Saigon & Dalat

Saigon is a world class city, on it's way to lifting Vietnam out of poverty to become the next Asian economic powerhouse. The city is filled with wide boulevards, large parks, french colonial architecture, and great museums, restaurants, markets, theaters, and bars. Last decade the communist government allowed for private ownership and capitalist ventures, the people have embraced the freedoms and nearly every single house has a business operating out of it's front. One sure sign is the arrival of Christmas marketing. Nearly every shopping center has a Santa surrounded by a north pole village, with street vendors selling all sorts of xmas decorations. And it wasn't at all for the tourists, Santa was there for the local kids.

Some good adventures were a day exploring the temples of Saigon's Chinatown, an afternoon at the Saigon racetrack, and attending a production at the municipal theater.

I spent days taking it all in before reluctantly heading out, but my next destination was Dalat. This town is in the central highlands, situated on a lake and surrounded by small mountains, has the feel of a swiss town in the alps. With its mild weather and beautiful landscape filled with waterfalls, its become very popular as a honeymoon spot for Vietnamese. One day i rented a moped to get out of town to some trails and waterfalls. At Datanla waterfalls my guidebook wrote of a picturesque but difficult hike down to the falls. Well, in the meantime, a gravity powered mini-rollercoaster had been installed to fly me down to the falls in no time. A bit surreal in the middle of the outdoors.

Here's all the pics from Saigon & Dalat.