Tuesday 03 November 2015

Adding something spicy……..Waking at 6am there’s plenty of time before my departure to Dalat. I will pack then take the basic breakfast on the roof-top restaurant but to spice that up a bit, I go out to Family Mart where they do a spicy grilled sausage. I also buy rolls and snacks for lunch as I’m not sure what arrangements are made in the trip. When all it ready it’s an easy walk to the tour office where the bus depart from.
Futa Bus Line…….I need to explain here the set up with these bus companies. There is no central bus station for provincial buses as there is in the UK or Thailand for that matter. Vietnam and Cambodia have similar set ups. The bus departs from the company office which can be in a side street anywhere in the city. If that sounds chaotic it certainly works for travelers who don’t need to travel far to a departure point. If there is some distance to go then the agent will arrange a pick up. It’s that convenient. There is another thing to mention. In Vietnam the preferred style of bus for distance travel is the sleeper bus. The configuration does vary but in this service there are two isles. Remember? Vietnamese have small bodies. The bunks are therefore in three rows. It’s hard to explain without a picture but think of it as bunks that adjusts to reclining rather than a seat that does the opposite. The buses are used day and night but I’d still rather a normal seat for the daytime. The Futa Tour bus departs a little after 9am then heads out of the sprawling city. By the first stop at 11.45am the bus is hardly out of suburbia. I forgot to mention that you take off your shoes on the bus and leave them in a plastic bag. When you stop for conveniences they give you flip-flops to use. How thoughtful! At 1.15pm the bus stops again: This time for lunch. I can’t figure out whether that’s free but I’ve already brought something. During this break it starts to rain. Yes! We’re in the mountains now.
Not for the first time on tours, I get out my netbook and start writing my blog. Did I just miss some beautiful scenery? But this time there’s a first for me on tour. Before the break I figured out that there is wifi on the bus. Was that the access code on the panel above the driver? Sure is! My iphone fires up. Now at 2pm the netbook fires up as well. Brilliant! Seven hours is a long time on a bus and looking out the window doesn’t help pass the time. Similar to Cambodia the population seems to live along the roadside not in small villages broken up with open farmland. It’s more boring than watching paint dry.
After 4pm I try to find sign telling me how far it is to Dalat. It’s hopeless: I think they’ve gone extinct. Surely at 5pm I should get some indication of impending arrival. Nope! However soon we reach a stretch of road unlike anything I’ve yet seen in Vietnam. It would put some roads in the UK to shame. This splendid dual carriageway has practically no traffic. The driver for once can take a rest from constantly blowing his horn. It can only mean we’re near to Dalat surely but although there are hills around they’re nothing like the French Alps I’ve read about. Soon the nice dual carriageway end and turns into a single carriageway. Then the bus begins to climb. There are no more ugly houses to view. The climb last for half a hour reaching the pine forest belt. Then over a rise the road descends into Dalat. It’s not far off dark and we pull into a bus station on the outskirts of town. It’s not what I was expecting. Exiting the bus there’s a bit of a shock. I know there’s been a lot of rain but it feels really cold. When you’ve been used to temperature around 30c something below 20c is quite a drop. What do I do now? Ah! There are shuttle buses. I pile into one and show the driver the name of my hotel. He nods and I realise this is part of the service. We’re deposited outside La Pensee Hotel. Phew! That’s a big relief.
Dalat, first impressions……..I deposit my belongings in the room. It seems ok but head straight out for some dinner. Immediately I notice differences from Ho Chi Minh were it is normal to show the menu on a stand in front of the restaurant. How can I tell one from another on selection and price? Here the idea is to get you to walk in where you are invited to a table them given the menu. After some walking around in confusion I have to eat somewhere and enter one restaurant but refuse to sit down till I’ve seen the menu. I then walk out again. I just want to eat not stuff myself silly. To achieve this I go into a more basic restaurant. This time it’s under budget but the pork on rice does the job. I just have to get used to things here. Before I return to the hotel there’s one more job. I’ve booked for one night at La Pensee Hotel but the idea is to lock in the first night’s accommodation and see how it goes. As with Kim Khoi Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City I decide to make a change. I book for the next two nights at Thesinh Tourist Hotel. It has a chair and table so I can work with my netbook. It also has breakfast included and the price is about the same as La Pansee. Both hotels are just outside the town centre on the hillside which is dominated by hotels but still within easy walking distance of the town centre. There appears to be little in the way of nightlife. It seems that the hotel caters for most of your needs including booking tours. In this respect Dalat achieves one thing. It’s a great place to relax but on the other side of the coin I hope that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do. I pick up some tour brochures and my first impression is that the day trips are expensive. In Dalat, traffic is not much of an issue and it could be a good place to rent a motorcycle. There are obvious advantages for having independent transport. Dalat, as a resort town was very popular with the French who wanted to get away from the heat of Saigon. Let’s see what it means for me over the next few days. I turn in early hoping to complete my blog in the morning Next Page.