I look around and wonder if I am still in Vietnam.
Yes I am, but this city has nothing to do with the country I know.

Da Lat is clean, very clean. Almost a sanitised version of Vietnam. The layout, the lake with pedal-boats, the houses and the numerous European-style cafes remind me of cities in northern Italy or central Europe. If it wasn’t for the street food sellers and the fact that everything is written in Vietnamese, I would think I have been transported back home.

It is much colder than in any Vietnamese town/city I have been so far (after all we are at 1500m altitude). Being able to walk around in the middle of the day without turning into a pool of sweat is actually a relief. Wearing a fleece jumper in the evening is  a welcome surprise.

But despite the fact that I had read about Da Lat, I wasn’t ready for this and it all feels very strange.

We had dinner at a place called Art Cafe’, something that would not look out of place in Paris.

Table cloths are large sheets of white paper, crayons are available next to your cutlery. You can express yourself there. And I couldn’t resist leaving my mark too :-)

The next couple of days are going to be interesting…