Around Dalat
I like to get up to Dalat once on each trip. I have friends, Rich and Nga, who live there and I have met Their friends who are also Americans living abroad. This trip I met Tom and his wife Ngoc. I get some good prospective that my Vietnamese friends may miss due to their always having lived there. .

Dalat is 4875 feet above sea level so the temperature is much cooler than down in Saigon. The pace is slower as well. Dalat is a Farming area. One of the farmers here is Veggi Bob, an American who began importing vegetables to Vietnam and now raises his own vegetables here. I am told the quality is very good and he sells to the best hotels in Saigon and Hanoi.

There is also a lot of history in Dalat. The last Emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, had a Summer Palace there. In fact there were 3 Summer palaces. One is now open to the public and it is a beautiful building that sits on a hill overlooking the lake. At one time one could only visit Dalat if one had the permission of the Emperor. There are many old French buildings from Colonial times. I have a page on Ana Mandara which is a much see here. The town is built on hills that cause the streets to wander around. There are Temples and Pagodas and some beautiful waterfalls and lakes. There is Elephant Island where there are Elephants which will give you a ride around the island. The village of the Lat people is a good place to visit. When we were there in 2003 we went out and met an elder of the Lat who spoke Lat, Vietnamese, French and English. He showed us instruments and told us of folk lore. He remembers the Americans and the French.