From Mui Ne we follow the inland road towards Dalat, our next stop, a city in the mountains … We follow the road crossing the national park that is located before the city.

Once in Dalat, we had booked accommodation through Booking.com, a double room in Oc Hostel. First, we spent a few hours to locate the hostel, it had no sign! who can think of … and then, the lady of the hostel makes us follow her, “some streets” that were enough to another hostel where they accompanied us to a bedroom …

We told him we had booked a double room, but pretended they did not understand … that they were baffled … hahaha … small sings mornings … So we connected to their internet, we looked for another place and we told them four things, a little waste of time … !

We went to Joy Homestay. It was an office of draftsmen who had arranged rooms. Our room was a mattress on the floor, nothing great, for 135,000 Dongs, but the girl who lived there invited us to dinner what she had cooked: rice and chicken. We were talking for a while, it was good.

The next day we received a response from requests we had made in Couchsurfing, a Sandy who ran a hostel, Sandy Homestay, invited us to be in a free bedroom if we taught a little English to his nephews … So we went there the following 3 nights we were in Dalat, and we were great …

As thanks, we cooked them a Vietnamese version paella …

We don´t know if Sandy´s nephews learnt English … for sure they learned to eat paella!!!

Dalat fell in love with us … besides being a meeting place for lovers, it is a city of French colonial architecture, the buildings are fantastic houses with a refined aesthetic, nothing to do with the rest of Vietnam …

More or less the whole city follows the same colonial aesthetic, unlike the rest of Asia that makes buildings without any pattern, growing as horrible cities … It was a pleasure to walk around the city, with aromas that reminded France and England, we had the strange feeling of dejavou, that city transported us to memories of the past, to trips through European countries, with smells of meat, smell of fat typical of cold countries, family sensations, that made us be at home, mixed with the beautiful mountain buildings and the views of the city that gave us their hills.

Majestic hotels, with slate roofs, like Nordic spas, at the foot of lakes … A place that we consider special, but it is something personal, rather subjective, you just have to walk unhurriedly through its streets and feel it for yourselves … it puts me goosebumps remembering him …

The Night Market of Dalat is moved and colorful, very crowded, a curious place to walk. At its edges there are stops where you can buy milk from beans, soybeans or peanuts, and sweat some churros, to warm up a little bit of the cold, for a change …

In the center of the city there is a large lake, and in front of the lake two modern and curious constructions that cover a shopping center, the Big C, and a coffee shop, Doha.

We also have the Crazy House, inspired by Gaudi’s architecture, and the 100 Roofs Bar, a bar that is a labyrinth decorated like a forest and stone, a curious place.

One day some Vietnamese grandparents who were on the terrace of a bar drinking beers called us to come closer, and as we were not in a hurry there we went. We spent about two hours talking and drinking beers with them, they were charming, roguish but without going beyond the gentleman’s line, very smart, kind and educated people, with a surprisingly European touch, more specifically French. A good time shared with the locals.

A few kilometers from the city is the Thien Vien Truc pagoda, beautiful with gardens, all very well maintained, varnished wood, a mystical place.

There we met a monk who began to speak to us in perfect Castilian … we were stunned … pleasant surprise, he gave us a translation they had made of a book on Buddhism.

Next to the pagoda is Lake Ho Tuyen Lam, where it started to rain too much and we had to cancel the visit to the waterfalls, which incidentally had to pay entrance …

We left Dalat across the mountains, a beautiful mountain landscape among coniferous forests, a place totally different from the rest of Vietnam … Goodbye Dalat, we hope to visit you on another occasion …