After a hard first holiday week of coffee shops and walks around local parks we were off for Alice’s first holiday to Dalat. Dalat is about 300km north of Saigon in the central highland region. It was used in French colonial times as a holiday destination for the French as it has a cooler climate and fresher air. A respite from the heat and humidity of Saigon.
It’s just a 35 minute flight from Saigon but it was still an adventure for Alice as she hasn’t been on a plane since she came to Vietnam at the beginning of February when she was still tiny. This time she was able to sit up and enjoy the view along with mummy and daddy.
We stayed at the Ana villas on the outskirts of the city. These are former French colonial villas set in a pine tree forest overlooking the town. With the climate and the architecture it feels like a trip to Europe.
We spent a lot of our time here relaxing outside on the grass around the villas as this something that we can’t do very often in the heat of Saigon.
On our first evening here we had a walk into the lake in the town centre. Despite a slightly sketchy walk into the centre, we made it there for a lovely evening stroll in the cool weather. Alice received an even higher celebrity status here than in Saigon where they are much more used to seeing foreigners. We were asked to pose for several photos on the walk around the lake including a man who was probably a little too excited to get a photo with us.
On Thursday morning we took a trip to the Nui Bibadoup national park with our friends Adam, Imogen and baby Tilly. We arrived at the waterfall hiking trail and had a quick playtime before we set off. The hike took us around an hour to get to the tip of the waterfall trail and a little less to get down. Alice and Tilly both loved the trip and we’re able to take in the experience of a forest hike and seeing lots of nature on the way there but had a long nap on the walk back.
After getting a quick Vietnamese lunch, we all headed to the zoo which was much more of a farm. Zoos in Vietnam generally have a bad reputation, especially the one in Saigon so we were pleased to generally see animals looking healthy and in slightly larger spaces than we’ve seen before in zoos in Asia.
Alice was a little scared of the goat noises when she first arrived but soon warmed up to the animals and made friends with the raccoons,shetland ponies and alpacas. Although we were all more than a little frightened of the ostriches.
Next on Alice’s summer itinerary is a few days back home in Saigon and then a trip to the tropical island of Phu Quoc.
Baby Alice's Vietnamese summer 