Road to the North, Ho Chi Minh City and Dalat.

I had just arrived back from my guided visit to the Mekong delta with ethnic travels, Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon) was a very busy, noisy place.

The following day I hired a local motorbike taxi and headed out to see some of the famous places in Saigon. For $10 for the entire day it was a bit expensive compared to going on a minibus but only with a motorbike can you feel the real busy feeling of Saigon.

First place to visit was the reunification palace, the head quarters of the South Vietnamese government prior to the reunification of Vietnam in 1975. The Palace was a massive structure with ballrooms, theaters, conference rooms and dinning rooms. It over looked a main road, which leads to the river.

On the grounds was parked 2 tanks, both the same model as the ones that in 1975 bulldozed down the gates and lead the Vietcong into the palace to remove the south Vietnamese government. On the roof of the palace was a helicopter used by the president to tour in.

I tagged on the back of a guided tour group throughout the palace and listened in, it was full of history and stories from the past.

From the palace, I hopped on my Moto-taxi again and headed to the war remnants museum, a collection of war machines and building dedicated to the history and truth of the war through pictures.

The outside was full of tanks, helicopters, guns and old bombs. All which were used during the war, but the real purpose of the complex was inside the building. The first floor was full of poster banners, paintings and pictures from countries around the world protesting to the war on Vietnam. Germany, Poland, England, Australia, USA, China, Russia… etc. All had News Paper posters from the time of the war and messages of protest. It also hosted a wall of medals, from people who had received them in America but sent them to the museum in protest.

The 2^nd floor was full of photos was the people killed illegally during the war, photos and recounts of people who were there and there stories. It’s a important piece of history and it’s a unbelievable that it happened.

The 3^rd and finally floor was to the survivors and a message of piece, a lot of chemicals (Agent Orange and the others) were used and left many new born children deformed, the floor was full of statistics and pictures of people deformed from the use of the these weapons. With a message of never let it happen again. It also closed with statistics of the war and how much money, peoples lives and explosives were used during the war compared to WW2 and Korean War. It was truly unbelievable.

After the museum,  the motorbike was off again this time to a old Chinese temple, one of the oldest temples in the city. It was a small Buddhist temple which had extravagant carvings on all the roofs and columns in the temple. There was several small rooms with shrines in them. The paintings on the walls were old and very beautiful.

The next day I checked out of the hotel, todays destination was DaLat, some 300km away in the hills of the southern highlands of Vietnam.

First I had to get out of Saigon, should be easy yeah? Saigon has more motorbikes and a maze of streets, it took me a while with the aid of a GPS (my iPhone) to get out of the city. Once I was on the AH1 (the main motorway in Vietnam which runs from Saigon to Hanoi) it was smooth sailing, just had to mind the trucks, busses, cars and police. There was a army of police on the road, and I happened to get pulled over on the AH1. The reason was that I was in the car lane not the breakdown lane or in Vietnam the Motorbike lane. 
The officer asked me for my license so I started slowly untying all the bags off my bike, after all my Vietnamese drivers license was in the most remote and time consuming place on my bike (under the seat, which I didn’t have a license so…), after 2 min the officer said, license here? Yes… Ok you just pay fine. 200, 000 dong, about $10 and I was off and on my way again. Hehe it paid off, if I didn’t have a license they had a slow pick up truck there to carry my bike away.  I got lucky.

The road was quite boring up until the 100km mark away from DaLat, when it started to climb in altitude and I passed a large lake that had a floating village on it.

The climb would take me through several small towns and villages, as it snaked its way through and up the mountains. Just as the sun was setting, I had still not reached DaLat, I was only 20km away so it was fine. But I looked behind me and it was as if the hills were on fire, the sun was setting and it cast a fiery glow over the hills. By the time I had pulled out my camera it had changed, but the effect was still nice.

Pulling into DaLat it looked like some European Swiss town, the hotels and buildings were all European architecture and grand. It had started to rain so I headed deeper into town. The hotels on the top of the hill would no doubt be expensive, I was looking for something much cheaper. 


One of the main streets, the hotels were 30$, bit further, 20$ and the side street…. $5? Done. It was clean and came with a free breakfast.. can’t complain about that. It was still within walking distance from the main square as well so no problems.

The next morning I headed around town on my motorbike to see the sights, DaLat had many temples and lots of hill tribes in the surrounding area’s. The area was heavily bombed during the war, so all the forests were destroyed and have never recovered. They are now the home of green houses where flowers and fresh produce are grown.

The first temple was a extravagant garden with statues of dragons and Buddha, all telling a story. In the middle of the complex was a small statue of Buddha and a temple for praying. It was very well preserved and looked well maintained.

I headed out of town, the next temple was famous in the area with a multi story pagoda, the temple was lined with small pieces of ceramic, giving it a shine but also high level of detail in the dragons and sculptures that were on the temple. 


Not only was every centimeter of the outside covered but the inside as well. It was a amazing sight, and close inspection of the ceramic pieces shows that they were pieces of old plates and vases smashed. The mosaic effect was amazing and I spent a long time looking over the temple. 


The pagoda was in a similar state every section was covered in small colored pieces of ceramic.

I headed further away from DaLat till the roads became mud and eventually had to turn back, the views gave me more of a sense how much into farming the surrounding villages were into.

On the way back into town i spotted a large golden Buddha on top of a hill, it wasn't on my guide book so it too some time finding it in the maze of streets but it was worth it, the grounds were covered in bonsai plants and the statue was on the top of a hill which over looked the town. very nice views.

That night I wanted the streets and side streets of DaLat, it was a maze in its own right and the small streets again felt more at home in Europe that anywhere else. It was quiet apart from the constant beep from motorbikes.

The next day I would leave DaLat along a small road, but that’s for next time.

Till then, Till Next Time,

HAVE FUN!

Steffen.