Being so high up meant that the temperature was significantly cooler here and as soon as we got off the bus we felt it. It was actually quite refreshing though. Dalat was so different then anywhere that we had been so far and it felt really relaxing to be here.
We were staying in a backpackers hostel, and had a room on the very top floor so had great views over the hillside. The management was fantastic and straight away told us about the night market that was happening. We had literally just been saying how strangely quiet it was on the streets... until we turned a corner and found everyone.
It was packed. There were so many stalls selling fruit, veg, sweets, clothes, shoes, souvenirs, woolly hats and scarves, knitted jumpers, the list could go on. It was quite exciting to be there and we didn't get hassled half as much which meant we could actually look a lot closer.
The next day we were debating which waterfalls to see but all of the bus tours were so expensive and you only got to see one waterfall at a time. So instead we asked the manager and he said to write down everywhere we wanted to visit and he would sort it for us. He arranged 2 drivers for us with motorbikes, for 2 days, to see 5 different waterfalls. The price was much more on our level so off we went.
The drivers were so kind and friendly and even though we were only paying for the waterfall tours, they still stopped off for us to let us stop to pictures of the views, and visit the old railway station and some other little sites.
Now for the waterfalls...
For us, each one was so different, the journeys there and the little hikes down to each one but we know to others it's a lot of the same thing so we've summarised as much as we can. In person they were amazing though.
The first day we went to see Datanla Falls, and Tiger falls.
Datanla was the closest to Dalat so it was very busy and crowded. Tiger falls on the other hand was much further away and when we got there there wasn't a soul in sight, except for a little old lady laying in a hammock who we bought tickets from.
Datanla
Tiger Falls (spot Sean)
The guys took us to a local restaurant for lunch. It wasn't somewhere that we would have chosen to go from the outside but the food was so good!
Day 2 began by visiting Prenn waterfall. Again this was the closest so a lot more tourists. They also did elephant rides here but Alex is a bit sceptical about doing it in certain places when you don't know how they're looked after. We've already done some research into some proper elephant sanctuaries for later on in the trip anyway so we weren't too bothered about not doing it here.
Prenn
Walking behind the falls
Next was Pongour waterfall. This is the largest but again it was very quiet with hardly anyone there as it's further away.
Tried setting the timer to get one of us both
Finally was the Elephant falls. This took a lot more climbing to get down to and obviously when we got there Sean couldn't resist climbing even further.
Finding a cave behind the falls
Our drivers told us about another tour that we could do with them to move on to the next place, which included spending a night half way. The price was so much more than we could afford though and they even brought it down a lot for us (eventually to almost half) but we just couldn't stretch our budget that far. Long story short we eventually decided on taking one guide who would drive Alex and then I would drive the second motorbike. I've literally been dying to get on one since we got to the Philippines so this was perfect!
We were about to head out for dinner that night when we passed out tour guides and the hotel management having some beers outside and they immediately insisted we sat down and joined them. It turned out to be a really good night just chatting to them all about our different lives.
:)
Fun fact... We found out eating dog meat here is a lot more common that we first thought :/ we actually didn't even know they ate it here at all.
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