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We headed out of Mui Ne and drove to Phan Thiet to withdraw cash. We prefer withdrawing cash from an ATM on a weekday and next to an open bank in case our card gets swallowed or the withdrawal would fail.

When we headed out in the direction of Da Lat, it started to rain lightly, but we somehow managed to stay ahead of the rain. The first three quarters of an hour we drove on Highway one, and then turned left onto the QL28B. We drove almost non stop until our first stop; Bao Dai waterfall named after Bao Dai king, the last monarch of the Nguyen Dynasty. In the area Lat and K’Ho minority groups live. When we got to the ticket booth it was abandoned and in ruins. We parked our bike, and just then a Swedish man came back from the waterfall and said the path is mostly overgrown and the infrastructure already a long time abandoned. We walked down over the path that was indeed overgrown but where beautiful large trees grow. At the end of the path we were taken by surprise by the impressive waterfall. There was no one else and we had the place all to ourselves! 

We drove back to the main road and stopped for a drink and some fries (that was all they had as food) at Ta Hine cafe, a cute homestay and cafe with a very instagrammable garden and a great view over the Dao Nhin lake. 

We continued and made a second stop at Pongour waterfall, the seven level waterfall. It is 100 m wide and 40 m high and has a terraced appearance. King Bao Dai gave it the title of the best waterfall in Southern Vietnam. 

We then drove to Da Lat via a back road, made a stop for a coffee and a juice and put on our rain coat and trousers because it started to rain lightly. When we were 30 minutes out from Da Lat it started to rain harder and by the time we reached Da Lat is was pouring. We arrived at our hotel completely soaked. And just then it stopped raining… 

We enjoyed a hot shower in Boutique Villa 22 and put on a fleece, because it was really chilly in Da Lat. We had dinner in a small vegetarian restaurant, Ưu Đàm Tịnh Quán, where the food was really refined and very creatively composed!!

It rains a lot in Da Lat, so on our two day, three night stay we tried to do stuff in between the rain showers.On our first day we visited the palace of the 13th and last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty who reigned from 1926 till 1945. He abdicated in 1945 in favor of Ho Chi Minh and even served as an advisor in the Ho Chi Minh government. Bao Dai left Vietnam in 1946 and switched sides to the anti-communist nationalists but will lose his power to Prime minister Diem who was backed by the Americans. He was ousted in 1955 and lived in exile in Paris. He had his palace in Da Lat (palace I) and this art nouveau style summer palace (palace III) designed by a French architect. Today he is perceived quite negatively for being a traitor and for his lavish lifestyle. I found the Vietnamese visitors treated the place quite disrespectfully.

We took our motorbike for a trip around Tuyen Lam lake. The ride around the lake is scenic and green and there are pine forests. The pine woods, its altitude (1500 m) and its cool climate is the reason they call Da Lat Switzerland in Vietnam. Da Lat is also called the city of eternal spring and the garden of Vietnam with its numerous plastic greenhouses where they grow a wide range of vegetables, fruits and flowers from sweet potatoes and cauliflower over coffee and tea, roses to strawberries. 

We headed to Bình An village resort to have a drink and have a look at their lake view. The resort was closed so drove past the bewildered gate keeper and walked up to the lake where we had a beautiful view over the lake actually seeing Happy Hill café on the other side where you have to pay 100000 dong to just enter the cafe and enjoy the view, feeling even better about our free view! We made a nice unexpected hike here. 

We stopped at Mo Farm and ordered lunch at the really beautiful bistro building and were pleasantly surprised with the original and delicious food in a nice decor. We continued to Cozy Cafe which turned out to be a really ugly and crowded spot where you had to pay to get to the lake. We drove on drive towards Thong Dong village but were stopped because construction works were going on. We ended our tour at a the other side of the lake with a coconut coffee and fresh ginger tea at Lac de Lele for a last view of the lake before heading back to our French colonial style hotel.

Every morning we got a different local Vietnamese dish for breakfast: Banh Mi Xiu Mai: pork meatballs in a savory broth with fresh herbs and Vietnamese baguette, Banh Cuon: rice flour pancakes filled with shrimp and vegetables with basil and soy shoots and Pho Bo: noodle soup with beef.

We visited some of the sights of Da Lat: the Saint-Nicolas cathedral, Da Lat Xuan Huong lake and Lam Vien square, Da Lat station built in 1932, which is with the exception of a local tourist train, out of use. We continued to the intriguing Linh Phuoc pagoda, completely decorated with mosaics, featuring a 17 m high the statue of Guanyin made out of 650,000 dried flowers, a beautiful 37 m high tower where one can stick a message on a large bell and sound the bell three times for good luck. The pagoda was built in 1952 but in 1990 the abbot decided to decorate the pagoda with mosaics, many made out of porcelain cups, with a stunning result. 

We then drove on to Cau Dat, where the slopes are covered by tea plantations where high quality oolong tea is grown. Oolong tea is a partially oxidized tea, more oxidized than green tea but less oxidized then black tea. The result is a tea that holds the middle between green and black tea. We savored warm Oolong tea and Fortune Bubble Tea (passion fruit and mango taste) and took lunch with the tea plantations and mountains as our view at Cau Dat Bean. We then drove on and enjoyed the wonderful views of the green mountains some shrouded in clouds. On our way back to Da Lat we made a detour via the Tiger Waterfall. The road was closed of so we parked our bike and continued on foot. It turned out the site was actually closed but we still managed to see the waterfall (partly). But it was a nice ride and walk through pine woods. 

We finished our last evening in Da Lat (for this week, we will be back next week) with a dinner at the same wonderful vegetarian restaurant as the first evening, Ưu Đàm Tịnh Quán, and we also bought a bag of their wonderful lotus leaf tea. (At home we realized how good this tea really was…)

Also read: Two week motorbike trip South and North of Nha Trang, Part 4: From Da Lat to Nha Trang – Khan Le pass