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early fifteen years ago my
husband and I went to Dalat
for our honeymoon. We had
unforgettably romantic mo-
ments in an old villa set on a wild hill
among pine forests. The accommoda-
tion and service at the time were very
simple, but wonderfully warm.
Dalat in winter is rather cold, but
we enjoyed bright mornings with clear
blue skies. We rented a motorbike in
the market and headed out to enjoy the
beautiful countryside that surrounds the
town. Locals wore woolly hats as they
wandered the market gardens, shop-
ping for the area’s well-known fresh
produce in the city centre. It seemed
to us that the scent of Europe filled
the air: a mix of fragrant pine-forests
and wood-fire smoke. French style vil-
las, complete with dilapidated wooden
shutters, dotted the landscape and at
the centre of it all stood a miniature
replica of the Eiffel Tower. We were the
happiest honeymooners in the world.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
Back then I arrived by road, but this
time I fly direct with VietJetAir from Ha-
noi to Lien Khuong airport, 30km south
of Dalat. I find a changed city – a crowd-
ed and noisy place with densely packed
modern, multi-storey buildings. The
fragrances I recall are gone, replaced
Enchanted by
honeymoon memories
of Dalat’s flower
gardens, French-style
villas and its European
atmosphere,
Nhat Ha
returns to the
hill-station town to
re-discover its charms.
TRAVEL
MEMORY