Vietnam 2
For our tenth anniversary, Liz and I decided to escape the Hanoi heat for the cool and cleaner air of the central highlands. We spent four days in Dalat, which at nearly 5,000 feet, was a wonderful contrast to the Hanoi haze. (Photos Here)
Vietnam Airlines has one daily flight from Hanoi to Dalat, leaving at 6 am. Thus, we rose seemingly closer to the crack of dusk than the crack of dawn. Leaving our apartment a little after four on a Thursday morning, we encountered quiet, but not empty, Hanoi streets. Even at that hour, scooters motored down the alleyways. On our way out of town to the airport we passed several cyclists all heading in the same direction. We soon passed their destination, a flower market packed at 4:30 am with farmers bringing in their produce and small-distributors selecting their wares to bring into the city to sell. Perhaps New York is not the only city that doesn’t sleep.
The flight to Dalat takes a little over 1.5 hours. As the plane re-crossed the coastline and began to descend we overflew a thick, dark green canopy that carpeted steep valleys, then fields and then Dalat airport. The airport is about a 45 minute drive from town and the road was somewhat reminiscent of Uganda – jutted pavement disappearing into clay and mud on the side of the road with shops lined up in rows. Lots of produce on display as we began to head up into the hills. As the road wound up, we entered groves of evergreen and bamboo. We entered a city spread out over several small hills and surrounding a small and (compared to Hanoi lakes) reasonably clear lake.
We stayed at a wonderful resort, the Evason Ana Mandara, in a restored 1930s colonial villa. The days dawned cool and clear, with thunderstorm-filled afternoons, followed by evenings filled with stars bright and near. The grounds were beautifully maintained and contained many wonderful-smelling night-blooming flowers. The rooms all have fireplaces, particularly necessary during the chilly, foggy winters, but also of use in August when the temperatures could drop into the high 50s in the evenings. The Ana Mandara has terrific food, which we can’t recommend enough. Great Vietnamese, western, and fusion, with a pleasant and friendly staff to boot. The resort offers a wide-selection of DVDs to watch in your rooms during the cold nights, though I suspect most, if not all, are pirated. How did I guess? The jacket for “Cold Mountain,” a somber civil-war drama starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, contained a plug from a review stating that “Stallone and Banderas make a dynamite team in this action packed thriller.”
Dalat is the center of the Vietnamese produce sector, growing all number of fruits and vegetables and making a drinkable (though not exceptional) wine. Dalat specialties include strawberries, artichokes, tomatoes, and other temperate fruits. One afternoon, after running around the lake in the center of town, we stopped by a small café to sample fresh strawberry and pear juices. We then visited the central market to examine what was on offer. At one stall, the friendly proprietor plied us with sample after sample of local foods, washed down with passionfruit juice and artichoke tea. I tried out my Vietnamese-language bargaining skills and talked her down from 110,000 dong (about $7) to 105,000 dong (about $6.65) for a collection of spicy deer jerky, dried and sweetened tomatoes, vegetable chips, and strawberry jam. I know I could have gotten the price down to 100,000 dong, but thought we had gotten our money’s worth in free tastes. We then checked out the flowers and picked out a bunch of gerber daisies for Liz for our anniversary, all for the equivalent of 75 cents.
The city attracts many Vietnamese vacationers, particularly from Ho Chi Minh City, who also are attracted by the cooler air and the cheaper prices. One of the oddest attractions in the city is the “Crazy House,” a bizarre inn run by the daughter of the Troung Chinh, the successor to Ho Chi Minh of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Trained in architecture in the Soviet Union, she returned to create this crazy fantasy-land of a hotel, part Gaudi, part Dali, part Alice in Wonderland and part Planet of the Apes. Its well worth the 60 cent entry fee to inspect the life-sized toadstools, spiderwebs, giant gourds, psychedelic bears and giraffes and other oddities. Its unique in Vietnam.
In the mornings, before the mid-day thunderstorms, we did some sight-seeing. One stop was Lanbiang mountain, which stands nearly 8,000 feet tall. It’s a huge attraction for Vietnamese tourists as well, who crowded around with us as we awaited the government-operated jeeps to take us to the top (you can also hike). In the parking lot, enterprising locals staged photos for the city-dwellers, including the opportunity for pictures atop local donkeys painted to look like zebras. After a harrowing trip up hairpin turns, we reached the top and a breathtaking view of mountain vistas and lakes from one side to a vast collection of small farms and greenhouses on the other.
