Our FAVORITE City in VIETNAM! Da Lat Travel Guide 2023
Here we go. [Ashley]: Oh, there's no guardrails here. [Ashley]: Holy cow, this is beautiful! [Ashley screaming]: Ah! Oh! Oh my God! [Ashley]: Whoa! [Mike]: Backpack? [Riders] No, it's the bumper. -[Mike]: Oh, okay. We just got bumped by the coaster behind us.
What? Do you think it's okay? We're here in Đà Lạt, which is known as "The Flower City" in Vietnam. We're gonna go up the street right now and grab a cup of coffee, and it is absolutely adorable. I can't wait to show you guys. Let's go. [upbeat music] This street is called Phan Đình Phùng, and it might be the cutest street in all of Đà Lạt. I can't get over how gorgeous it is and the painting is awesome. It's not just the art that makes this street so adorable; it's all of the flowers and little shops that are lined up around it. Oh, I love that.
It says, "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." [upbeat music] I got the coconut coffee and it is amazing. It might be one of my favorite drinks now. Uh, it's got dark robusta beans, and then it's also, I think, got some coconut ice cream, and then on top, there's these toasted coconut flakes, which just give it this nice crunch and this really, really good flavor.
Mm. I'm so glad I found coconut coffee. I kept it simple and I just got a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. Vietnamese coffee is more bitter than typical coffee, and just that, that robust bitterness and the condensed milk make such an awesome blend.
I love it. It's so balanced. I like that kind of bitterness to it. Mm. It's really, really good. [Mike]: An Cafe is a really, really cute cafe.
[Mike]: You get a nice view overlooking the streets, and you also get some nice kind of tucked-away places [Mike]: with lots of greenery flowers and a lot of open workspaces. [Mike]: Now that we've had our coffee, we're gonna go grab some lunch real quick at a really popular restaurant called Le Chalet Dalat, and then we're going to see more of what Đà Lạt has to offer. [laidback music] We're here at Le Chalet Dalat, which is the number one restaurant here in the city.
[Ashley]: It's known for having locally-sourced food amidst a gorgeous garden setting. Cảm ơn. Oh, that looks so good. Oh, that was fast. [Server]: Spicy. Oh, that looks great.
Cảm ơn. Holy cow, this is huge! Is this mine? Yay! Alright, so I got some trà bạc hà and mật ong, which is fresh mint tea with honey and lemon. And then I also got some bún bò Huế, which I am very excited to try. It smells absolutely amazing. I dipped in my chopsticks just to have a little taste...
and it's definitely got a lot of really fresh lemongrass, so I'm excited to try this. Let's dig in. One piddly little noodle. Mm. That's better. Mm. That's good.
I actually don't taste the lemongrass as much as I can smell it, but you do get that really, really nice, fresh cilantro, which I love, and then the beef is really, really tender. I love the noodles, the broth is super flavorful. Whoop. This is definitely a win. I'm excited to try it in Huế when we go there, but this is a good first impression. Very, very good. It went up my nose.
So I got something a little different. I've never tried anything like this before. It's called trứng chiên vời thịt béo bằm, and I know I'm butchering that, but it's actually an omelet with minced pork inside of it. [Mike]: And to drink, I got a San Pellegrino Blood Orange. It's not traditional or anything special, but it is one of my favorite drinks, and I haven't seen it on a menu anywhere in Southeast Asia yet, so I had to get one. Mm. The omelet is cooked perfectly, and the minced pork inside is still tender and juicy. It also has some spring onions. It comes with a nice little garden salad here and some rice.
This is absolutely a win. 100 percent recommend this dish, and this place is super cute. A really nice part about this restaurant is they give you some hot tea at the end of the meal, so that's a nice little surprise that we weren't expecting. Uh, delightful! [upbeat music] So we are here at the Datanla Waterfalls and New Alpine Coaster, which is a really popular tourist attraction here in Đà Lạt. There's ziplining, a waterfall, a restaurant, and the main attraction, which is an alpine coaster that winds through the wilderness on a one-and-a-half-mile track.
Now, I'm not the biggest fan of roller coasters and rides like that, but I know Ashley is, and she's super excited, so let's go check it out. Here we go. Ah! You nervous? Uh, nah, I'll be fine. Holy [----]! Oh, rocks! Oh! Okay, that was fun. Is this the end? I think this is the end, yep. [Mike]: Or is someone just...
[Ashley]: No, I think... [Ashley]: Oh, nope. This isn't it. We can see the waterfall. We can hear it, too. It looks pretty. It looks like we're at the top?
Yeah. Maybe? No, I think we go up there. I think that's the top. This is fun, though. Alpine Coaster for the win. I don't typically like rides or roller coasters or anything, but this isn't bad. It's always the tick-up that makes it worse, too. Let me show you where we're going. [Ashley]: Oh, we're like straight back.
[Mike]: We're, like, cuddling. [Mike]: Alright, get ready. Alright, here we go! [Ashley]: Oh, there's no guardrails here. [Ashley]: Holy cow, this is beautiful! [Ashley screaming]: Ah! Oh! Oh my God! Yeah, I'm not even, like, looking at like the beauty around us.
It is beautiful. It sure is. [Mike]: Aw, it's the end! [Ashley]: Is that the end? Aw! [Ashley]: That was fun. [Mike]: It sure was. [Ashley]: Whoa! [Mike]: Backpack? [Riders] No, it's the bumper. [Mike]: Oh, okay. Oh, good.
Oh, we just got bumped by the coaster behind us. That was wild. [Rider]: But my hat, please?! [Attendant]: No! [Ashley]: Oh no.
[Rider]: Oh, I'm gutted. What? You think it's okay? Yeah. That was super fun. One of the more fun roller coasters I've ever been on.
Yeah, because we're, like, out in the middle of nature, it's so cool. I've never done anything like that before. That was wild. Ah! Falling downstairs. I'm excited to see the picture. It was short, but I'd say it was worth it. Okay, so the roller coaster drops you off at the waterfall, so I guess we're at the base.
It looks like the base because there's the waterfall. [upbeat music] Ah, this breeze feels so nice! Look! [Singing]: Ahhh! I'm easily impressed. This is pretty, though. It looks really clean. Oh, yeah, and you can hike back. That's cool.
[Ashley]: Alright, you ready to go up there? [Ashley]: Whoa! [Mike]: Oh! [Ashley]: Don't fall. [Ashley]: Do you want to walk back, or do you want to coaster back? I feel like we should coaster back, right? You have ice cream on your face. That's because you shoved ice cream in my face. Uh, what'd you get? They have a little ice cream stand here, and it's hot out today. Even though it gets cold here at night, it does get warm during the day, so I got a little...fish.
A little fish-shaped ice cream, and inside it's got- Fish guts. Yeah, here we go. Ice cream and strawberry jam. The outside is kind of like a paper ice cream cone, I guess. It's really tasty. We like fish-shaped desserts. And I got this thing.
Yeah, I have no idea what that is. Which is watermelon-flavored ice tube. Sure is. No, twist it up. No, twist up. This way. Like this? Yeah.
Oh! How is it? Oh, I see that now. It's like a little freezy pop? Whew! Is it sweet? It made my little things go. Yeah, it's very sweet. Want to try it? It is super sweet. I like this better. I like yours better, too. It's way better.
So now, we're waiting on a Grab that's going to take us to our next destination, which is a cable car, apparently. It's about 3:30 now, and the last one is at 4:30. Hopefully, we make it.
We gotta get there quick. I think it's close, though, so we should be fine. Okay, bye. [Mike]: Hello. Xin chào. -Hello. We just made it to the Đà Lạt Cable Car Station, and we've got about an hour, so we're gonna go check that out really fast, and I'm excited. Let's go.
[Mike]: It looks like they've got a one-way and a return. Since we got dropped off by a Grab, we're just going to take the one-way because that'll get us a little bit closer into town. [Mike]: Cám ơn.
Oh, look! [Mike]: Oh, look! [Mike]: Looks like we gotta get in the yellow one. Oh, look at where we're going! Oh, my God, I'm so excited. This is so cool! I've never done this before. [Mike]: Yeah, me either. I feel like I should sit on your side, huh? Probably.
Oh, it's so pretty! Yeah, you should definitely sit over here. [Laidback music] [Ashley]: Well this is cool. Yeah. So, we are in this cable car just riding out over the jungle.
Actually, I guess it's not jungle. It's forest here. -No, it's like forest. Alpine forest. This is awesome. Oh, wow. We're not even, like- no, we're pretty high up.
Yeah, it's pretty high up, like if it felt it would hurt. Yeah. I think we might die if we fell. There's not that many people riding these cable cars, either. No, most of them are empty.
But there were so many people in the parking lot. I know. They're just taking pictures. Oh, now we're getting high. Oh, my gosh.
[Laidback music] You can see the whole city of Đà Lạt from where we are right now, and it's awesome. Oh, my gosh. This is so cool. [Laidback music] [Ashley]: That was fun. [Mike]: Yeah. First cable car experience: 10 out of 10. I see you, Đà Lạt.
[Ashley]: I love it here. If you are in Vietnam and this is not on your itinerary, add it to your itinerary right now. I feel like you need at least two days to really enjoy it. Three or four if you've got the time. We, unfortunately, can't be here any longer.
We've got to leave tomorrow, which is a super bummer. There's so much of this beautiful country to see. We've only been to two cities, and I'm absolutely in love. Vietnam is amazing. [Ashley]: The people are amazing. -The people. Hands down the best part of Vietnam. Alright, let's go see what we can find.
[Upbeat music] We are here at Dũng Lộc to get some nem nướng for the first time. I don't know what to expect, but they look really, really good, and they also look fun to make, so let's go try them out. Xin chào. Cảm ơn. -[Ashley]: Thank you. [Vendor, Ashley]: Cảm ơn.
Looks so good. [Ashley]: This looks so good. I'm super excited. Nem nướng is the only dish this place makes, and- Cảm ơn. -[Ashley]: Cảm ơn. It is ready to roll. So we've got a couple different components here. You've got greens, some herbs, mint, lettuce, as well as spring onion.
It also comes with daikon radish, cucumber. You get this fantastic-looking peanut sauce, and then over here is the main part of the dish. So we've got rice paper, pork, and crispy rice noodle.
So the whole idea behind this dish is you build it yourself. You take a little piece of your rice paper, like this, and you're gonna load it up with your pork here. And what they do is they take the pork, it's minced pork that they put on skewers and then grill, put a little bit of that, put a little bit of this crispy rice noodle.
I'm gonna grab some spring onions here, a little bit of this lettuce, this guy right here, and then we're gonna load it up with a piece of cucumber, piece of radish, and some of this onion- shallots, I'm so dumb. And then we're gonna take it, and you just roll it up. And you've got this kind of little rolled spring roll here. Dip it in your peanut sauce, and you're ready to go. Mm.
It's so delicious. It's fresh, it's crispy, it's very complex. The peanut sauce balances out really, really well. It gives you this kind of sweet, kind of savory. We've also got garlic, chilies, and then chili paste at the table, but I just wanted to try the ingredients as they were first and we'll add that later. Alright, so I've made my little spring roll. Let's get some of this peanut sauce. Oh, it looks so good. Mm.
Mm. That is so good. It's really, really fresh, and then you get the savory grilled pork, and the peanut sauce is everything. I think the peanut sauce is my favorite part.
Mm. Mm-hmm. So that was delicious. The family that runs the place is super, super sweet. The chili sauce that you could put on it was awesome. Just the right amount of spice to really enhance the overall dish. It was so delicious that I forgot we got something special. We came across this bánh bao place that makes little bow buns, and they had the cutest little tiny bao buns that are shaped like little animals, so I got a little bao bun that's shaped like a pig. [Ashley]: He's so cute! He is super cute. Oh, and it's still warm.
So I'm gonna go ahead and give it a try real quick. It's like this itty bitty little bao bun. This was only 13,000 dong. The nem nướng was 140,000 for two orders of nem nướng, and one Coke, one 7Up, and a bottle of water, so really not that bad for as much food as you get.
Let's give this a try. [Ashley laughing]: What does that mean? It is not at all what I was expecting. [Ashley]: Really? It's got custard in it! This is a dessert bao bun. -[Ashley]: Oh!
[Ashley]: That's lovely. Yeah, it is really delicious. I was so taken aback. I had no idea that that was what was going to be in there, so I was expecting this warm, savory minced pork, and no, it was sweet, delicious custard.
[Ashley]: I thought you were gonna tell me it was fish. No, that would have been weird. A pig stuffed with fish. But no, this is really good, and I don't know that I'm gonna let you have any of it. [Ashley]: Yes, you are! Mm. Mike already ate his cute little face, so I just get his little- little snout half.
Mm! Oh, man. We should have gotten more. [Mike]: I tried to get more. Mm. Can we go back? [Mike]: I don't know, maybe.
Mm. This is wonderful. Mm. Okay, so if we see this again, we buy all of them. Mm. I'm happy. [Mike]: Yeah, now what?
2023-08-01 16:19
