In the high plateaux of the center of Vietnam one can find Dalat , city of Lam Dong province.
Vietnam counts 54 ethnic groups, number of these minorities populates this region.

The western part of these high plateaux edges the borders of Cambodia and Laos, the sea of china delimiting the oriental part.
exception of the province of Dalat the surrounding zones remained forbidden of access to the strangers until 1992, because one says the rehabilitation camps was for most situated in this region.

The city:

Dalat city of the high plateaux, altitude 1475m occupies a moderate region and account many lakes and falls .
Its climate between 15 and 25 degrees is that it is one of the most pleasant place of Vietnam . "City of the eternal spring"
Well-known for its flowers, notably of the roses and its orchards.

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The journey:

Departure by plane of Saigon return ticket at 40 US dollars.
Only one link aerial Saigon Dalat no link with Hanoi.
The Vietnamiens colleagues of Saigon were astonished to see that i leave alone to Dalat because the city is especially known like place of holiday for newly-weds.

Arrived and curious landing , enormous noise when touching the ground I believed one instant that a problem had arrived to a tire of the landing gear, my American neighbors seeming ask together the same questions also.
But all was normal.

I could borrow to reach Dalat the taxicab of the airport cost 20000 Dongs (1 pound) for 40km average. Vietnamese had the habit to charge the double to the strangers but there, it didn't happen.

In city some restaurants apply this difference of treatment and propose a card in English and the other in Vietnamese with evidently 2 tariffs.

Hotel chosen Europa Chau Au advised by colleagues
76 Nguyens Chi Thanh St 12 US dollars the room.

Dropping in front of the hotel by the bus.
The boss of the hotel spoke English and French.
Comfortable room with in the bathroom the tub special Vietnam.
In the country, not of sluice gate in the tub but the most often a hole on the bottom that pours water on the tiling in gully of the bathroom and then recuperation of the one here in a sluice gate of soil.

Beautiful view of my balcony on the city and on the small Eiffel tower of the post office, midget retort of the original.
Dalat was called "the small Paris" once. doctor Alexandre Yersin collaborator of Pasteur louis who discovered the vaccine of the plague made a lot for the rapid expansion of the city in 1893.The place becoming thus very popular for the European happy to escape the heat of the plains of the delta.

The same day in the evening visit of Huu Hanh Gallery kind of cloister where works Vietnamese on settings of silk and weave marvelous pictures 150US Dollars on average.
Dining in the evening at the restaurant Long Hoa in the center city the very friendly boss speaks as Englih and French and is very proud to have pass in 1954 the French final exam in the high school of Dalat.


The following day renting with the help of the hotel's boss of a motorcycle with driver (Easy Rider).
Departure to 8h00 the hotel for a buckle of 100km about of which I will come back exhausted but delighted of the trip.
Passage in the small cities and farming villages, discover of the local life.

Journey of 50km about and arrived at the one of the most important falls of the area, Pongour ticket 5000 dongs 200 pences.

Visit then of the village of the chicken, live by the Koho minority, clothed of way Vietnamese but with their own life style
. Thename of the village is due because an enormous statue of concrete placed in the center of the village and representing a hen.
By tradition when two young people get married the fiancée's family offers some chickens the most often to the beautiful family or buffalo if richer.
Purchase in the village of a beautiful red woven carry letter.

Passage and stop dinner then in a place named the valley of the love, sort of Vietnamese Disney land or after having taken a cablecar you will be able to go for a walk in very beautiful gardens edged of a small lake with a wheel to dawn, place enough kitsch!

Stop then in a pagoda at the side of the lake Da Nhim after having wiped a big downpour and where I could appreciate the simple plastic but efficient protecting me from rain lented by the boss of the hotel.

Return on Dalat, visit of the summer residence of Bao Dai, last emperor of the country while taking the care beforehand to thread the on shoes, I could sit myself with the driver's complicity in the emperor's office and could make photograph me.

Passage then to visit the convent of Marie's Domain, beautiful pink building to the roofs of tiles with its pretty religious central garden .The nun acts here in favor of the orphan disabled and homeless.

End of the course visiting the Hnang Nga crasy house , the mad queer building
kind of Factor Horse palace in French Drôme.
Each room of the house is strange.One made of wire spiders canvases , the other with a sort of giraffe and all these rooms habitables with a bed.

The last day before taking the plane for Saigon, passage to the market of the city.
I could at the detour of cages of chickens, find a shoemaker and make carve and sole my shoes in flanks of tires. Excellent work of one hour executed by skill young people . And I was after ready for numerous hours of walk.

Thank you for reading