Teacher Trekker

Getting to Dalat, Vietnam

When I arranged my transportation to Dalat I was told by the travel agent to wait outside my hotel in Mui Ne and be ready to be picked up by the bus at approximately 12 p.m. In typical fashion I waited until well after 12:30 before the “bus” showed up. When my ride showed up there was no sleeper bus or coach bus. Instead, there was a twelve person van that was packed with fourteen people. I thought to myself, “this should be interesting,” and indeed it was. Magically, there was nowhere for me to sit. No wait there was a seat for me. The driver pulled out a padded square footrest or ottoman from the trunk that he nestled between the row of seats and the wall. I was basically squeezed between the interior wall of the van to my right and a shoulder of a fellow traveler to my left.

This is when I met Yann and Samira, a young and dynamic French couple who were traveling Asia for approximately five months. Vietnam was the last leg of their trip. Since we were going to end up rubbing shoulders the entire ride, we quickly struck up a conversation and made the best of a bad situation. Actually, I spoke to Yann for most of the trip as Samira was catching up on some much needed rest. We first complained about our transport woes. We were both told and paid for a “bus” ticket. Yann’s ticket even had a picture of a sleeper bus, but to reiterate, many travel agents play games and misrepresent the services and tours they offer. We all should have known better. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened to us, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. After our anger subsided, we moved into discussing topics like backpacking throughout Asia, US-French foreign policy and Dalat, our upcoming destination. We spoke for the majority of the ride as much of the rest of the van slept.

---

Roadside Rest Stop Between Mui Ne & Dalat

Half way through the four hour ride to Dalat we stopped briefly at a rest stop on the side of the road. This was, to date, the seediest rest stop I spent some time at during my entire trip in Asia. Comparatively speaking, the men had no right to complain compared to the women who may have had to use the toilet. That is unless it was raining and then the unroofed men’s room would have gotten much dirtier, if that was even possible. At the same time, there were plenty of other bathrooms in worse shape that travelers would encounter during their time in Asia (like the My Son visitor bathrooms), but for someone who was less than a week into their time in Vietnam, it was certainly an eye opener, and if it was possible to have been a nose closer, I would have been appreciative.

---

Arriving in Dalat & Getting a Hotel Room

As we approached Dalat, the van made many stops to drop off and pick up locals along the way. With the exception of the three of us, everyone else in the van were local Vietnamese. By the time we made it to the drop off point, we were the only people left in the van. We were dropped off a few blocks from the city center on a hilltop near one of the Easy Riders travel agency locations. The drop off site was also surrounded by a few cheap hotels. Samira went right into negotiating with the hotel receptionists and found a $6 hotel room at the Phúóng Hanh Hotel within our first 5 minutes of being in town.

We first checked out the rooms to make sure they were acceptable. The rooms were dated, but I didn’t travel to Vietnam to critique the furnishings inside hotel rooms I would spend as little time as possible in other than sleeping. The room had a wet bath with hot water and good water pressure. The wifi was decent, but better in the lobby, as is the case throughout Southeast Asia. There was even a shared public balcony for some pretty views of the city that guests could enjoy. The rooms did not have air conditioning, but it was not necessary. This was actually the case in many hotels in the area, but for a logical reason. Compared to much of Vietnam, Dalat’s location in the Central Highlands results in much cooler temperatures. On average it is 10 degrees cooler (Fahrenheit), and we felt this temperature shift the second we got out of the van. It was the only place during my entire trip in Asia that made me reach into my rucksack and pull out a sweatshirt to stay comfortable. The afternoon and evenings in Dalat are as my father would say “sweatshirt and shorts weather”. With the fan blowing, the room became cooler than I would have expected and was easily the coldest night of my trip.

In terms of value this hotel was a great find. However, for double the price you could have stayed at one of the hotels across the street and gotten more amenities. The other hotels were much more modern with newer furnishings. Additionally, they both had private balconies and much stronger wifi service. It was actually so strong I was able to pick up their signal and used their service after I went into their lobby inquiring about rooms. I was actually just looking for the wifi password that was fortunately displayed right out in the open on the counter in the lobby. I managed to get the best of both hotels and once again lucked out.

---

Finding a Travel Agency

After checking in to the hotel and grabbing a quick bite to eat, it was necessary to talk with a number of travel agencies to find out what tours were available for the following day. The three of us decided on a number of destinations we wanted to visit while we had dinner. Then we went bargain hunting. Prices varied greatly among all of the agencies, as did the number of destinations each tour would visit. Many of the tours only went to some of the places we wanted to visit. It looked like we were going to need two days to see all the sites. We decided that to visit everything we wanted to see, make more efficient use of time and get more bang for our buck we were going to book a private tour for the 3 of us with our own driver and guide. This way we would be able to see everything on our list and complete it in one day rather than pay for two tours over the course of two days. Comparatively speaking we were spending an extra few dollars to customize our own tour, visit everywhere we wanted to go and move at our own pace.

We decided to book with Easy Riders Vietnam for a number of reasons. First, they have many good reviews on the internet, where I first found their agency weeks prior when doing research for the trip. Second, their staff was very helpful and worked with us to design the best tour possible. Third, they were extremely knowledgeable about the area. A nice gentleman with probably the heaviest cigarette stains on his teeth helped point out locations on the map and was also able to compare similar attractions to allow us to make better use of our time. Fourth, they clearly were not trying to get over on us. They made some suggestions based on our provided itinerary ideas to get even more value out of the time we would have with our driver and tour guide. One such suggestion took our driver well out of the way, and they didn’t seem to mind driving in the opposite direction of the loop we were traveling in. It felt good to know they were doing everything in their power to provide us with an enjoyable experience in Dalat. After spending around 30 minutes working out all of the details, we gave them a small deposit (approximately US $5) and were told to be ready outside our hotel at 8 a.m. the following day. Our experience with Easy Riders Vietnam only got better, but that tale is for another time.