Adventures with Jack and Julia

When we arrived at the bus station in Ho Chi Minh, we were expecting a “VIP sleeper bus” that we’d booked quite some time in advance. Instead, they loaded us into a 10-person passenger van with little to no AC and windows that we were too tall to see out of. Nobody else spoke English, and we were dreading what the next eight plus hours were going to be like crammed into those seats. Luckily, however, this was just the transport to the main bus station where we met our first new friend, David. David was born and raised in Da Lat, and was more than kind to us and helped us to understand the bus system. We sat with him at each stop on the way, and we are so grateful for his translation skills. After a long eight-hour journey, we finally made it to Da Lat in the pitch black, took a Grab straight to our hotel, and went to sleep.

Day 1:
It’s still taking us some time to adjust the 14-hour time zone difference, so we woke up at around 5am. Once we pulled the blackout curtains aside, we were greeted to this beautiful view:

Near our hotel, we went to a cute little coffee shop called Amelie Coffee. The owners were so happy to meet us, and even offered us a giant avocado from their garden to have with our coffees:

From there, we caught a Grab to Asia’s longest mountain coaster. For about $10 each, we had such a great time flying down the canyon in a rickety cart. Once our adrenaline settled, we decided to walk around Xuan Huong Lake, which looked nothing like the pictures as the water was a dark brown and it was crowded with scooters honking. It was still a nice walk, though. By now, it was only about 1pm so we decided to make the journey over to Truc Lam Zen Monastery. You take a tram away from the city and out into the countryside, making it much more serene compared to the madness we were just in. Here are some pics from that outing:

As you can see, we crammed a lot in this day, and it’s barely half over at this point. I have a feeling it’s going to come back to bite us soon.

While we waited for the night market to open at 5:30pm, we decided to kill an hour playing cards as we made a stop at Starbucks. You can see some of the local food variants we saw here:

We still had an hour or two to kill, so we went by what can only be described as the single coolest bar we have ever been to. It’s called the Maze Bar, and they absolutely mean it. They’ve taken what appeared to be a 5 or 6 storey town house and created all of these little corridors and passageways that wind their way up to the top where there are other hidden bars and a secret garden at the very top. If you are ever in Da Lat, this is a must do.

As for the market, it was pretty crazy there and we weren’t really in the mood for what was on offer, so we went to a pho restaurant where Julia got a delicious bowl of noodles. We went back the next day for it as well!

Day 2:
Our big plan for today was to hike Mount Langbiang. Before that, however, we stopped for a breakfast of pho and eggs, where Julia tried the first of many famous egg coffees. Julia described it as “the best coffee she’s ever had in her entire life”. If you know Julia, that’s saying something.

Fuelled and ready to adventure, we made our way to the mountain and made the climb up through the humid forest. At the top, we were greeted by a lot more than we expected, with lots of instagrammable spots, and a little cafe where we stopped to play cards. Two local photographers who didn’t speak English were watching us play and managed to pick up the rules and make suggestions as we went. It seems cards are a universal language and are a tool we’re going to carry with us whenever we go out to help make friends.

On the way down, we met a lovely Vietnamese family, who wanted to hike down with us. We used Google Translate to talk with them, and it further solidified just how genuine and kind Vietnamese people are. Back in Vancouver, if someone approached you and asked to hike with you, you’d have your guard up fully. It’s totally different here and makes us rethink how we interact back at home.

We had a chill evening and prepared ourselves for our next destination – Nha Trang.