Dalat

Amidst the immense mountains and forests of Lam Dong province, suddenly emerges a beautiful city which has been likened as "Little Paris” of Vietnam – That is Dalat. With the wind rustling through the pine leaves, the roar of waterfalls, the chirping of birds, the clatter of horse hoofs, the pure and wholesome atmosphere..., this place captivates all those who have been there once.

Dalat – Ideal Climate

Dalat has unique flavor among Vietnamese towns partly due to its temperate mountain climate. The annual temperature averages at 18°C, and even in the hottest day of the year, the highest temperature is only about 31°C, while the yearly lowest is about 5°C. Sunny season is from December to March of the following year, and rainy season from April to November.

Strikingly, each day in Da Lat includes all the four seasons, splendid spring in the morning, bright summer at noon, cloudy autumn in the afternoon, and chilly winter at night. It is also windy here; cool breezes make the atmosphere airier and fresher.

As a result, the color of Da Lat sunshine is hardly found elsewhere. Please try it! In an afternoon of the dry season, just look at an area of green grass in hillside being gilded with "threads" of golden, sparkling and smooth sunbeam. Such crystal sunshine is only found in those places with a transparent atmosphere and greenery background like in Da Lat. In the dry season, Da Lat is both splendid and gentle with beautiful sunshine and snow-white clouds in the poetic blue sky. Its atmosphere and appearance deserve the assumption of the origin of its name DALAT: Dat Aliis Laetitiam Aliis Temperiem (Latin meaning: give joy to one person and freshness to another).

Dalat – flowers’ paradise

Still, it is the ideal temperature that makes Dalat a paradise for flowers. Flowers can be found everywhere, any time - Flowers grown in gardens, in pots, on perennial trees, and wild flowers on roadsides, climbing fences. Flowers of all colors and species vie with one another to blossom in spring. Of all, orchids are the most numerous. At present, there are many precious species of orchids including 71 species of dendrobium, 33 species of habenaria, 31 species of pria, 22 species of liparis, 19 species of bulbophyllum, 12 species of cymbidium, 10 species of vanda, etc.

Dalat – striking waterfalls

Not only abounding with flowers, Da Lat is also famous for many beautiful waterfalls, each with its own attractiveness. Notably, Prenn Fall is at the foot of Prenn Pass, 10 kilometers from the Town center. Standing in front of it, man seems to blend with Nature, and feels free from the earthly world. The water pours down from a height of 15 m (49 ft) like a white curtain hiding a frog-mouth- shaped cave inside which tourists will cross a small bridge and sneak behind the falls. Around the Prenn Falls are the Thousand Flowers Valley and green Pine Hills.

There are also some striking waterfalls such as Dambri Fall which is 57 meters high and over 30 meters wide in a pristine conserved setting; Pongour Fall and Gougah Fall, the well-known ones in Lang Bian Highland, with strong streams running down from heights, creating reverberant sounds and very imposing sights; etc...

The Gougah Falls, commonly called O Gad (pot-hole} Falls, 38 km from the heart of the city, pours its water from a height of 20 m (65 ft). Its silvery water, reverberating the sun, creates many bright colors, with the hues and tints of a rainbow.

Whereas, The Pongour Falls, like as mystic picture, lies deep in a thick forest, 50 km from the heart of Dalat. It evokes primeval forests with the footprints of wild beasts that prowl and play there at night. Its water, falling from a height of 30 m (98 ft), makes it one of the most picturesque waterfalls in Indochina. In the rainy season tourists can hear it even from a distance of 3 km (1.86 mi)

Dalat – old-charm Parisian architecture

For these characteristic climate and scenery, Da Lat is considered an European City in the midst of a tropical country. In the past, prompted by the desire to re-create part of their homeland on their Indochinese colony, the French rulers brought eminent architects to Dalat. No wonder that the latter is a city of beautiful villas nestled amidst dream-evoking nature of ever-green pine trees…

Nowadays, the French-style houses built herein since the old times are still considerably preserved. All of age-old villas in Da Lat have the common features: red tile roofs, indoor hearths and top chimneys. However, among over 3,000 villas in Da Lat there is no duplication. There are beautiful and imposing works such as the Cathedral (also called the Cock Church), Pedagogy College, Palace Hotel, and Da Lat Railway Station...

Da Lat looks like Paris in its outline and architectural diversity. Moreover, the houses in Da Lat were built on hillsides creating spectacular sights. Villas are scattered on hillsides not in any mechanical order. Tall or short, large or small plus their different positions on hills, houses in Da Lat all create a both lively and unique picture with diverse and impressive architectures.

Dalat – ever lasting impression

As yet, Dalat's history, combined with the welcome temperate mountain climate and pastoral hillside setting, give it the feel of a European alpine resort which, in fact, it once was.

Dalat is like nowhere else in Vietnam. In Dalat, on fine days, tourists can get up early in the morning to welcome dawn on the highlands. Opening your windows, you will have a breath-taking view of nature, and inhale the fragrance of wild flowers wafted by the clouds which fly in as lightly as silk yams.

Twilight on Dalat also brings many pictures and sensations. The silhouettes of mountains are dimmed while the fragrance of night rises up. It is the time of lovers. A poet says, Dalat is a "city of honey-moons", a "city of love". The clouds, skimming the ground, reveal off and on couples of young lovers strolling on the roads, clasping each other.

Thanks to its ideal climate and poetic landscapes, Da Lat is the place for those in need of relaxation, peaceful rest after a period of tired working. You will have good appetite here and your health be quickly improved. The calm and peaceful space will also make you free from all the strain and stress of the hurried industrial life.

PLACES NOT TO BE MISSED IN DALAT:

1. Langbian - two mounts one legend

From the entrance to Da Lat City, visitors can see two high mounts with sharp, harmonious and proportioned outline eminent in the blue sky. These are the two highest mounts of Lang Bian Highland at the height of 2.167 meters. In clear days, the two mounts may be seen in the distance of hundreds of kilometers.

The legend told Lang, the boy, and Bian, the girl, from two different tribes were deeply in love with each other. However, because the two tribes were enemies, their marriage failed and the couple chose the death to protect their love. All the wild animals from the highland forests came and sadly saw the two unhappy souls off. Particularly, the most loyal elephant lied prostrate to death next to the couple's graves. Since then, the two mounts were named Lang Bian. At the starting point of Prenn Pass you can see on their left a mount looking like an elephant head called Elephant Mountain.

Lang Bian Mountains are an ideal place for mountain climbing, paragliding, trekking or studying flora and rare bird species. It is also home to hill tribe people (Lat and Chil groups) where visitors can wander around their houses on stilts and enjoy exciting gong shows. The 3-4 hour trek to Langbian Mountain is well worth it for the spectacular panorama of endless mountainous surroundings.

2. Da Lat Railway Station

Dalat Railway Station was built in 1938, and now has been recognized as a national cultural historic relic. This is one of the oldest architectural works nationwide, and by that time was considered the most beautiful station in Indochina. All the architectural block reminds us of the uneven mountain tops in Da Lat.

At present, the Station still maintains an old and unused locomotive, a steam one produced in the early 40s of last century. A short excursion route (about 12 kill) to Trai Mat has been organized daily, attracting many tourists, among them are many foreigners. Riding the carriage, you will have a chance to admire the beautiful natural scenery on both sides of the rail way.

3. Bao Dai’s Palace 

Da Lat's three palaces are referred to simply as Palace 1, Palace 2, and Palace 3. The palaces were all completed by the French, but only Palace 3 was a royal home which was owned by the last emperor but puppet ruler of the Nguyen Dynasty under French colonial time, Bao Dai.

Located on Trieu Viet Vuong St., about 2, 5 km from Dalat in the South, Bao Dai's Palace appears beautifully and poetically due to its modern architecture with imposing but harmonious and good-looking outline. Surrounding the Palace is the Royal Garden, Love Forest and a small lake. In the Palace maintained intact are the things for the working and living of Bao Dai King, Nam Phuong Queen, Bao Long Prince, and Phuong Mai Princess.

The place had 2 stories: the ground floor was the meeting place to hold feasts to welcome foreign guests and officials of the kingdom. There are such rooms as: an office room, a guest room, a reception room, a room for the private secretary (at the entrance), the play room for the princess and the prince. In the reception room, there is till one souvenir, it is the picture of Angkorvat given to king Bao Dai by king Xi Ha Nuc of Cambodia himself. Bedrooms are all upstairs: Bao Dai’s, Nam Phuong Queen’s (born 1914), Bao Dai Prince’s (born 1934), Phuong Mai Princess’s (born 1936), Phuong Lien Princess’s (born 1938), Phuong Dung Princess (born 1943) and Bao Thang prince’s (born 1944)
Outside the bedroom of the king there is “The Watching Moon Balcony” were the king and the Queen enjoy the moonlight.

In 1988, people discovered some precious things including 122 things of pearl and tusk of the Nguyen kingdom taken from Hue’ by Lady Tu Cung (the king’s mother). These things belonged to Lady Tu Cung and Bao Dai, and it was allowed to use freely by The Provisional Revolutionary Government in September 1945. There were a lot of noticeable things such as a gold washbasin with 16 pearl stuck in, many pearl bowls, pearl dishes and some other gold things. These precious things are now kept at the Monetary House of Lam Dong. This is perhaps the most precious collection of pearl things of all the feudal regimes that have been kept till now.

4. Crazy house

The name ‘Crazy House’ invites curiosity, and deservingly so. It’s a bizarre guesthouse, the brainchild, and becoming the life’s work, of Ms. Nga, a highly qualified Vietnamese architect originally from Hanoi. She is very well-connected (the daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s successor) and thus escapes official wrath and the demolition that would otherwise be automatic. It’s either a masterpiece of surrealism, or a monstrous eyesore depending on your artistic viewpoint, but very few people are indifferent towards it.

Hang Viet Nga is the architect's full name and she has created a monument to her architectural philosophy of dreams, fantasy, folklore and free-form.

The building is a swirl of ferro concrete (also used to make boats and swimming pools), shaped like a huge tree with tunnels traveling through the trunks. Inside those trunks are rooms - small suites like a hotel (they can be booked) - and each one different, designed on a theme for an animal, plant or insect.

Crazy House rises about five storeys above its suburban neighbors, rattling and squirming its entrails and bones into the skyline, great sweeps of black and yellow concrete, bizarrely shaped glass openings, beautifully peach-colored walkways that are a cross between a tunnel and cave, and sculptured rooftops that appear menacing.

Between this cacophony of free form is a noisy collection of animals in wire cages - doves, hens, guinea fowl and colorful singing birds - and with them is a group of tropical trees with works of art suspended on them.

It is difficult to distinguish between the architect's work and that of nature, and I am sure that is Hang Nga's intention. Interiors are startling, eccentric and original. Low furniture, much of it built-in, is sculptured to the curving walls; timber-like mallee root is cut from trees and polished without further treatment, so an organic, non-industrial ethic is at work.

Beds are simply mattresses made to fit the various shapes that form a sleeping corner. The piece de resistance is a centrally carved animal statue in each room, denoting that room's theme.

Doors are shaped to suit the wall openings, and they often turn out like a Steiner door, with the weight of the panel synchronized with the shape of a body, just as light fittings and curtain tracks take their position in the twisting spaces as if they grew there.

This may be a Vietnamese adaptation of animism, but I suspect it is a delightfully personal attitude held by this clever architect, who is, by the way, available at the Crazy House ticket office or nearby design studio most days. Try to meet Ms. Hang Nga, of the soft voice and very heavy eye shadow, herself. Just how Hang Nga manages to create her monument is itself a story of mythical scale.

5. Dalat market

Located at the town center, Da Lat market looks imposing, elegant, and artistic. It was built from 1958 to 1960, of most modem architecture by that time. The market has the special position right at the foot of a hill, but communicative to Hoa Binh area at the hill top through a bridge at its second floor, and to Xuan Huong lake by an entrance into its ground floor. In front of the market is a flowered round-about. On one side, beside the round-about are the steps leading to Le Dai Hanh St. and a slope linking Hoa Binh Area with Xuan Huong Lake. All of these help constitute the spectacular layout of Da Lat market, which is only found in those cities in hilly and mountainous highlands.

Apart from such common items as in all other markets, Da Lat market sells every kind of local specialties, mainly in the ground floor. Outermost are the grocery stores, then the flower stands, and innermost is the section for Da Lat's processed specialties: artichoke, jam, processed apricot, wine, syrup...

6. Pagodas and Churches

Despite its later birth than many other cities, Da Lat does have many pagodas, both as places of worship and beauty spots for visitors.

Linh Son Pagoda is one of the most typical and oldest one in Da Lat, built from 1936 to 1940, about 1 kilometer from the City. It is now office of the Buddhism Managing Committee of Lam Dong Province. Therefore, Linh Son Pagoda is a gathering place for worship for a large number of Buddhists and visitors on the occasion of important Festivals.

Besides, it is the most beautiful pagoda of Dalat featuring Asian architecture. On its roof are two symmetric and tortuous dragons, eminent in the blue sky. On its left side is an octagonal tower with beautiful outlines.

In the main building, there is a statue of Buddha sitting on a lotus flower made of bronze in 1952, 1.7m high and 1250 kg in weight; on the right of the main building there is the Huge Bell, 450kg in weight hung on the wooden frame. Behind is the temple of the Ancestors, where Patma Buddha is worshipped as well as many passed away priests. Linh Son Pagoda has a larger hall, built in 1972 and it now the Lam Dong Buddhism school.

Another spot much visited by tourists is Thien Vuong Co Sat Pagoda, also called Chinese Pagoda, 5 kilometers from the town center. At the beginning, the pagoda was made of wood in 1958, and afterwards rebuilt in 1989. At the back of the pagoda is a peaceful pine forest, enhancing the calmness of this monastic place. Particularly, in the rear hall there worshiped three Buddha Statues made of sandalwood, each of 4 meters height, 1.5 tons weight, from Hong Kong.

7. Truc Lam Monasty:

Located near the side of Tuyen Lam Lake, built on 2 ha of land, and inaugurated on Feb -19- 1994- Truc Lam Monastery is deemed to be the largest one nationwide, both in space and the scale of training. With the Central Sanctum right on a top of high hill, and 222 steps upwards from Tuyen Lam Lake, the Monastery has an elegant and airy architecture and interior arrangement. In the high and wide Sanctum there is a statue of the Shakya Buddha with a lotus in hand.

Outside is a solemn tower, therein hung a great bell 1.98 meters high, weighed 1.1 tons,
and incised with a poem of Bhiksu Truc Lam.

The Monastery has over 100 monks and nuns and many laymen who come from other places in the country, who follow a daily strict training regime with the philosophical view:

"Return to know oneself"