travel | Blue lady blog

During Pchum Ben holiday, Ani and I made a plan to travel to Dalat, a famous destination for honeymooners and vacationers alike, and Nha Trang, known as an “overdeveloped” capital of Khanh Hao province of Vietnam.

We took a night bus called Virak Buntham which provides rather big seats if you order one in the middle of the rows. It left around 1 am after midnight only to find out that they came back to Phnom Penh three hours later because a road was cut by floods. Usually, the night bus takes a different route from a normal bus that runs during the days. The short-cut route toward Saigon is through Neak Leung where you’ll cross there the river by ferry.

Transportation

Lady Buddha Pagoda in Dalat which, I was told, is made of empty beer bottles

To travel from Phnom Penh to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh, I recommend reliable bus companies like Mekong Express Bus, Sapaco, Capitol Tours, Mailinh, Phnom Penh Soriya Transport but do consider Virak Buntham Express Travel for its night bus services, though the staff can throw their attitude around you (all included in this link).

Once in Vietnam, do consider going directly to any of these bus companies such as Phuong Trang or Mailinh because they are known as reliable and fast. When I got off the bus fromPhnom Penh, Ani and I wanted to buy a ticket from HCM to Dalat.

We hurriedly and (rather confusedly) went to one of the travel agency offices along Pham Ngu Lao street which offered us a Phuong Trang bus ticket in a slightly higher price, of which we could get a cheaper price directly from Phuong Trang bus company. So it’s something we should avoid later.

Travelling in Dalat

Dalat countryside

As soon as I hopped off the Phuong Trang bus, I felt like I was in Europe.

Really? Is this Europe? I was bracing for warmth, and if I had googled more information or searched for Dalat on www.wikitravel.org, I wouldn’t have suffered cold in shorts and a T-shirt and wouldn’t be complaining right now. And, I really think that google.com or wikitravel.org are real life-savers when people want to travel to a certain area in the world. Usually, you’ll also find info you need.

Soon after that, I also realized that we were quite far from the metropolitan area where there were more restaurants, hotels, guest houses and markets. We gave ourselves a nice physical exercise to remember by not accepting any offer of ride from tax-drivers or xe-rom known as motor-taxi drivers.

Are we there yet? Can we take a moto-taxi or a taxi? I’d tried hard to convince him that I was in no mood for walking such a long distance.

Soon we’ll be there, he said, offering me his sweater, but I thought he needed it more than I did. After an hour of walking, we found Xuan Huong lake. As a matter of fact, people can easily find any kind of hotels or restaurants just about 100 metres or a stone’s throw away from the lake. So find the lake first before looking for a hotel or guest house.

The first bill I got came as: 1.5 dollar for Pho, about $0.50 for coffee.

Places in Dalat you are highly recommended to visit when in Dalat: the Crazy House to see fairy-tale inspired architecture, three Palaces (which I missed visiting), Dalat’s old train station, the Valley of Love, Xuan Huong lake, Lady Buddha pagoda, coffee plantations, a hill-top pagoda and after all, get one of the Easy Riders to take you around Dalat or the Central Highlands on a one-week trip. Besides tour services, the Easy Riders can even tell you where you can get a cheaper hotel room or restaurant.After Dalat, we took a 4 to 5 hour bus to Nha Trang where you can see so many things listed in here. Dalat as well as Nha Trang have earned a place in my heart, and if I have to come back to Vietnam, they would definitely be a big part of my reason to return.