Chasing Water Falls and Crazy Houses in Da Lat, Raining in Caves, and Exploring Da Nang, Vietnam!

After spending time with family in Saigon, I decided to venture to Da Lat and Da Nang. Two of my favorite cities in Vietnam. Da Lat has a much more mild climate compared to the rest of Vietnam, year round. It has more temperate forests that resemble the forests I see back home in California. It's a small city with beautiful landscapes, waterfalls, hiking, temples, and lots of good food. It's a nice break from the chaos of Saigon but still has a decent city feel. Many of the city's structures are reminiscent of French colonial architecture.

While in Da Lat it was very important to hit some waterfalls for video and photography purposes. Our first stop was Datanla Waterfall, which is a nice waterfall located in a nice area. You descend steps and there is a cost to enter, which is a few USD. Everything is pretty cheap for Americans traveling here, you won’t spend more than 10 USD on most of the things I visited, oftentimes it's far less. The problem with this location is it's way too touristy and too influenced by man for it to be impressive to me. I just find it super annoying trying to wait for girls taking lame photos of them posing for 30 minutes, and not being respectful of anyone else, or people entering my shot and then having the audacity to ask me to take their picture for them, thinking because I have a bunch of gear I’m some sort of expert in portrait photography. I was pretty happy to leave here quickly, but if you come with a family or friends and just walk around it's pretty cool. Aside from the natural beauty, this place boasts a downhill roller coaster-like ride that's pretty fun, food, and a large statue of a gorilla by the waterfall.

The next stop was KDL Thac Prenn. This actually cost about 10 USD to enter. This was also a tourist area, but it was empty. I enjoyed my time here simply because no one else was here. They had a huge dragon statue that was probably 50 to 100 meters long, and a nice waterfall. I took pictures, flew my drone around, and then decided to do a tour of 3 pagodas, since I paid such a hefty price. My guides English wasn’t great but he was cool and fucking around and joking a lot, so I had fun with him talking shit. Vietnam has by far the best temples I have ever seen in any of the 45 countries I have visited. They do not disappoint, with their attention to detail, relics, drawings, fountains, and gardens.

I wanted to hit this other waterfall and tried to convince my guide and driver to go to this other waterfall an hour away, since no one was around. I figured, take a few hours off work, no ones here and let's have fun. It didn’t work.

We decided to head back to town afterwards due to time and good thing we did, because it started pouring and we hit a restaurant to eat some river fish.

The next day we ventured off to Pongour Waterfall. This was a grueling experience. I had to be a passenger on a motorbike for over an hour. I commend all the people, including westerners who drive motorbikes in Asia, but I am a huge coward when it comes to this. I will not drive a motorbike unless its life or death circumstances, especially in Asia. I remember when I first moved to Vietnam in 2015 and within the first couple months 6 of my coworkers had some serious accidents while driving motorbikes- broken bones and shit like that. I was like, “I’m cool.” The problem is, you are extremely limited if you are not willing to drive a motorbike. Many places can only be reached by bikes and it's the best way to get around. Cars also cost 3 times more than they would in the USA, due to a heavy tax. Finally, I don’t like how Asians drive. There I said it, and I’m not sorry about it. I am not saying they can’t drive, I just don’t like their style. People here have a only about me mentality and only focus on what's ahead of them. They don’t often use their mirrors or focus on everything around them, plus other cultural things they do that I don’t like. On the positive tip, there is no road rage out here. You can literally park your motorbike in the middle of the street to check your phone and people will just drive around you or honk and go around you. Anyway, there is a method to the chaos, especially in Vietnam while driving, but it's not something I’m willing to learn. To be fair, many Westerners who live in Asia adopt this style of driving, which doesn’t sit well with my Western mindset because I see it as dangerous to my being. I can respect your cultural aspects, unless it can bring me and others harm.

Now that you have some background information about the driving, I can move on to my 1.2 hour drive as a passenger on a bike. I didn’t like it from the get go, my friend was driving super slow and instead of keeping to the right to let cars and buses pass, they would cross over to the other side even on solid lines and there were some very close shaves with cars almost colliding head on. I was super uncomfortable. After we got out of the mountainous area, I thought it would be all good. NOPE! Now we were driving through towns on a two way. One thing in Asia while driving is, if you’re bigger you're the leader. So the biggest vehicles call the shots. Busses and trucks wheezing by honking at you constantly. The same vehicles going in your lane to pass the slow cars in their lane, wind blowing…I guess it's an adrenaline rush, but it's always been uncomfortable for me. I would rather scuba dive with great white sharks.

We stopped at a pho place and it was just an amazing bowl of pho. The place I ate pho in Da Lat was pretty shitty, but this spot was hella bomb! I had to commend her on the quality of the food. After praising her, we continued on, and my friend was getting pissed at me because I kept on telling her she made me uncomfortable with her way of driving. She drove hella slow when there was no need, drove hella fast when it's dangerous to do so, like driving over big pot holes in the road, and it was just a very unpleasant experience.

We finally made it to a smaller country road, and I felt safe, until she started speeding fast and I was like, “why the fuck are you driving fast on these turns, if theres a truck around those high bushes were dead!” We did see some trucks but luckily we didn’t hit any. We finally made it to the waterfall. The waterfall was amazing! It was one of the best waterfalls I have ever seen! I took out the tripod and started shooting some long exposures, videos, and then the masses began to show up, BUT I got some quality time when it was pretty empty. I met a super cool Vietnamese lady who spoke some English and we talked for a bit. I took some pictures for people and they took some of me.

Now it was time to fly my drone. It was amazing because there were waterfalls on an upper layer that you can’t see from below, so it just gave me an even better perspective. I thought we were done, but I began exploring and found like a metal rod that acted as a bridge to the other side. It gave a completely different perspective of the waterfall. I walked past this group of young Vietnamese dudes who were BBQing and drinking. They were super friendly and they eventually invited me to drink shots and eat with them. Vietnamese hospitality! I can’t turn that down. Many Vietnamese people are fucking cool and super down to let you join in with them. While I loved every moment socially and visually about this location, I knew it was time to go soon, and I wasn’t excited about the trip back.

As always, and I am not sure why, coming back is always faster than going there. It was still a grueling experience and my friend was pissed at me at this point because I kept calling her out on her driving, because I was hella scared. All in all, we made it back unscathed, and a Taiwanese friend recommended that I go to a place called “Crazy House.” Crazy House is a labyrinthian maze with a natural earthy theme. Some areas are like forests and others are ocean worlds. It has all sorts of levels and areas to climb and reach some nice views of the city. There is also a coffee shop connected to the place in the back, called the “Crazy Dragon” I think. It's a place that can be considered weird, crazy, unique, wild, or all the above. It is also a hotel with some interesting looking rooms. I may stay here next time I return to Da Lat.

3 things came to my mind when walking into this place:

1. A great place to play tag and/or hide and seek.

2. A great place to have a haunted house for Halloween.

3. It would make for a sick party venue….then I thought, while still a good idea, many people would die from falling off areas due to drugs and alcohol and lighting….still a good idea if that can be avoided.

If you are in Da Lat you most def, need to peep this house!

Da Nang on the other hand is a bit more modern and international than Da Lat in my opinion. Da Nang has a great city feel without the hustle and bustle of large cities like Saigon. It has some amazing bridges and the city is lit up well at night, especially on the weekends. It is a coastal port city with beaches, and a large river runs through it as well, so you get river banks and coastal beaches all within a fairly modern city.

Da Nang is my one of my favorite if not favorite cities in Vietnam for the above reasons. It also boasts some really cool locations to explore. I decided to pay for a 4 star hotel that had some real nice reviews called the Val Soleil Hotel. I was highly impressed with my room and the hotel's amenities, as well as the staff. A stand out was John who worked at the front desk and helped me secure a private driver and gave me some tips on places to explore.

Our first stop was the Lady Buddha, which is a large lady Buddha statue. It is on the coast so the view is beautiful, though it was raining on and off during my stay. I was lucky it barely rained while I was out exploring. The area around the Lady Buddha was impressive with various gardens, pagodas, and statues. I completely forgot about taking off my shoes in temples, and got in trouble for walking in with shorts and shoes. They just yelled at me and told me to take off my shoes and wrap some garment around my waist, which they provided. Did I say Vietnam has the best pagodas? They do. The amount of detail, and interesting sculptures for this Westerner were just impressive to me.

Our next stop was the Marble Mountains. I wouldn’t say they are mountains, but more like hella big rocks. I know Sam, our guide in the Himalayas would say these are just rocks. He thinks mountains are hills, but he is around the biggest mountains in the world, so…makes sense. Before reaching the Marble Mountains, for whatever reason my driver stopped at the sculpture shop. I hella hate when tours do this and I didn’t expect my driver to do this move. Anyways, we stopped and the lady was trying to sell me sculptures. I told her immediately I was going to buy nothing. I like to be upfront immediately to save everyone time. Though I did ask what the most expensive piece was and it was a set of 3 figures and it ran 150k USD. That's like 3 years of me working and never spending a dime. I walked around as I like the statues, but left quickly because I had better things to do.

It had been raining in Da Dang since before we got there, but as I mentioned earlier, we were lucky to never really be in serious rain during our excursions. Marble Mountain is a series of uphills, downhills, pagodas, caves, and views. Before the mountains themselves there are many shops to buy various items and food.

The first stop was in a cave that mimicked elements of heaven and hell. It was a big cave with various rooms, alters, and statues of demons, angels, partitioners, Buddhas, and more. The funny thing, it was raining inside the cave. I have never experienced a rainless day but it rained indoors. Drops of water kept falling from the cave top everywhere. I went to all the rooms and even climbed the slippery staircase to heaven and a view.

Afterwards, we paid like 50 cents to take the elevator to a higher level of the mountain and then began exploring the whole area. We saw more caves, views, and temples within the area. A woman even showed me a natural image of the Monkey King on one of the rock walls. In return I showed her the intro to “Journey to the West” 1986 version, which she liked.

It didn’t seem like a long time, but time did pass and I was tired and dripping with sweat going up and down all these different points of the mountain. Eventually we explored, I think the whole area.

The last stop was My Son Sanctuary. I went here a few years ago with my ex, and it's an amazing ruin that doesn’t get much shine, but is one of the most impressive ruins I have ever seen.

1. Every time I go it's almost always empty or just a couple people there. (I’ve been 3 times.)

2. It’s under 10 USD to enter and you get to see traditional dances and music shows on their stage.

3. Its in the middle of the jungle which adds to its mystique.

4. The ruins are well maintained. Some of the sculptures and writings are still extremely detailed. I have not seen ruins kept this well in the 45 countries I have visited.

5. It's a small location. There isn’t that much walking or climbing. You hit a few sites within the area, see some live performances and you’re done.

The next day we were leaving back to Saigon in the afternoon, so we had time to do a bit more. I talked to John to secure me another driver. Now one thing I dislike about asking Asian people in Asia for information about locations is because they give some shitty information. Obviously I have not talked to every Asian, but I just can’t understand how people who live in a country or city can't give any information about where they live. I have been to a lot of places in Vietnam, after all, I had lived there for 3 years and visited several times. I have been north, south, east, west, and central. When I ask locals for help they say the same crap. It's like they don’t know hidden locations, or won’t share local spots. I have never been to Florida, but I could tell someone you can go to the Everglades, go to Key West, go to beaches, you can scuba dive, hit clubs in Miami, wander the streets, eat international food, or have a Cuban sandwich. I can name dozens of things to do in California. My experience with Asians in Asia is that they don’t know much about their countries' locations and interesting places to see. It is extremely frustrating for me when I hear everyone tell me to go to Ba Na Hills, which is the last place I want to go to. I even asked my friend and got the reply, “Ba Na Hills.” Fuck that. It might not just be an Asian thing, my mom says many Mexicans are similar. Who knows.

There was only one thing left to do, Google and look at bloggers, which I did. I picked 3 places to go to for the next day. The Da Nang Cathedral was close to my hotel, so I would check that out, though I rarely have interest in checking out Western religion or architecture in the East. The next location I wanted to check out and I am not sure if we even went here, more on that later, was Ghenh Bang. The stones and rocks looked really cool from the picture, so it caught my interest. I would see the Man Thai Fishing Village for photographic purposes, and finally go to Green Lake, “a natural beauty hiding in plain sight.” Those were the exact words on this person's blog. Ok….

Now my rant begins. I’m sorry, but these travel bloggers are pretty lame and give inaccurate information a lot of the time. I purposely don’t add lots of information because I want people to get out and explore and step out of their comfort zones. I am not into giving everything out, but I will be as honest as possible from my perspective.

First we went to Ghenh Bang (I think). I hired the same driver and he took us to a small temple first. It's a Vietnamese temple…they’re all cool to me! It was near the beach. It was pretty dirty with trash dotting the landscape here and there. “Ghenh Bang in Da Nang is a dreamland.” That's what this blogger said. Well it had trash and was unimpressive. Let’s give this writer the benefit of the doubt, maybe when s/he went it was clean. That’s not all, the driver said because of the tide we wouldn’t be able to see the cool stones or something. His English wasn’t that great. So the author also failed to mention the tides. Thanks, douche!

Next we went to Man Thai Fishing Village. This was a beach the driver took me to. I am not sure where the village is. I did enjoy photographing the fishermen and women here who were ok with me doing that. I decided to spend about 20 minutes helping them pull in their large nets for allowing me to photograph them. Locals thought it was funny to see me doing that, but I appreciate it when people allow me to photograph them, especially for free.

The next spot was Green Lake. Remember the lake that is “a natural beauty hiding in plain sight?” So we went there. It's on the side of a highway. I didn’t go all around the lake because I don’t think you can. First of all, it was surrounded by rusty barbed wire. I noticed two entrances which had small banks, and lots of trash. There was one fisherman fishing there. There really wasn’t anything beautiful about it. Let’s give this author the benefit of the doubt, there was no trash at that time. There was still the rusty ass barbed wire fence! The highlight was paying the guy to release the fish he caught, why? I don’t know? The fish he caught were so small, he should have just released them. He also let me cast out with his fishing pool.

The last stop was the church. It was a church.

I was pretty pissed off at this point because I wasted 50 bucks and a few hours on a driver to take me to some pretty lame spots except for the fishing village. Listen up bloggers, whether you want to be misleading or bs us with your lame posts, you’re not making any friends with me. Keep it real. Stop painting false pictures that we believe and end up wasting our time and money. Miss me with that shit! Vietnam is a beautiful country, but like all countries there are good and bad. One of the things I dislike most about Vietnam is people throwing trash anywhere they want. I have been to beautiful beaches filled with trash. Keep it real, say the good and bad! Stop being “safe” and I don’t want to be disrespectful. Give honest reviews and accurate information and stop misleading folks with time and money of these less than impressive locations.

Unfortunately, unlike Taiwan where I was willing to explore the whole island because I had a car, I don’t have deep knowledge about Vietnam because I don’t have the independence to explore the way I did in Taiwan. My knowledge is about as good as the rest of these bloggers. The only difference is I keep it real and give a personal honest take on the experience.

To end the trip on a good note I decided to take my friend to Taco’s Ngon. Which means Taco’s Delicious. I recommend this place to anyone, it's legit! Mexican in Asia? Hell no, which is true in most cases. You will never find a place out here that will compare with anything we have. As a Mexican American, I speak for many of the states I visited and lived in, in the US and Mexico, which I have also lived and visited dozens of times to see family. Here’s the kicker, the joint was thought of by a Taiwanese woman who opened up a taco joint in Da Nang. Rather than trying to be authentic, she decided to create a fusion of Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and Mexican food and created her own fusion tacos. They are unique, and that's why they are good! I am not comparing them like I do other “authentic” Mexican food in Asia. It’s a creative woman, innovating existing tastes and foods together, and it works! The ONLY negative is they use flour tortillas, which sucks for gluten free folks. I cheated that day. ;)