Orchids and Dirt

Da Lat is Vietnam's honeymoon capital. The place where affluent newly-weds come to titter and frolic after they've exchanged their vows. A cooler climate, a wide lake, a European style to the architecture.

Nothing too special for me. A set of qualities I have met and will meet a hundred times again in cities all over Europe. Transport the place to Vietnam and it takes on a whole different meaning. For the Vietnamese a place like this is a rarity. And because it is a rarity it is expensive.

So even though there's nothing inherently special to this place, no important history, no places of outstanding natural beauty, this is where people can distinguish themselves from others in an economic way. Strange what a desire for status can do.

For the traveller this just makes Da Lat an ordinary place with extraordinary prices and pomp. Although still poor by Western standards -- in terms of infrastructure like street maintenance, litter collection, health standards at public markets etc -- there is an air of pretension about the town which is almost absurd.

Central Market, Da Lat
For example, at dinner, feeling like something else other than rice or noodles, I went to a Western restaurant. On the menu I found dishes like the 'Eiffel Tower Steak' and 'Parthenon Pasta'. What exactly do these descriptions mean? Are they going to be scale models of their names? No, it just the food's going to be small and pricey.

Or take the carefully manicured lawns surrounding the 'Lake of Sighs' -- a boating lake 5km from the town -- peppered with glorious flowerbeds. Fenced off, and out of the fiscal reach of most locals, rich fellow countrymen come and stroll around in ostentatious dress twirling sun parasols as they go. After strolling about like Victorians they might picnic on the grass or paddle about in kitsch swan-shaped boats.

There is a scale model of the Eiffel Tower in the the town, and at one time Da Lat attempted to add the moniker 'The Paris of Asia' to its name. Fortunately it didn't stick.

So that's how I spent my day. Mopeding between areas of squalor and extravagance.

Xuan Huong Lake, Da Lat