I spend a total of 2 nights in Dalat however with the short distance travel between Midori Coffee Farm to Dalat city center which was only 2km, I basicly got a full two days in Dalat proper. Initial plan was to chill out three nights but I only booked two night for I had an inkling that I might go faster if somehow Dalat changed in the last 10 years.
I decided I still like Dalat after staying for two night and wandering around. The place has changed slightly compared to when I was there 10 years ago. A proper city in the mountains and not a resort mountain which always tugs a little string in my heart just like Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.
I spend two days mostly just wandering around Dalat not realy bothering with clocking the tourist sights. This time I had a bike and it was fun biking around all the alleys in Dalat seeing the local residents and shops going about their own stuff.
The only proper tourist thing was Lang Biang peak. I never been there before but it seams that other than the bus tours that comes in waves, the peak as a visiting photo stop stayed the same.
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| Hiking up Lang Biang Peak along the Road |
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| Lang Biang Peak |
One thing that I did notice was most of the high quality fake apparels that used to be in Dalat market was gone. These days it was just cheap and normal apparels and mostly selling second hand apparels.
The very few shops that still sell the fake north face or nike apparels looked worst in quality compared to the second hand apparels. That threw a wrench to my plan to stock up on gears for the upcomming China and Central Asia trip.
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| Dalat Market |
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| Dalat Market |
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| Dalat Main Square |
With a friend (TK) giving me the confirmaton of flight to HCM next weekend, I made some critical decisons in Dalat. Flight home to KL on 23 Jan 2023 was booked from HCM. The price kept going higher every day I checked so it was time to book it anyway. The riding journey would come to an end before Feb 2024 base on this and I would have to reach HCM by 19 Jan 2023.
A little bitter sweet for I feel like a trip is ending and I don’t really want to go home but then I had so many erends to run when I get back to prepare for the big one in May 2024. Its time.
So with the gears turning faster now, I did not linger in Dalat for the thrird night and ride on to Nha Trang. This was the revised route where I did a double U-turn or a S-Loop to ride this strech of the road for it was famous for being scenic and a great ride through good curvy mountain roads.
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| The Scenic Route from Dalat to Nha Trang |
The roads were ok at best but in Vietnam standards it was marvelous. The view while beautiful seamed a little oversold in my opinion. Then again maybe the ride to Yading-China has spoilt my expectation of a great scenic ride.
Traveled on: Jan 2024
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