Dalat - The romantic city (Part 1)

Leaving HCMC we hopped aboard a 7 hour bus journey to the mountainous region of Dalat! To be honest I hadn’t heard much about Dalat, apart from it was home to the famous Dantala Waterfalls, but on the trip we would be spending 2 nights here so we were both hoping for something great.
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We are staying in Panda House Hostel, which for $8NZD a night for a family suite and ‘semi’ private bathroom (I say semi as for the past 2 days the dicks in the room next to us have been using it and as not a single sausage speaks English here we just have to be quietly annoyed) is actually ok. Well, it’s not great and the beds are a thin mattress on a palette on the floor BUT there is WIFI and a balcony so I guess it’s overall ok.

On the way to Dalat we were able to stop at Dantala waterfalls for a quick leg stretch and to view the falls. I would give it a 6/10 – it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, VERY commercialized the natural falls now have a lot of man made structures nearby including, not 1 but 2 rollercoasters? We decided to walk and the entrance fee is 30,000DONG about $2NZD.
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From there we made our way to the fresh city of Dalat, hosting about 300,000people, it is smaller and has a very French charm to it. We instantly fell in love. It’s really beautiful here. Many people call it ‘Le Petit Paris’ and the town even features a mini-replica Eiffel Tower in its centre! Situated on a plateau 1,500 meters above sea level, this retreat town offers a good change of atmosphere with a refreshingly cool climate (about 7 degrees cooler than HCMC) 

​So, things to do…or more importantly what we did. Well firstly, I was dying for some beautiful breakfast in the morning, so we read about Biang Bistro and headed there. It was wonderful. In fact, I would highly recommend it as the price was great, we had a very western breakfast and the setting was just beautiful. 

​From there we walked to ‘the 100 roof bar’, and this in itself needs a full blog post but we ain’t got time for that so let me condense it. This bar is effectively a giant adult maze filled with so much random shit and eventually when you have finished being lost in the dark chasm’s of this building you make your way to beautiful sun terrace with perfect views of the city. You have to buy a drink when entering but they are cheap and as it was only 11am we opted for iced chocolate and a coffee. This bar is one of the top things to do in Dalat and I can see why, it was just so much fun!