Friendly Return to Dalat

May 2014 – Had a trip to Dalat with friends. I’ve been here once last year, so I tried to make the visit a bit different and hoped to achieve what I didn’t the last time. We only had 1 day to really tour Dalat, so we had a tight schedule & made our best effort to make this trip memorable.

We started the day at Datanla Falls. Enjoyed the Alpine coaster (controllable roller coaster) as I always did. We took a bunch of photos by the waterfall. We then, instead of taking the cable car through the ravine, went on foot to enjoy the natural scenery & the sunlight sipping through the forest trees and narrow pass. We walked on a walkway pathed along a stream in the ravine. The atmosphere was pretty freshening despite getting a bit sweaty due to the walk. On the other side, we ended on top of another beautiful waterfall, around 60 feet tall. The view was breathtaking; felt so grateful that our eyes are able to catch such a scene.

We then headed back to the entrance of the park & buckled up for the next desitination.

Next was the nearby Tuyen Lam Pagoda. The garden monastery never fail to delight any visitor. A perfect place for snapping photos with a traditional & flowery background. We walked the stairs down the hill from the temple and found ourselves surrounded by tall pine trees with a view of Truc Lam lake. Astounding!

We took a boat at the lake to the other side. We were looking forward to the elephant ride awaiting on the other side. The boatride was rather exiciting as well. The scenery from the boatride was beautiful. We enjoyed the view of the wide lake, the calm forest on the hills surrounding the lake and the peaceful resorts & cottages on some of the hill slopes.

On the other side of the lake were picnic spots with built shades. But the highlight of the trip was the elephant ride! The elephant brought us around, down back to the lake and back uphill. This was definitely an experience never to forget!