Da Lat is a mountain town about a seven hour drive (or 45 minute plane ride) from Saigon. The air is crisp and fresh, and it’s a great escape from Saigon’s heat and pollution. It reminded me a lot of Baguio in the seventies - hardly any traffic, pine trees and just beautiful weather. There’s a lake in the middle of the town, and a number of waterfalls outside of the city center. We even rode an “Alpine Sled” (think gravity powered roller coaster) that took us through the trees down to a beautiful waterfall.

One of the highlights was essentially “hiring” our own train. We took a short train ride from Da Lat to the next town over. We were the only passengers and - aside from the train engineer and two other employees - we were the only ones on the train! It was great!