Vietnam travel destination 5: Dalat the Land of love and flowers

Da Lat has known under many romantic names as the City of Loves, the Foggy City, the Pine Forest City, the Flowers City, Le petit Paris… That is a city in Lam Vien Highland, Lam Dong Province, 310km from Ho Chi Minh City to the Northwest. Situated at 1500m above the sea level, surrounding by mountains and forests, DaLat is in good temperate all year around. It used to be the residential area of Lat, Chil and K’Hor people.

In the beginning of 20^th century, Da Lat was a deserted area. French people were built up many constructions as Villas, Offices, Hotels, School and even a tourist center. Da Lat became the best romantic City in Viet Nam thanks to its wonderful scenes with natural lakes, mountains, valleys, pines forests and hundreds kinds of flowers. That was not just a Little Paris but Paradise.

What to see in Dalat
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Xuan Huong Lake 

Xuan Huong Lake  is located right in the heart of the City, surrounding by mountains and Pine Hills. That is not a nature Lake. This place was a valley with a stream crossing over, the upstream was Cam Ly Waterfall. In 1919, French people were built a dam to block the stream that became a lake its name was Grand Lac. 
In 1953, Grand Lac was renamed Xuan Huong Lake. 

Xuan Huong Lake is the first feature of Da Lat.

There is another old construction that is Thuy Ta, a coffee bar. Thuy Ta was built on the water near the bank of Xuan Huong Lake. That is a small white house with a large balcony in the back that is the best place for viewing Da Lat City.

Doi Cu ( Golf Course)

Doi Cu ( or Cu hill) is the hill and valleys up and down in the center of Da Lat City, next to Xuan Huong Lake. Without Xuan Huong Lake and Cu Hill, it is not Da Lat. Cu Hill was a restrict area for construction. It used to be the 9 holes Golf Course that was quite famous in the South East Asia. Doi Cu nowadays is the 18 holes Golf Course

Bao Dai Palace – Dinh III

Bao Dai was the last King of Viet Nam. Bao Dai Palace III was built in 1933-1938 on the top of the hill and large area with flower gardens in front and back yards. The palace was built to Western architectural style.
This palace is preserved and open to public. In the ground floor, that was place for receiving guests, Bao Dai office, meeting room, entertain room and others. The first floor was the living room and bed rooms of Bao Dai King, Nam Phuong Queen, Princesses and Princes

Domain de Marie Church

Domain de Marie Church situated on Mai Anh Hill, around 1km from Da Lat Center. It also called Mai Anh Church as there were a lot of Cherry flowers on that hill. It was built in 1930-1943 with the old Western style. ( 17th century)
This church has no Bell Tower as most of the others. There is a statue of Maria standing on the globe which designed by a French architect in 1943. The statue is 3meters height and 1ton weight, was offered by Mrs. Suzanne Humbert, she was a wife of Mr. Decoux, “ Toan Quyen Dong Duong “ ( the Indochina Governor ) under the French Colonial period. When she died because of a car accident at Prenn Pass, she was buried at this Church.
Besides the religion, Domain de Marie Church has doing some charity works for helping the orphanages

Truc Lam Pagoda

Truc Lam Pagoda ( Thien Vien Truc Lam in Vietnamese) is not just a biggest and nicest Pagoda in Da Lat. That also is one of most attractive destination for tourists. Situated on the top of Phoenix Mountain, the main gate fronts view to a mountain and the beautiful Tuyen Lam Lake right at the bottom, 140steps down from the pagoda . It was built in 1993-1994, and was designed by Vu Xuan Hung and Tran Duc Loc architects and Ngo Viet Thu’s ideas ( Ngo Viet Thu is a famous Vietnamese architect who was designed for Reunification Hall in Ho Chi Minh City ) . The abbot of Truc Lam Pagoda is Thich Thanh Tu Monk.

Datanla Waterfall

Datanla Waterfall is around 6 km from Da Lat City, on Prenn Pass. It was relevant for people who like adventure. This waterfall is in a deep valley with a stable source of water in the upstream for the whole year. The water goes down from 20m height to an area called “ Suoi Tien”, the Fairy Stream. Tourist likes to walk into this very cool and transparent water.
For tourist’s convenience, there is a nice road to go down to the waterfall or tourist can use the chutes’s system for sliding down or be pulling up.

Crazy house

Crazy house or “ Cung Hang Nga” is a strange architectural works. Open in 1999 and became one of the attraction site for most of domestic .

Lang Biang Mountain

Lang Biang is a name of a mountain in Lam Vien ( Lang Biang ) highland, around 11km from Da Lat City to the West. The main tribe in Lang Biang is Lat people and many Kinh people nowadays. Due to the economic development, those Ethnic people changed their life: houses, clothes ..but still keep their traditional custom. As other hill tribe people, Lat people worship the God of mountain, water… 

Lang Biang is the highest mountain of Lam Vien Highland ( 2,169m above the sea level) . There is a small road from the bottom of Lang Biang Mountain to the top. It takes around 20minutes by Jeep. For adventure tourist, they preferred to walk up over hill to hill through the pine forest. From the top of Lang Biang Mountain, the whole view of Da Lat City opened in your sight.

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