Da Lat

Canyoning

We booked onto the canyoning tour through our hostel which was $82 (ouch budget) and we were ready to see whether it was worth it. At 7.30 we headed to breakfast where I enjoyed a really nicely cooked omelette then at 8am on the dot one of our guides for the day came to collect us. His name is Na and he let us know that we were lucky enough that it was only us 3 today and the groups could usually get as big as 12. We drove over to Datanla Waterfall where we met our second guide, Harry. Both these chaps were super excited and happy and I was hyped to start canyoning. We get changed into our wet suits and given harnesses, helmets, and bouyancy vests. With that we were ready to learn to absail. Me and Alfie had done this plenty before but it was good to see that they were being safe with a backup line and not letting us clip ourselves in.

After some practice we were ready to head down to the waterfalls. A short walk later we headed to the first abseil, which was on the rock next to the waterfall. We abseiled down and fell off the end of the rope into the water below which was a very strange concept to me. I can't remember exactly the order of what we did for the rest of the day (I'm writing this a few days later oops) but there was a mix between abseiling down through waterfalls, zip lining, water sliding, and floating through a lazy river. Luckily as there was only 3 of us we had time to do some of these a couple times. Unfortunately, the cliff jump had suffered a land slide so we wouldn't be able to jump unless we fancied ourselves some broken limbs.

This lead to the penultimate event, abseiling down a 25m waterfall which meant that as you got over the edge the water would beat down on you and throw you about. The final abseil was called 'The Washing Machine" where we would abseil a bit then fall underwater, being thrown about until popping back up downstream. After all of that, we trekked back up a hill to the road to be driven back to the main area to shower and change. After that we drove back to their main offices to share a massivw family lunch with Na and Harry.

We get driven back to our accommodation and whilst Alfie and Daisy nap I go for a walk around. First I walk around a pagoda but decided not to stay long as I wasn't sure how allowed I was to wander around in my shorts. I then take a slow meander around the lake in the middle of the city, stopping every now and again to fuel my Facebook Marketplace addiction. Eventually the sun was setting and I got a Grab bike to the hostel just in time for family dinner.

There wasn't alot of people, only us 3 and 2 others but the dinner was really really nice and it was good, plus meeting the 2 other people (a Canadian guy called James and a British girl called Cordelia) was nice too. Dinner lead into Happy Hour which meant a free "cocktail" which really meant a spirit and mixer. I went for the classic vodka redbull and then the karaoke started. Vietnam is known for its love of karaoke so we knew there was no avoiding it. The guy working there, Hoang, was leading the night as well as pouring our drinks and was very enthusiastically encouraging the karaoke. What ensued was countless terrible renditions of some classic karaoke songs - solos and duets.

Eventually it hit 10 and it was time for the shuttle bus into town to Maze Bar. What I thought would just be us turned out to be a packed minibus with many hostels jammed in - probably doubling the intended capacity. When we made it to the bar we had to order a drink to enter so I went for the classic Blue Lagoon. What I thought would just be a quirky little bar turned out to be one of the coolest places I had been to. The Maze Bar was actually a maze, with narrow corridors, steep staircases, crawl spaces, hidden rooms with too many floors to count and amazing decorations. I must have said "I'm so lost" about a million times before finding people again. Our ride back was at 12 so I managed to hop on the first bus back. Most people were heading towards the after party on our roof but I have become old man and headed straight for a shower then into bed.

It wasn't long before the others got back and convinced me to join them for a little bit on the roof. It turned out to be quite packed and a decent party but was a very odd experience to get out of bed straight into a party, though I didn't stay long.Read more