An Unexpected Christmas Adventure in Da Lat, Vietnam
Driving through the backroads of Da Lat. All rights reserved.
Da Lat is a mountain town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, also known as “the city of eternal spring” due to its average temperature of 14 to 23 °C throughout the year. Its main tourist spots stem from the colonial era - yet another nasty story of colonials, in this case, the French, wiping out ethnic groups, the Lạch (whose legacy survives in the name “Da Lat”, meaning “river of the Lạch people”) to turn the area into golf courses and mansions for the aristocrats who “need a break from the heat”. I needed a break from colonial history and spent the four days of our trip around the Tuyen Lam Lake.
Our initial plan was to fly to Da Lat for Christmas Eve from an island south of Vietnam called Phu Quoc. However, when I crossed the security check, they didn’t let me board with my computer, an old Macbook Pro 15”, because certain airlines had banned it from flying. However, I wasn’t aware that all airlines had prohibited it within Vietnam. There was a lot of back and forth with the staff trying to understand how I could fly into the island but not fly out with the same airline. It was all very awkward, and the airline ultimately did nothing for us. We lost two flights (Phu Quoc to HCMC and HCMC to Da Lat) with no
with no refund. They advised taking the two-hour ferry to the southern tip of the mainland and figuring it out from there. We then took a nine-hour mosquito-ridden bus that dropped us at a station on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City around 10 p.m.
At this point, we were in shock and couldn’t make sense of everything that had just happened in the last 12 hours, so we just went with it. Our dinner options could only be found in restaurants on the street with too many red lights if you know what I mean, so we got a little drunk on sake with the sushi restaurant owner and celebrated our Christmas Eve with him. The next day, December 25th, everything was open since the Vietnamese culture doesn’t follow a Gregorian calendar so I could fix my computer. The helpful store clerk did a week’s work in less than 48 hours, which felt like a breeze of kindness in a very hostile couple of days. We finally booked the last flight to Da Lat that day and arrived at night. The people around us were all geared up in down jackets, beanies and furry coats while we were freezing in our summer rags. What an odd view!
9-hour mosquito ridden bus on December 24.
Not exactly what we had in mind for Christmas dinner but it was still fun and memorable
Once in the cab, the driver took a detour to mock his co-workers, sitting in the street looking bored and jobless, and showed off his score- two lost foreigners he could rip off from the airport to their hotel. He took a turn and stopped the car in an open space in the middle of the forest, where a strange and opaque quietness filled the landscape. For a nanosecond, I was glad we spent Christmas in a fancier place than this; at least the city was brimming with life. Our hotel was called “Romeo and Juliet,” and our room, “Double bed with a romantic view of the lake,” couldn’t have been further from the truth: cobwebs, dead spiders, dirty windows, and a bed full of dust. A cold white fluorescent light and an even colder air filled the room, which was promoted with a picture of a woman looking at the lake while getting ready to be married. That’s how romantic this was supposed to be! Exhausted, we asked the staff to be moved to a cleaner room, and they did (I just had to show them the pictures of their profile on Airbnb for them to start making some changes). Had it not been for the massive spider and a couple of cockroaches we had as roommates in our new room, we would have been okay with it for the whole stay. The next day, maybe out of shame or perhaps because we were the kindest customers to fall for their
scam, they moved us to a newer room in the main building: “Double bed with a romantic view of the trash cans”. Things started to look up from then on; we even befriended the staff, telling them to go home or sleep since they worked 24-hour shifts. We saw the same person at the front desk at night, serving breakfast in the morning and helping the staff during the afternoon. I swore to myself that I would never complain about my work again.
We began our Da Lat trip at the Truc Lam Temple, which means “Bamboo Grove Temple”. I felt that familiar dizzying pull of time travel to a different era. The serene landscape, the impeccable gardens of flowers, and the subtle yet entrancing sound of the wind chimes hanging at the temple entrance restored in 1995, recreates the spirit of Zen Buddhism that was prevalent during the Trần Dynasty from 1225 to 1400. We spent almost all morning observing every colour composition of the plants and flowers, occasionally eavesdropping on a Vietnamese mother who explained to her little daughter the names of every flower in the garden. It would be a bit cliché to say I left the temple feeling calm and serene, but I did.
Truc Lam Temple
a fellow tourist from looking disrespectful but with an unpleasant grimace he replied “Er… why?” “Er…Because it says it right there?” not so friendly anymore, I pointed towards the sign right next to him that explained the temple’s rules: no shoes, no pictures no legs or arms uncovered… It was pretty simple, frankly even a llama could understand them. The man ignored me.
I left a little mad at a tourist (Dutch? German? Swiss? All the above?) who decided to walk into the temple with shorts and mountain shoes and, with both arms up, started taking pictures of the sacred Buddha. “Sorry. Excuse me, sir.” I had to poke him a bit since I whispered, “you are not allowed to do that here.” I thought I had done a good deed by stopping
Beautiful flowers in the gardens of the Truc Lam Temple, Da Lat
Truc Lam Zen Buddhist Monastery, Da Lat, Vietnam
going through the impeccable gardens of truc lam temple in Da Lat
The view of the Tuyen Lam Lake from the gardens
The next day, we visited the Datanla waterfall. Little did we know that it involved a theme park–like a roller coaster to get down. However, far from the serene atmosphere it must have been once, the waterfall was crowded with people of all ages taking pictures and purchasing snacks, and the theme park concept was being extended around the waterfall (fake animals, fake statues and single-use plastic on the ground). Back on the motorbike and speeding downhill with the traffic flow, farmers flashed by on the sides of the road, their blazing fires adding smog to the atmosphere. One of the fire’s smog had grown so thick it left the road blinding and suffocating. I closed my eyes
Datanla Waterfall, Da Lat, Vietnam
and pressed my face against Kevin’s back, hoping he had the situation under control. He could also not see or breathe, but luckily, the smog faded seconds later. We stopped on what looked like an abandoned entry to the forest. As we walked deeper into the woods, the view kept getting more picturesque, as if staring at an actual life painting. We bumped into several abandoned huts from an old eco-resort where only a few locals lived. When the sun hid behind the mountain, we went to The Seen Cafe, a hip hostel and coffee place and also the best stop to watch the show of orange, pink and purple that the sunset decided to throw above the lake.
Going to see the Datanla Waterfall
Datanla Waterfall
Driving through the backroads
Riding a motorcycle through the roads of Da Lat, Vietnam
Tuyen Lam lake at sunset, Da Lat, Vietnam
On our last day, we took off early to visit the Elephant Waterfalls, one hour from The Tuyen Lam Lake. This was one of those destinations where the journey is half the fun. The misty mountains gave way to a flat, green landscape of fertile soil. We stopped at a vast coffee roaster called the Me Lin coffee garden, with a stunning view of the fields just fifteen minutes from the Elephant Waterfalls. When we arrived, a stern-looking security guard made us park where he insistently told us to and then escorted us to the ticket office, ensuring we paid. Only once the
transaction was made, we were gifted with a smile on his face as he pointed towards the entrance. This waterfall was further away from the main tourist spots in Da Lat and, therefore, was almost empty. They hadn’t turned it into a theme park yet, which attracted us more. We sat at the foot of the waterfall with the other visitors, closing our eyes and listening to the powerful descent of the water, splashing hard against the ground. What a soothing feeling it is to be next to a waterfall.
Me Lin coffee garden, Da Lat, Vietnam
Elephant Waterfall, Da Lat, Vietnam
We decided to have dinner in town for the last night of our trip and found a big celebration in the city’s main square. Karaoke blasting, colourful furry hat vendors persuading people to purchase them and groups of young teenagers spread out dancing to loud hip-hop songs. We walked around but didn’t feel inspired to stick around. After the few calming days we just had, the crowds of people and motorbikes seemed overwhelming, and we still had to pack to leave early for our next stop, Hanoi.
In Da Lat, I reconciled with Vietnam, which had been slightly hard on us. I was thankful that there are places where traces of authenticity can still be found intact. I might sound a bit disillusioned, but I was not expecting Vietnam to be so
overrun by Western tourists and expats. Western tourism sticks to an obvious path: Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, Hue, Hanoi to Halong Bay. Temples and locals serve as a backdrop to people’s narcissism. It was hard to avoid this kind of behaviour everywhere we went, forcing us to go deeper into our research and ask locals instead of the Internet. In this particular case, we learned about Da Lat from an old Anthony Bourdain episode, and although we didn’t do any of the things he did, following his steps off the beaten path took us on an adventure of our own. Looking back, I realise that nature trips have become my favourite experiences in Southeast Asia, and I might have to thank Da Lat for that.
Check out the videos of this trip on my Instagram stories here.
The entrance to the Elephant Waterfall
The view at the bottom of the waterfall
The view from the top of the Elephant Waterfall
