Chiang Mai or entire Thailand gets very warm from March through May. Kristin wanted to get away from this unbearable heat with humidity. Her choice for 2019 was Da Lat, Vietnam.
It is called the City of Eternal Spring. Its altitude at 1,500 meter high enables the city spring-like weather throughout the year. No wonder France developed the city as the vacation destination for its expats during its colonial period for Vietnam.
Kristin made a reservation at a family-run hostel, namely Gia Pham Hostel. Thai was her primary contact, but Tan, Thai's younger brother studying at Dalat University, and their parents, the Yeop family, all worked to serve the guests. After the first night at a room without any view, we ended up staying on the 4th floor with a common area right across from our room. Because of this easy access to the common area, I called our room a penthouse. The only drawback for this penthouse stay was a lot of walking up and down the stairs. Well... we got our legs strengthened a lot. For this stay, we paid only $8.00 per night. Not bad at all...
We stayed from March 1 - 29, except my trip to Singapore during 13-16. We did not do much at all, other than resting and resting and resting, with some walking. I was at the tail end of my physical recovery from a 6-week illness and the fresh breeze we enjoyed in the common area kept us inside the place pretty much all the time, except our walking time.
Vietnamese streets are filled with motor bikes. Everyone rides one and there are plenty of people traveling everywhere. I rode it for a few days myself, at VND125,000 a day or US$5. But, whenever possible, we walked to most places.
Initially, I complained about the noise from the streets and potential pollution, but I came to realize that it was heavenly after we returned to Chiang Mai where the air pollution was severely hazardous due to the spring burning. They say that PM2.5 level is above 100, it is unhealthy while Chiang Mai's PM2.5 level shot up as high as 500! Yikes!!! I miss the blue skies and white clouds that we took for granted in Dalat.
As we walked around, we found a pine tree woods where we spotted a cozy place to look at green houses growing flowers and veggies. A tranquil pine tree spot drew our visits twice more times.
On another walk day, we visited a place that was supposed to have artificial waterfalls. We decided to pay a visit, but we were disappointed by the stinky sewer smell coming from the water. Well... at least we cannot smell the stinks on the photos.
One day, we were able to walk around the lake located in the middle of the city. We ended up walking 12,000 - 15,000 steps. Our lower back pain caused some pinching pain as we walked, but we overcame the pain to complete the walk.
Dalat has one Big C Supermarket. We found this place a truly affordable market where you can buy almost everything at affordable prices, even lower than at the traditional markets. I ended up buying six shirts and one pants, costing us 5-6 dollars per item. Wow...
As we walked, we experienced several scenes that are noteworthy.
There are several Korean restaurants in the city, but we enjoyed Fungi Chingu, a B.B.Q. place. For two of us, an order of octopus, an order of chicken, an egg dish, two orders of ghimbab and one liter of beer, plus unlimited supply of fresh veggies, set us back only $11.90. What a steal! We visited this place four times. Great value for the price!
Cho in Vietnamese means market. So Cho Da Lat means Dalat Market. This market is considered the largest in Vietnam, I heard. A little bit hard to believe. But they had a lot of stuff.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay in Dalat although we could not resist a sense of the city being far too small. - Jeffrey
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