Our trip to Da Lat
11 September 2006
Thao 
and me set off on a sunny sunday in Hanoi to catch an 11.30 flight to Da Lat. She suggested that we should use the public bus service instead of a taxi and I listended to her. To my impress, it was very good: a nice and comfortable ride. Plus, it only cost us 10,000VND instead of a 200,000VND taxi fare 
The flight itself was not bad eventhough the plane in use was a Fokker 70. Upon arriving at Lien Khuong airport, we used an airport bus to get to Da Lat city center, which took about 1 hour to get there. As we have not planned a hotel beforehand, we took the advice of the taxi driver to let him to recommend us to a good hotel that he knows of. It was a good place 2 minute walk from city center. The price was also ok but it was the result of the negotiation between Thao and the owner. The only minor issue was that we have to walk up and down 4 storeys to get to your room 
After a short rest, we stepped out to have a dinner with vermicelli in the same street as our hotel then we walked to the city main market and towards Xuan Huong lake. The air and surrounding was completely different from hanoi. The temperature was around 15-17 celcius and it made us feel that we were in a very big air conditioned room. Upon entering the market, we was quite surprised to discover that no much fruits were selling there, not anywhere close to what Hanoi could offer. Xuan Huong Lake was a beautiful scenery with calm and the water was very clean. We took a ride on a horse cab for about 30 minute and it was quite comfortable. The next day we rented a motorbike and we started our day with a visit to Da Lat city flower garden. To our disappointment, it was not as good as we had expected, perhaps we did not arrive at the right time! Nonetheless, it was still beautiful and the view was terrific. We heading to Than Tho lake, the one that Thao really forced me to go there to wash my hand for some reason that she insisted on It was beautiful and not that far from city center. We took our first ever ride on a real horse and it was an experience. In this matter, Thao was probably better than me but for only a little The scenery is really great with a central lake cover a pine forest in a hill. I dont know how to express the beauty of it but to us, we were very impressed. And last but not least, I did washed my hand in the lake, just as Thao insisted
We then set off to Truc Lam Thien Vien, a temple situated on a high hill. The objective was not to visit the temple but to ride using the cable car as Thao really fond off even before we planned our trip. For me it was also the first time I went on a cable car and to be honest I was a little bit concerned with the safety but it turned out just great. The view was fantastic and we were able to see the city center from far distance and we could see down below us the cabbage field as well. The temple was an ordinary one with no impressive feature. However, the surrounding garden is totally different. The tree, the landscape and the view was very good. Upon going back to our hotel we catched a big big rain and we all get caught. Only with a nice shower that we got back to normal (to be continued …)
