Adventures in Dalat

After the hustle and bustle of Saigon I decided to let out some of energy up in Dalat. Most people make their way towards the beaches of Mui Ne but since I had planned on going to the Nha Trang beaches after Dalat there really wasn't a reason to go to two beaches. Dalat is a small town up in mountains of Vietnam that much resembles the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Its got the same cooler temperatures and rolling hills along with the cloudy skies and small town atmosphere. Its known as a honeymoon destination for many Vietnamese. For foreigners, most people associate Dalat with the Easy Riders, a group of local guides who ride around on Russian style Harleys and take you on personalized tours of waterfalls, villages, pagodas, and other sights. I had something else in mind though. I came across a website for some adventure tours and the canyoning/abseiling trip seemed just the thing I needed.

The day began with myself and another Brit jumping in an old BMW and heading down to one of the closer falls where we had to wait because an American girl who had signed up at the last minute. Yay, finally another American traveler. We headed straight past the touristy falls with their amusement rides and Easy Riders everywhere. Trudging over, around, and through the river we finally came to an opening where we practiced our abseiling (much more safely then my previous experience in Pisgah). Right afterwards, we went straight into our first dry rappel to help prepare us for what was to come. Following the river down we got to a spot where we jumped right in and the guides just told us to lay down. Basically they pushed us on our backs down the waterfall to get our feet wet.

After a quick lunch our first wet rappel was pretty crazy. We started by coming down right in the middle of a waterfall and after your passed a boulder in the middle it was like standing underneath the Hoover dam. Hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water just poured on your face and you couldn't see anything, not that it mattered because the rock was so slick you could slip at any moment. More trekking led us to a spot where you could jump off a rock into the water below, making sure the guides went first so that we knew it was deep enough. The day ended in the falls they call 'The Washing Machine'. After rappelling for about 10 feet you're completely off the rock where its a free rappel into the falls and down. You run out of line and basically fall into the water which takes you down the bottom of the falls. Since we had a small group we all got to do this one twice. All in all it was a great way to release some energy and was one of the funnest days yet.