So we finally left our resort to go and experience some of what it is that Da Lat is most famous for: The nature. While there is a lot of pristine forest in these parts we weren't really feeling up to any intense hiking because I am being negatively affected by the altitude and despite the fact that I am in relatively good shape, I am getting winded even with just light exercise. This is the first time in my life that this has noticeably impacted me and I guess it is a sign of me getting older.
I now know that altitude sickness is a very real thing and it didn't affect me many years ago when I was visiting Colorado and later Nepal, but I guess my body is slowing down. Even slight hills in the urban areas were making me out of breath so I didn't even want to attempt the hilly or mountainous hikes they have here. So instead we just went to some touristy places where they make it a lot easier for you to get around.
One thing that this area is famous for is the multiple water features that they have. I do love a good waterfall and like it even more if you can get in the water. The second thing wasn't an option here and they will reprimand you if you try . That doesn't matter much though because it is too cold here to get in the water anyway. So we just did what everyone else was doing and took pictures of some of the silly crap they had around the water.
I don't know why they feel compelled to put this sort of stuff around the natural wonders but it does seem to be a Vietnamese favorite thing to do. No nature area is complete without some sort of statue of a wonderous creature that likely never lived here.
I suppose the T-Rex is a possibility but I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that King Kong almost certainly never existed at these falls.
The walk back up the hill was considerably more difficult than I had imagined and this was due to the aforementioned altitude difficulties that my lungs were having. My partner didn't experience this nearly as bad as I did but she was willing to stop multiple times while I caught my breath.
The main feature of this place is the much ballyhooed world's longest single person roller coaster. Vietnam has a tendency to make these claims without much concern being paid to whether or not it is actually true but even if it isn't, this was a ton of fun.
There aren't many chances for you to take pictures while you are riding on the thing and they advise you not to anyway. The way it works is that to a certain degree you have control of how fast you are going with your brake and no brake handles that are located on your cart. I made it a point to not touch mine at all the entire way down but every now and then the g-forces would get to be a bit much and I wussed out and hit the brakes a bit. you get moving pretty dern fast and it was absolutely awesome. So if you do ever find yourself in Da Lat make sure to go and visit this. It wont be difficult to find as it is featured inside of just about every single taxi you ever get in.
Later on we did a rather simple but still challenging ropes course back at our resort and the best part about this course was the fact that it was included in our room rate.
I suppose this is one reasons to stay at the TTC resort because everything that is contained inside of the park except for the glass bridge is included in your room rate of around $30 a night. I don't know what it cost the others to get into the park, but we paid nothin!
I've done some rope courses in the past that were considerably more death-defying than this one but at least we didn't have to pay for it. This was the first ropes course that I have done where even if you did have a death wish, it was simply impossible for you to do it. The two tie ins were connected to one another with some sort of magnet so it wasn't possible for you to have both of the hooks detached at the same time. In order to accomplish this one of the instructors has to come by with a magnet something or other and then and only then will it allow you to detach both.
This took some level of strength, but at no time were you ever really afraid for your life because you were never far off the ground to die if you did fall, which isn't possible because of the safety gear. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to do the more difficult stuff because it was getting dark. No worries! We had a good time and it cost us $0, which is my favorite kind of price.
We had some food and drinks for dinner and we were actually both quite tired after this rather long day filled with physical activity. It's nice to get a bit of accidental exercise while you are on vacation!