When arriving means surviving!

On this blog I have written a lot about drivers, traffic, minibuses etc.  It seems that this trip continues to evolve in the variety of hairy driving experiences!  This time we took what seemed like a non-descript drive in the countryside from Saigon to Dalat – a beautiful town in the mountains – which thanks to the French occupation looks more like a ski resort than Vietnam. 

Unfortunately, our coach driver  – and I mean coach, not a little minibus – thought he was driving a minibus and drove up the mountain “path” at full bore.  Typically beeping his horn madly to warn anyone stupid enough to be coming from the other direction that he was coming through!   I guess this wasn’t anything we hadn’t previously experienced, until the road became more like a one lane track through rock falls and road works – including over rocks.  The sheer drop from the side of the road down the mountain was enough to make most of us close our eyes and pray to God that Dalat was just around the next bend.

Needless, to say there are no cute photos or funny video of this drive as I was too busy hanging on!  We did take some photos when we left Dalat going down the mountain – not quite as hair-raising as the driver was a little more conservative.  Check out the state of those roads on our Flickr photos.

So we did arrive in Dalat – as I mentioned, Dalat has a bit of an identity crisis.  There’s an Eiffel Tower and the cathedral is called Notre Dame.  The houses all have pitched roofs (for the snow to fall off???) and there’s even a cable car. 

The locals were still zooming past on their motorbikes and bicycles. Apparently it’s winter here and they all had fur lined coats, gloves, woolly hats etc etc.  We didn’t get the memo – we were still wearing shorts and boiling!  It’s a great place to buy winter coats and jumpers – the markets are full of all that sort of stuff for quite reasonable prices.

Dalat is well know for its market gardens and the food is very good.  Our guesthouse also supplied some of the famous Dalat strawberry jam for breakfast.  It’s a lot thicker and stickier than we’re used to but full of whole strawberries and very tasty.

It was a pleasant change from the buzz of the city and we had a nice couple of days here.  We also met another travelling family – this time with an Aussie connection – Mick from Brisbane and his German wife Tina with their 2 kids Skye and Jamie – aged 5 and 2.  I have put in a link to their website – check it out.