Vietnam: Dalat

Dalat has been on radar forever, as it is the name of the restaurant that introduced us to Vietnamese food. It was a hill station started by the French at 1500 masl. I was so hot in the blazing sun, I really could not feel any coolness such altitude was supposed to afford us.

Today Dalat is a sprawling city that seems to extend forever - John was pretty disappointed. Why isn't Dalat the second largest city in Vietnam?! It certainly felt that way. I too would have written Dalat off if it weren't for the art deco villa of Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, plus a few other interesting colonial buildings.

There was no fresh mountain air. In fact, the air was terrible as the Lunar New Year (Tet) is approaching, everyone seems to be remembering their ancestors by burning big piles of paper money, paper clothing, paper cars, paper houses(?); that is, whatever the deceased might need on the other side!

Nevertheless Dalat is hugely popular with tourists judging by the dizzying number of hotels. Maybe everyone is doing whatever artificial tourist traps await them in the surrounding areas.

We arrived in Dalat around noon and were ready for a couple of bowls of vegan pho for lunch.


Dalat's Night Market was crowded, smoky, and hot. We grabbed some chay (vegan) street food, and watched the local kids (4th below) and delivery drivers (5th).












Adjacent to the night market was a "field" of yellow potted chrysanthemums put in place for Tet. Wow! And nearby, temporary stalls to buy special Tet items like decorated mellons (2nd below).




And we finsished up the evening with a cold snack.


We spent only one full day in Dalat and wore ourselves out with a self-guided architectural walking tour starting with the Crazy House.


Institut Pasteur de Dalat


Bao Dai Summer Palace 3, designed by architect Paul Veysseyre. The interior, decorated classic 1950's, is bright and airy. The exterior has some of the best horizontal lines in Asia. Veysseyre was one of the top architects in Shanghai and Indochina.






















St. Nicholas Cathedral


The Du Parc Hotel Dalat and its elevator.




The terraces of Dalat Palace Hotel slope down to the lake.






The Pedagogical College of Dalat. And some townhouse just outside the college.




Ga Dalat (Dalat Railway Station), no longer operates as a station, but has been fixed up for train enthusiats and tourists with a cafe, souvenir shops, and a sightseeing train that runs several times a day.

Vietnam: Nha Trang

After Danang, our next aim is Nha Trang, Vietnam's number one beach destination. Now we are far south, the rice fields are much further along (1st below). They probably could grow rice year round here. Now that we know something about Cham towers, we spotted at least three of them in the distance from the train (2nd below).





At sunset we had just reached Tuy Hoa, and stopped to break up the journey. By chance we noticed on the map that they too have a Cham tower and is illuminated at night. Such dumb luck! You can spot Sun-Ling at lower left in the photo below.



The view from the Cham Tower of the Tuy Hoa river inlet and the South China Sea beyond.



Tuy Hoa has a Giant Buddha. You can spot his white head in the photo below.



Each of the cities we stopped along the coast are set at a river outlet, with the city, and its train station on the land side. Nha Trang is an exception. Its train station is 1.5km from the beach, so we took a beachfront room with a sunrise view (below) for a change.



It turns out Nha Trang has more Cham towers, and they are in active use, and possibly appropriated by Buddhists. The Cham people only get to sell their weavings and do their song and dance for tips on the side. John joked that we could have saved expense and trouble by skipping My Son. But seriously, all the Cham sites we saw really complimented each other.

Upon arriving in Nha Trang we had a tasty vegan lunch, relaxed a bit in our room, then took an evening stroll on the beach promenade.






The hotel breakfast: Noodles and mango juice.




The Cham Towers were a hot 2.5km walk to the north. First in the shade along the beach promenade, then into the sun across a bridge and over to the towers.




From the middle of the bridge, one can see the fishing fleet and the Cham Towers behind them on the shore.


There was a steady stream of tourists at the Cham Towers. No wonder, they are impressive.






There were ongoing ceremonies at 3 of the 4 towers/temples.






And a performance in front of a 1000 year-old Ganesh image. Take a close look above the fans on the right to spot Ganesha.




Leaving the Cham Towers, we crossed a different bridge and headed to the Long Son Buddhist Temple.


The weekend traffic was very, very, busy so we took a route through some alleys, festive with decorations for the upcoming Tet Lunar New Year.




The Ice Man was busy.


Above the Long Son Buddhist Temple, there are 2 Giant Buddha images, one reclining, one seated.




There is a vegetarian restaurant at the temple. We each had a rice lunch plate.


My all time favorite Giant Buddha is the one at Kamakura, Japan. This Daibutsu was cast in bronze in 1252 AD. Wow! Seen below in my 2007 photo.