We are staying at the Terracotta Hotel & Resort 5 minutes out of Dalat. The name has nothing at all to do with the terracotta warriors (wrong country of course), but all throughout the manicured garden areas are these cutesy little groupings of ceramic ‘things’. This walkway goes part way around the lake the resort is built on.
These next photos are of our villa taken from the lakeside, and then looking towards the lake. It’s gorgeous, and although we had some rain last night, the weather has been perfect.
This place must be ‘fancy’ because I came across a photographic shoot – the lady on the right with the boots and beret was pointing a camera at the model, and no one was perturbed by me take photos of them. Perhaps they didn’t see me.
Based on the numbers at breakfast, there would be close to 200 people staying here, mostly in the hotel-style accommodation. We are the only none-Vietnamese people staying here. The resort is built next to a much utilised recreational parkland, and this morning I went for a walk to take a closer look.
I spotted a couple of fisherman who were out early to catch the ‘you know what’!
I noticed one of the men digging into the side of the hill collecting very clay-based soil and bringing it back to a sheet of plastic where he searched through it looking for worms.
We spent some time last night and this morning visiting the central Dalat.
Promoted as the “City of Eternal Spring” because of its temperate climate, Dalat was developed as a resort by the French in the early 1900s, and there were a few things that reminded us of France.
The market area was bustling. And it was here I had another ‘first’. I had my hand slapped by a stall holder as I touched some spectacles I was interested in buying. I left my reading glasses at home and thought a cheap magnifying pair might help me out.
But I left chastised and empty handed.
Strawberries are in season over here – obviously. Every second or third stall holder had beautiful displays of the fruit for sale.
This is a borrowed image that shows the French influence, complete with a replica of the Eiffel Tower built by a telephone company. The French attempted to set this city up as “Le Petit Paris”, the ideal resort city. It was the capital of the Federation of Indochina during World War II.
Tomorrow we head to Nha Trang with our driver, and we will spend five nights there, while the others only one – they’re heading off to ride motor bikes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It is where we will be left on our own for the rest of our stay in Vietnam, and I think the pace will drop down a gear or two!
Jane and Mick's Holiday Adventures 