Dalat

I made it to LangBiang mountain without too much trouble. Thanks to help from the girls who worked in the hostel and a lift to the bus stop, I was on my way out of town by 10am. The bus route ran through local towns and villages, a lot of which were under construction, and I had the strange sensation of having dust fly through the window. I have become so accustomed to closed windows and air con this was quite unexpected, but the colder nature of Dalat meant windows were used instead.

Arriving at the mountain, I was met with a ticketed enhance and Hollywood style LangBiang sign placed on top of a nearby hill. The entrance was also filled with Land Rovers as the most popular way this mountain is viewed is by paying for a lift to the top! I felt this would definitely be cheating, so set off up the road on foot.

I spent an hour walking up the road, passed by the occasional Jeep or motorbike but otherwise alone. Each time I was overtaken I could see amused faces peering out the back at the crazy Westerner who was walking, so I began to concentrate on making the steep hill look no effort at all whenever they passed!

Eventually I reached another ticket booth which led to a trail path heading in the opposite direction of the continuing road. I was told most people took the Jeep all the way to a vantage point but that the trail would lead me to the peak of the mountain, so of course I headed off road. From the ticket booth I could see a reasonably smooth path to walk along and thought to myself that I would be there in no time at all. However, as I turned around the first corner the path turned into uneven rocky ground, and only got more interesting from there! One of the most fascinating parts for me was the bright orange ground which stretched before me, this was unlike all other areas of Vietnam I have seen so far, and reminded me of clay rather than mud. Walking alone I was much more aware of the many butterflies and other insects around.

About ten minutes in, my trail path became more of a jungle path, and a little more difficult to navigate. When the path started to head downhill rather than up, I was certain I was somehow going the wrong way, but as I could see no other obvious path I continued on. I decided to go by the theory that as there were what looked like reasonably new footprints in the ground, I can’t have been the only one to walk that way. Around 20 minutes after the path had one again become a steep incline and I had become quite sure I was going the right way, I finally passed some people on their return journey. This was a relief, as was one of the guides telling me I only had 20 minutes more to go, one of them shouting ‘Good luck!’ after me was not so reassuring however!

Thirty minutes later I made it to the top, and while a longer pair of legs would have been useful for the ridiculously high wooden steps which were built into the mountain side, I felt there was no need for any luck whatsoever!

The following day I decided to sight see around Dalat before moving on to Ho Chi Minh City. The most intriguing place by far was called Crazy House, with architecture that reminded me of some of Gaudi’s work in Barcelona.

The bus to Ho Chi Minh City was definitely the most interesting journey so far. As we set off at 3pm I was able to enjoy Vietnamese landscape which I have missed with the night journeys. We passed through countryside with green rolling hills, and dark shadows of mountains in the distance up ahead. I was amazed to see some houses that, from a distance, looked at though they had been built on the edge of a hill and may fall at any moment. As the view faded into night a new excitement began. The traffic suddenly came to a halt. We moved a few metres in one and a half hours, and I began to worry we would be stuck all night. Finally passing the incident I was able to see a motorbike near the back of a lorry and what looked like a pile of plastic in flames. We drove by right next to this, there was even a small crowd of people looking at the flame, and there seemed no rush to put them out!