Our trip to Da Lat (part 2)
11 September 2006
On Wednesday, we set off to exploring a couple of famous waterfalls around the city. Da Lat was located on the top of a hill in a central highland of Vietnam so it was not unusual to have a lot of falls around. I have not been to any fall for a long long time (probably around 10 years). Our destination was Prenn fall but we first stopped at Datanla. It was funny because on the way to Prenn, we found a sign on the road requested that we all have to wear the protection helmet if we want to continue. Being a safety conscious person, I decided to go back and borrow twos from my hotel but I was quite surprised to be told that well you really do not need the helmets for that road 
That was good I thought and we went back to the way we initally went for. Datanla was a strange name because it is not really Vietnamese but it could be from a local minority language. I never found out . Here we tried a different method of entering the destination, an user controlled rollercoaster ride. It was fun but it could be more thrilled if the car before us did not stop too frequent. I could understand why they did though (the driver was a girl :D
The fall was nice but there were lots of people at the base so we took off to climb to the top. The view was secluded with forest around us and a clear blue sky. 
Next was the Prenn fall but this time, we were less impressive with the fall. It was not as beautiful as Datanla and the cable car ride was not good as well. However, there are one thing that no other place had so far, a real elephant and we could ride on it. Without doubt, we set off on a trip on the top of the elephant and take a hike through the small surrounding forest. The elephant was still small I think and she is really like eating, during our hiking, she stopped for a couple of time just to grabed the leaves and ate it. We both enjoyed the ride but later on Thao 
was afraid of going close to the elephant and she did not dare to give food to her at the end 
We then changed to a minority group costume and took pictures around the scene. It was interesting but the costume was very dirty It was after mid day when we get out of Prenn so we decided to have lunch there as well, we stopped in a restaurant and there we tried some delicacy including porcupine and some strange bird. To be honest, they taste like crap 
After lunch, we off to hotel to have a rest then we headed to the love valley (Thung Lung Tinh Yeu). It was beautiful, the best place we have seen so far. It was so beautiful that we have decided we will surely go back here one more time the day after to ride on a water bike. The view was fantastic and the deeper you entered the valley, the more beautiful it presented to you. Most of the time we were alone to enjoy the secludeness and the natural scenery. 
The final day in Da Lat, we went to LiangBiang. The highest area in Da Lat and consisted of three mountains. If we have time, we could spend an entire day just to climb up one of this. Nonetheless, time was a constraint so we hitched a hike up the top of one mountain. Again, we were impressed with the view from the top. We could spread our view far from the top and one guest had told us, on a clear day you could see the beach hundreds kilometres away. We tried but we failed. One thing interesting from this trip was that we meet two more families, one from the south and one local. So combined we formed the whole of Vietnam. It was very nice talking to them. In the afternoon we came back to the love valley to take a water bike ride on the lake. It was quite an idea and interesting experience since it was a heavy rain on that day we got all wet. I bet you never had an experience of being totally alone in the middle of a big lake and surrounding you was a heavy rain. At the end, the rain keeps getting heavier and heavier and we decided it was better to get off the lake This marked the end of our stay in Da Lat. It was the most romantic city that I have ever been to. We went here during a wet season so a heavy rain every afternoon was something not so strange here. The scene around was nice with lots of lakes and trees. The hilly landscape was also added to the beauty of the area. The days we have will be the days to remember.
