what you get.

I left Saigon and headed towards Da Lat which promised to provide amazing mountain vistas and some cool canyoning experiences.  It proved more difficult than expected to get out of Saigon, so we ended up in a small town 50km outside of town called Long Tan.  On the way there we stopped at a local food place that was near a bunch of factories with a bunch of local guys hanging out drinking beer.  We ordered food and were about to leave when, they called us back and wanted to share a beer with us.  They asked us where we were from and wished us a Happy New year and then we were on our way.  They were super nice and happy to see foreigners.

We found a guest house to stay in and headed in to town to find some food and possibly a beer or two. When I first landed in Vietnam, I tried to avoid the places that consisted of a little cart in the front with seating in an open area in the back, as they appeared a bit too sketchy. However, I now realize that this is the norm in Vietnam and that 100% of all food places in smaller areas are this kind of set up.  We grabed some Pho and then headed out to find a bar to enjoy a cold beer.  Turns out that in some small Vietnamese communities, bars are not really a thing, although they have these massive multi story karaoke places, which seem really out of place to me.  Anyways, we started asking locals and ended up at this old ladies shop, who had some beers in a fridge.  We cracked the only beers she had and chilled in chairs that were brought out for us.  As we were walking down the street, people would wave and say “Hello” and were generally very happy to see foreigners in their town.

I also realized that I have been saying we a lot but have never introduced my travel companions.  The first night in Saigon in a dorm style room, there were twin sisters and an italian guy staying in the same room as me.  We got to talking about the logistical nightmare that the Tet holiday had created and so we banded together and decided to work together to find a way north.  Annie and Bailey are from Michigan and Matteo is from Italy (I actually don’t even know what part).  We have slowly been making our way north and plan to arrive in Hanoi March 1^st if we can, stopping at many stops along the way.

We arrived in Da Lat at around 6pm and found a hostel for the evening.  We ended up at the Tiny Tiger which was decently close to the main drag.  Once we dropped off our bags and relaxed a little bit, we decided to go for a walk and check out the town.  Since we had been spending a lot of time in small towns, the only food options were either Pho or Bahn me (sandwich) and so the Italian really needed to get some comfort food.  We ended up at a pizza place which was not great but not that bad either.  After dinner we grabbed a road beer and wandered up to the bar that was recommended to us.

The bar was called maze bar and honestly, it is pretty difficult to describe.  The inside is basically a maze, which feels like you are in the root system of a tree.  There are small stairways all over the place and small cubbies and areas to hang out.  It was extensive and very easy to get lost but also very cool.  We hung out there for a while, then called it a night.  Da Lat is famous for their outdoor beuty and waterfalls and canyoning came very highly recommended.  I decided to book a tour for the next day, so I woke up early, went for a 13km run then jumped in the tour bus and went to the location.  DaLat has a lake close by to downtown which is about a 5km loop.  I did two loops and it really made me think of my EBBR crew as it is basically the same distance and set up as Lake Merritt.  It was a very scenic run and my pace felt good.

We were a group of 12 people from all over the world.  I met a nice couple from Quebec city who I ended up hanging out with later that evening as well.  The canyoning was really cool, we suited up in a wetsuit and harness and were given the basics of repelling.  We then set off to the river for our first few repells.  After two repells down the gorge, we did a river float, and then a natural water slide.  The water slides were cool, because they put you down head first so you didn’t know what what was happening.  The tour company was really good at taking photos and they even took some footage on my go pro.  We then did some cliff jumping and the 11m jump was pretty fun.  The last repell of the day was called the washing machine, you basically repel down a waterfall to a river where you are washed down the waterfall at the end.  It was pretty crazy, as you didn’t know where you were or where you were going or when you would surface.  The experience was pretty great and I met some cool people as well.

Here is a link to the short youtube video I made: https://youtu.be/qMI1xLohp50

After canyoning I headed back to the Hostel and Marie-Claude (The Quebec city girl) was intrigued by the run I had done in the morning around the lake and decided that she wanted to go for a run as well.  I decided to join her and we did another lap around the lake.  Ended up running about 19km total that day with a canyoning trip in between.  Let’s just say it was a very active day.  After the run, we met two of our new hostel roomates and all decided to go to dinner together.  We ended up at a random restaurant where we tried famous Dal Lat wine.  It was not the great, but was pretty cheap.  After dinner we walked through the night market and then headed back to the maze bar as some people had not yet been there and a few other people we had met previously were also there.

The next day was a travel day so I packed it in before the rest of the folks and headed home.  I took the next day off from running, due to the high activity level the day before.  Da Lat was fun, let’s see what Nha Trang has to offer….