In the highlands of southern Vietnam lies this unique city and region.

We
traded rice patties for tea leaf terraces, beef pho for beef stew, and tropical
weather for a cool, temperate climate. Before the break of dawn, we were out
the door, bracing against the cold air on our motorbike, and witnessed one of
the best sunrise experiences of our lives. Clouds of fog covered the mountain
hills like a blanket, creating the picture-perfect postcard we had no idea Dalat
could be.
We took the motorbike back out for a second day to tour all around the
peaceful Doi Nam Lake, which is not even a 15-minute drive from Dalat City
Center. It was the first time ever where we just let the road take us to where it
leads, with no need to rush to your destination. Quiet lakesides to French
historical landmarks, we felt like we entered a never-ending Monet painting.
And the laid-back atmosphere in which we quietly sipped our teas and
Vietnamese coffees truly gave us permission to relax and see where Dalat took
us. We start our journey with an early 4 a.m. wake-up to reach the Cao Dat Tea
Village before sunrise.
Good morning from Da Lat. We are so excited to be journeying in this part of
Vietnam. We actually rented a scooter from our hotel at 4.30 in the morning.
We were driving in the dark and in the fog, which is a little bit sketchy, and
actually really cold. We did not expect it being the southern part here, but we
finally made it out to Cao Dat Thi village. And it was absolutely mind-blowing.
We made it here when the colors were popping before the sun was rising.
Those clouds rolling on the hills was beyond what we expected.
when we were in the northern part of Vietnam. A lot of times we would look at
the photos but once we got there. It didn’t quite live up to expectations but here
in Dalat in this morning. Oh man, the views were literallay better than what
we’ve seen online . As you guys saw from the footage it was so beautiful. I
honestly wish it could last forever but Lauren here is extremely cold. So we’re
going to warm up with a little coffee
The owner of the cafe actually brought us a teapot for us to warm up before the
coffees. And I think this tea is one of my favorites. It's oolong, I believe, and
it's so nice and sweet, lightly scented. And I gotta say, I wonder if these are the
tea leaves that they're growing out there.
My Vietnamese coffee has now arrived. I got the Bạch siêu, which is the white
coffee, as they call it. So you have some condensed milk, a little bit of regular
milk, along with your Vietnamese coffee. And wow, there's always something
so fragrant and bold about the coffee that I'm absolutely addicted to. Of course,
we still have the beautiful view of the town, along with the tea leaf terraces.
This coffee is going to make us pretty hungry, so let's go and grab some
breakfast right after this.
So we found this really local noodle shop called Buzz68. We are definitely the
only foreigners in here. And right up there on the sheet of paper are six
different menu items. We can't read it at all, and we have no idea what the
prices are. But we did manage to order something. Yeah, the thing is, when we
punched them into Google Translate, they came up as Beef Noodle Soup, like
almost all of them did. So we decided to go for something that looks a little bit
different. We looked it up on Google Images, and it looks so good. It's got this
carrot red broth. The noodles look delicious, and there's a lot of beef tendon in
here, which Jason absolutely loves.
After a solid one and a half hour motorbike on our trusty little scooter, we
finally made it to our second stop, which is called Phong Gour Waterfall. I
think that is how you pronounce it. So now there is an entrance fee, a cost of
20,000 Vietnamese Dong per person, along with 5,000 for the motorbike. So
right now we are at the motorbike parking area, and then we just walk down
there to see the waterfalls.
Now we're currently trekking down to the waterfall. We can already hear the
rushing water. And the steps are fairly paced, so it's easy to get down there, but
it's not as close as you might expect it to be.
After trekking down some stairs, we finally made it to Punggol Falls. It's
honestly so beautiful, but it almost looks fake because the cascading waterfalls
to the different rock levels, it almost looks too perfect. That's how amazing it
looks here. We're going to go explore around a little bit, and hopefully catch
some different views from different vantage points.
After hiking up those stairs, wow, we're literally starting to sweat. It got so hot
all of a sudden. Yeah, you know what's kind of frustrating is the fact that we
are not dressed for either of the times that we were out today. In the morning it
was so cold, especially driving through the fog and the wind was just blowing.
And now there's like barely any breeze and it's so hot. I think that's the thing
about subtropical weather, is that it just varies so much throughout the day. It
really does. Freezing in the morning, hot in the afternoon. All right. Oh, there's
some more stairs coming up. Even more sweat. Let's head over to the next spot.
Next stop on a little self-guided motorcycle tour through the lot is Elephant
Falls. It's actually really cool. It's about 30,000 VND per person and right now
you can see from the top of the falls and I believe you can actually hike
downwards to get the view from the bottom.
It's our second day of exploring Dalat, and we started on the north side of
Tuyen Lam Lake. It's actually so peaceful here. The water is so calm. And you
can actually see there are two different wedding couples getting photos done.
There's one doing a photo sesh on that rustic boat over there. It's so adorable.
Right beside the lake, we found this really cute cafe. I'm not going to try to say
the name because I know I'm going to butcher it. But it has a gorgeous view of
the water along with the hills. We got some Vietnamese iced coffees, our
favorite. And what did we notice? Just like yesterday, they always serve tea
along with whatever you order. And this time, they came out with little jasmine
tea. And it smells amazing.
So for breakfast, we found this little bumble bee shop, and it's honestly one of
my favorite breakfast items next to beef pho, and it's so affordable at only
30,000 dong per bowl. For us, we love just finding these more local, hole-in-
the-wall shops because the food just tastes amazing. There is so much meat in
here, which I did not expect for only 30k. This is by far the cheapest noodle
soup that we've ever had. The noodles are so bouncy, the broth is so good, I can
definitely understand why this is my dad's favorite Vietnamese soup. And if
you wanted to add some flavor, although I think it's already perfect, you can
add some right here with these condiments, some chilies as well, just to add a
little bit of spice, but it's so rich already.
It's actually so beautiful getting to ride along the lake, getting to see the views.
We think this is such a great activity to do during the day. Go rent yourself a
scooter, motorbike, whatever you want to call it. Just go and cruise along. I
think that's going to be our game plan for the majority of our day. We're
actually going to try to ride along the entire lake and hopefully catch some
amazing views along the way.
We trade in nature for history and we are at the Talat train station. It was built
in 1938 and it's a piece of French architecture that still maintains to this day.
For our final stop, we are spending the evening at the Xuan Hung Lake, which
is at the heart of Dalat City. We're actually located at the Lam Vien Square,
which is one of the best places to see the lake. We can see all of the swan
paddle boats out there, and it's so enjoyable being able to see all the kids
rollerblading in the square, playing with bubbles, and it's actually so great to
see all the locals have come out on a Sunday evening to enjoy the sunset over
here. Dalat really surprised us with how beautiful it was. We honestly didn't
know what we expected coming into the city, but wow, this quickly became
one of our favorite destinations here in Vietnam. But our ventures in this
country are not finished yet. Join us next time as we head over to the island of
Phu Quoc.