Da Lat

I left my heart in Da Lat! Without doubt it is my favourite city in Viet Nam!

Casual outfit for a scooter ; )

First of all – it was in moutains, and I only just discovered my new love for mountains, so I felt double excited about visiting Da Lat!
The people were different. It’s hard to explain it in words, but they were more focused, but more chilled out when it comes to tourists. They were nicer. I don’t know if it makes any sense, but that’s about it – when it comes to my fantasy of describing stuff.
So I kinda felt welcomed there. Mostly because of the place where I was staying. Mr. Peace backpackers house. It was recommended to me by many people I met on the way, so I decicded to give it a shot. Funny enough, I imagined Mr.Peace to be a tall old maybe Australian guy with big beard, wise face and … and eye patch!
But I couldn’t have been more wrong !!!!
Mr. Peace turned out to be tiny (literally) and he was younger than me and we was from Da Lat. And I must admit, that he was a crazy sort of hipster guy who had so much energy, I was jealous !
My stay in Da Lat was very active!

First day was pretty much just strolling around the city, which is very well taken care of! As you know, the cities in Vietnam are not very clean and ‘maintained’ etc, but Da Lat looked sort of European (if you know what I mean!) There was a park by the lake, where kids were skating and just generally playing – social area for family walks. Light installations and loads of flowers everywhere!

Also on top of that – I made the best discovery ever !!!
I’m not sure if I said it already, but it’s hard to get like a normal bread in Viet Nam it’s close to impossible, so you can imagine my happiness when discovering an actual BAKERY !!!!
Like a legit bakery with bread, bread rolls, all sorts of cakes and pastries !
HEAVEN !!! Topping it up with famous Da Lat milk was really a highlight of my week ! : )

There is also place called a Crazy House, which is a crazy looking (a little bit scary looking …) hotel, but it’s open for other tourists to visit, so of course I had to check it out and it was fun : )

(this is a shirt that I got from my friend just before leaving! So I am gonna travel with it ’till the last country ; ))

Next day I did something that apparently is very popular around the world, but I’ve never heard about it! It was called Canoeing. So since some time ago I have this rule to ALWAYS try things I haven’t done before, so obviously I signed up!
And let me tell you something … it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I mean the part of it where I had to do abseiling down the 25m high waterfall. Trust me – I literally shat myself !
Other that this – I really enjoyed it! It’s different for me, because I am scared of water and all the water things are followed by loads of fear in my case. So sliding down natural waterfalls head first – wasn’t sort of dream come true activities, but Hey! Why not, right?!
There are couple of pictures, so you will have a basic idea of how it looked like.
(also I didn’t do the final cliff jump, as it was still a little bit too much for me!)

Yaaaaahs ! This shit was scary !!!!!! (It’s not me on the picture : p) But I did the same !!! 

That’s me ! ; ) This one was scary too, but also super fun ! (except I almost drowned when doing so )

I was the only girl in a group of boys, so it didn’t feel so bad to be a complete chicken shit about everything !

Also, since Da Lat is in mountains, I hiked the nearest mountain, which was the second highest mountain in Viet Nam. I’ve gotta admit, it was hard ! Especially the last part around half an hour before getting to the peak – because it was very steep and there were very uneven steps (excuses, excuses ; )) But it was very rewarding! And the views were breathtaking!
Also it is always an amazing feeling of sort of ‘achieving’ something! I know it’s just a hike, but still : p
It was the first time that I hiked through the jungle and I was kinda scared of I don’t know … spiders and snakes! And all the weird noises. (we saw a monkey! Maybe more of heard a monkey. And I really hope it was a monkey haha!)
It is a bit terrifying when you’re not familiar with the situation nature wise. But survived haha! : )

The hike started rather bizarre – with a bunch of horses on the field – painted like zebras! It really looked weird : p

Little friends we met on the way : )

 This one actually felt like home! (the path with this type of woods) : )

The Jungle staaaaaaarts ; )

There were loads and loads of uncontrolled fires in the woods!!! It was scary, but apparently normal at this time of the year.

And at the end – couple of snaps from the city,
the streets the markets, and around in general.
enjoy ! : )

Electricity stations were all built to look like Eiffel towers !! (speaking of the French influence !!!)

And of course … THE FOOD !!! <3

It was super weird to see such a modern looking houses around …