I decided to organize a trip for the New Year’s Eve for the children, to a distant place. Dalat is a place I’ve known for a long time, but for Long, Huong or Tiger, it’s completely new and very special, and it’s the first time Tiger has traveled by plane.

Initially, we had only planned a short trip of 3 days, but then we changed our plans so that the children could go to the sea, because from Dalat to Nha Trang the distance is not very big. The hardest thing for us is figuring out how to occupy Tiger and Huong once we get to Dalat. A baby under one year old and a young mom traveling with two adult men who love sports, you who contrast! I don’t want to be sad if I don’t have what I expect.

As a hike organizer, I decided to discuss a plan in two groups when I arrived: one for sightseeing and culture, the other for nature and “adventure”.

The bus took us to Noi Bai Airport in the late afternoon of the 30th, just in time for the 7:55pm flight. Tiger was excited and curious about all the novelties that were presented to him, but when the plane took off, he screamed in fear... Luckily, he fell asleep soundly once he had enough breast milk :)
  In Da Lat, on the evening of the 30th, it was a bit cold. We took a taxi to the hotel, which took about 45 minutes from Lien Khuong Airport. The receptionist of the hotel was waiting for us to take us to the room. The Park Hotel is a newly renovated hotel after the Covid outbreak, cleaner and more airy. Long was in his own room, while me, Tiger and Huong were next door. We decided to stroll through the night market and enjoy the street food. Da Lat is a really cool village with the scent of pine trees and flowers that bloom at night. There are also few international tourists here, especially from Western Europe. There were some Korean tourists and a group of people from the southern provinces – from Saigon – who came by car for the holiday. We ordered a combo of beef, pork and mushroom skewers – it cost VND 150,000 for the whole family – before heading back to the hotel to rest before the next day’s visit.

The next day, we decided that Tiger and Huong would take the bus to the attractions of the city. I carefully asked my colleagues to arrange the visit to have a more peaceful mind, to avoid leaving mother and daughter alone. The tour of the city starts at 8:00 am, leaving the hotel, stopping at the wonderland, the dog farm, the strawberry garden,... Linh and East were going to take care of us, as well as the group of Australian tourists. The bus took us to the Dalat Canyon Tours rope training site. They are the most experienced people I know, and they often take part in tours organised by Mr. Linh’s Adventures in the Highlands, so I trusted them completely when they took care of Long. He was quite nervous and kept asking me questions about altitude and the safety of the sport. Long and I decided to play 'Sin Xum' to see who would slip first. I jumped 5 steps to make Long feel more confident and swam across the creek in the meantime. In the end, he did well and, basking in the cool water, swam towards me. Well done! So he passed the first challenge!

Walking under the canopy of the forest and wading through the creeks and crossing the wooden bridges to get to the zip line, this section was not difficult and gave us the pleasure of swinging along the creek and swimming. Copper was always the first to pull the rope and pick us up at the bottom, then he quickly picked up the rope and passed it through the relay links embedded in the rock. The equipment at our disposal is carefully selected by the suppliers of hiking sports equipment. Linh and Dong have also been certified in coaching by experts in Singapore. Linh continued to moor at the highest and steepest cliff with no water underneath. This place rarely welcomes tourists, but today is a special day, so they gave me new challenges. Dong asked me if I was hungry and if I needed to recharge my energy to cross the jungle. This forest does not have as many large trees as other national forests, but it does have all kinds of trees from the rainforest of South Asia. I showed Long some leaves that could be used in medicine in case of injury, and some of the thorny rattan vines in the woods that my grandfather used to mow grass when he was a child. Arriving at the waterfall in front of us, we did a slide. Long loved water games and was passionate about swimming. The bottom is an amazing pool about 5 meters deep, which is safe enough for you to slide your head into the bottom. We played 3 times before continuing to the Datanla waterfall area, which is the largest, most majestic and most difficult waterfall. We decided to rest and have lunch at the top of the falls before taking on this huge challenge. Linh and Dong skillfully prepared very clean and fresh food, bread, chips, bananas, green salad, ... In the heart of this mountain panorama, enjoying such a lunch was a luxury for me. A short 30-minute break to make sure our stomachs don’t contract before Copper and Linh prepare the ropes. Dong ran to the bottom of the falls on a trail at the edge of the forest, and Linh carefully tied the rope to a sturdy tree on the left side of the top of the waterfall. Linh told Long to be careful not to look around him, to look at his hands when he made signs such as: spread your legs, lean back, put your feet on the rock, and especially don’t jump over the waterfall. This time, I went there and stayed ahead. Imagine what to do when water pours into your face ? This cascade is really strong, during the rainy and flooding season, to the point that trips can be cancelled by the organizers to ensure safety. I turned my face to the left to avoid the water and stretched the rope at the back of my hip to brake again and again. He signaled to me that it was okay, that I kept letting people down and that I was leaning back to float to the surface. In fact, I’m pretty worried about Long, but I’m confident he’s going to be okay. On the other side of the forest is the last waterfall, set in a ravine. However, it is quite dangerous as you will be submerged by it downstream before pushing towards the current. Suddenly, my GoPro went off as I was hovering over the wire, so I decided to go down and skip this recording just to be safe.  The site deserves its nickname “washing machine”, the water hits hard from above and makes your body spin as if you were doing acrobatics. I took a big breath and let go of the rope so my body drifted along the water towards Copper, it was amazing!  I have to do it again! I quickly replaced the 2nd battery and climbed up to enjoy the feeling again. Long drank the cup before drifting towards us. That’s great! I'm really happy to see Long grow up and take on new challenges. We climbed 3 km and crossed reed fields and pine forests, where runners were waiting to take us back to the hotel. Thank you to my colleagues who helped me meet the challenges with Long today. When we arrived at the hotel, we waited for Tiger and Huong to walk through the streets together on two motorcycles that I had told the hotel receptionist to prepare this morning. We ran up to the heights of Da Lat and looked down. The view of the lake and the old villas that the French built during the colonial period is amazing.  I led everyone to Bao Dai 1 Palace. When he was king, he had villages all over the place. On the Da Lat area, there are 3 Bao Dai villas. However, Bao Dai 1 is the home where he stayed most often, isolated on top of a hill of pine trees. We continued to Lingshan Pagoda after dark and I went to a friend’s house to say hello to him before returning to the hotel to rest, have dinner and walk the streets. Tomorrow morning, there will be a long-distance cycling trip to Nha Trang starting at 7:45am. Tonight there will be fireworks to welcome the New Year and celebrate the city, it will be the last night in Dalat where we decided to spend moments with each other with our families. Happy New Year 2024!