There are so many places of whimsy, fantasy and beauty to explore in Dalat, that we didn’t even visit half of them during our two-week stay. It really was amazing. Maybe the most bananas one of these was the Dalat Amusement Park at Mong Mo Hill. There are acres to explore with so many things to see, and, looking back, I am amazed at all the things we saw there. We didn’t know this going in, however, we just knew there was a glass bridge to cross, and a park to explore. We bought tickets including the glass bridge crossing, and went in. The bridge is the first thing we saw, and planned to visit it later. There was also a huge slide underneath, as you can see.
We headed the opposite direction of the bridge entrance, past cabins we later learned where visitors can stay within the parks gates. We were basically by ourselves as we wandered; first,past four tusks rising from the ground, then a wooden building with a mother-of-pearl shrine inside, next, past a couple of white stone statues…
…then a large, white stone replica of the US Capitol, with a small plaque identifying it. Odd, right? I mean, I look like King Kong, right out in the middle of this pine tree forest, climbing the US Capitol.
We continued on our way, over a castle rampart, then down a stone path, past some big pitched roof, wood buildings. A tall, black, white, and red totem pole with flags draped off of it sat on the grass. Inside of each of the buildings were many artifacts from the ancient tribes of Vietnam (we assumed, there weren’t many signs). There was also a stone xylophone, that I had to play, as there were no workers or any other tourists around.
We used the bathrooms in one of the buildings, and those were maintained, so this area wasn’t abandoned. Near the bathrooms we saw a shuttle station, and had read that a shuttle ran every 10-15 minutes throughout the park. Since this area was so deserted, we figured it wouldn’t come to this spot, and after waiting about 10 minutes, started walking. We traveled under a gate, strewn with hanging metal gongs, and past a line up painted, stone elephants, because of course.
Not too far past the elephants we heard, and then saw, the shuttle race past us, and we waved at the driver to pick us up. He nodded and drove past, then shortly came back around (apparently he was checking the bus stop where we had been sitting) and we hopped in. We didn’t know where he was taking us, but it was uphill, and that was enough. Soon we were back at the entrance and the glass bridge, but I saw two flower peacocks and the maze, so we went that way, putting off the glass bridge again.
After walking around the maze (which was a pretty basic one), we continued on, finding some stairs to nowhere. We climbed the stairs and were greeted with a great view of the lake (this place has a lake, too?) and countryside.
Back down the stairs and on our way we went, past the wax museum (we didn’t care to pay the extra entry fee for it), lots of flowers, a person-sized coconut water carton, and a life-size chessboard.
The lake came into view, with hundreds, maybe thousands, of red flowers in full bloom.
We walked down the steps, painted with flowers, to reach the lake’s edge.
The shuttle depot was here, along with a mini-mart, where we bought some ice cream bars and sat and looked out at the lake. After we were done with our ice cream bars we walked along the road next to the lake, with manicured flower gardens on our left and the lake on our right.
The road slowly inclined, with the occasional motorbike or work truck passing by; we were following two different small groups of fellow tourists, so figured they knew something worthwhile was that way. Eventually we came upon a large rose garden and stopped to smell some. We saw the road forked with a small guard stand; the guard pointed us the direction of uphill. We were getting sweaty at this point, but carried on. Not long after we heard a shuttle bus lurching up the hill, and waved down the driver, who let us hop in.
He took us the rest of the way up the road, which we were quite grateful for, and even happier when the destination was the park Bonsai garden. There were more tourists here, most just milling about, as there are so many Bonsai gardens in Asia that they aren’t seen as special as they are to us.
After spending a fair amount of time in the garden, we hopped on the shuttle once again (not the one Jessica is in front of below). We figured it would take us back to the entrance; as we descended down, we came upon the guard post again, and went right down the road that the security guard told us not to go down earlier. We shrugged and thought, where were we off to now, could there really be more to see?
You know the answer is yes. What could it be? Wait, that looks like the Easter Island statues, are they? And is that the Roman Colosseum? Isn’t that the Merlion we had seen in Singapore a month ago? Yes, yes, and yes. This was the replica garden of famous world structures. See how many you can name.
There were at least a dozen more we didn’t take pictures of. I’ve never seen anything like it, and it was actually very cool. There was also a ropes course and huge trampoline in the woods behind all of this, where kids were getting harnessed in and were having fun as well as pony and horse rides.
There was still one road to go down, and we had seen a shuttle bus emerge from it, so we headed that way. Past a couple kids getting on ponies for a ride, with mom readying her camera. We walked into one of the huge green houses which was the strawberry house. Dalat is famous for its strawberries, but it wasn’t the season, so couldn’t try any. The farmer working waved a friendly hello from way across the greenhouse. Back outside, we saw the below pavilion and headed toward it. The road ended at the hydrangea garden, with flowers as big as our heads.
We waited for the shuttle to come get us, exhausted from being at the park almost the whole day. Once the shuttle arrived, we waited on a family who had arrived via downhill go-cart. We then watched workers pack the go-carts on a truck to take back up to where they started. We hadn’t seen go-carts, so who knows where they took off from?
Once the go-cart riders boarded the shuttle we were off, back to the miniature monument village. We boarded a different shuttle and it took us almost the whole way back to the entrance, leaving us in front of some big straw horses. We walked under the tunnel of love…but still had one thing left to do, the glass bridge!
We showed our tickets and were given shoe covers to walk across the bridge. It was nearing day’s end and we were lucky to be the only ones on the bridge! It was super cool, though Jessica didn’t like it as much as I did, as one part is touch activated to make a loud cracking sound, like the glass is shattering.
The view was great, the weather perfect, and it really was a great way to end our park day. Once we arrived on the other side, we realized we were basically back where we started (though we had to skip the petting zoo, but did say hi to the llamas on our way out). Good bye, Dalat Amusement park, we will not soon forget you!
It was quite the day, and felt we had earned a stop across the street, at the aptly named German (Beer) House. Since it had just started raining, it seemed like the best idea to stop in. We did a beer tasting, shared some currywurst and fries, and relaxed. What a day!
This may have been my favorite post I’ve written, as it was so fun to recap this day with Jessica. I had planned to cover the other whimsical places we visited in Dalat, but that will have to wait until the next post. There are way more adventures to come!
Phil's WayPastCool 