Today we had a small panic trying to rent a bike. In preparation for the Ha Giang loop, I am trying to rent exclusively semi automatics to learn the gears solidly. These are also significantly cheaper to rent. We messaged a few companies asking for availability and they replied with sold out for the weekend- even in the automatic bikes. Finally, we found one for 100,000 dong (less than £4) for the whole day and a semi automatic.

We set off for the alpine coaster right away. The drive was fairly short but busy with coaches, bikes, cars, roundabouts, and traffic lights. It became apparent that the semi automatic was a good choice with it being lightweight and much more manageable in traffic.

The alpine coaster is a toboggan style ride where you sit and slide down coaster tracks through the forest. We sat down and started our decent through the trees. Automatic breaks prevented us from crashing into the cart in front as we shot around the corners. It was amazing.

The ride finished at the base of Datanla waterfall. We watched as people abseiled down the falls making a note to check the price for ourselves (it was too much). The base of the waterfall was kitted out with adventure activities such as archery and some dinosaur sculptures complete with a set of testicles! Image below

Next, we zoomed off the the clay tunnel. This location was on the side of the river with a very scenic but very windy ride to access. The name is deceptive, it was a park full of clay sculptures from animals, to vehicles, and even a Covid section depicting germs battling vaccine needles. We walked around mesmerized by the statues.

After, we head off to the monastery and cable car. This zen location was a welcome pit stop to slow down, have a stroll, find a kitty, and have some lunch. We chose to skip the cable car as the view was limited to forest and road construction.

Refreshed from lunch, we navigated to the puppy farm. Expecting just a dog cafe we were shocked to find a huge entertainment site. They had camels, goats, donkeys, capybaras, raccoons, Guinness pigs (typo should be Guinea but was funny), golden retrievers, corgies, a winter wonderland set up, huge doughnuting rainbow slide, and a flower forest. We pet the animals and rode the slide. The winter wonderland had fake snow blasting and Christmas songs playing with a Santa’s grotto!

Needing to get the bike back, we drove back into the main city of Da Lat in rush hour. Robin was impressed, and I impressed with myself, as I weaved in and out of traffic to get us back safely.

For dinner we went with a friend we had made at the maze bar the night before to the night market. We had pho to warm ourselves up even after a day of trousers and hoodies.

To bed as we have a long tour tomorrow.

-M