The garden of the luxurious Sofitel Dalat Palace hotel. A superb view of Ho Xuan Hu'o'ng Lake.

Dalat is a beautiful town which is also known as “Little Paris”. The architecture there is heavily French inspired and its infrastructure is among the best that I have seen in Vietnam. Being located in the highlands, the weather is fresh and cool. It is such a welcome change from the rest of Vietnam which is uncomfortably hot. The roads there are good and the traffic is significantly better than the rest of Vietnam. It makes riding a scooter here fairly enjoyable. Engage in hardcore birding at the hotspots or just sip a cup coffee and soak in the café culture in this relaxed town. Either way, it is so easy to lose track of time while you are having fun there. No wonder Dalat is my favourite town in Vietnam.

WEATHER : Clear and sunny. Showers on several afternoons.

GETTING THERE : Several scooter taxi drivers wait for passengers at the stall selling coconuts across the river from the Cat Tien national park’s HQ. They can give you a ride back to town. From town, flag down one of the private white vans that ply the route between HCMC and Dalat. The drivers of those vans will honk at anyone who vaguely looks as if he needs a ride and his assistant will yell out the name of their destination. Some of these minibuses display signboards. The problem with such minivans is that they are driven up and down the same street until there are enough customers to continue to the next village. So you can be going in circles for 20 minutes and not be anywhere nearer to your destination. Thankfully, Dalat is not too far away. To maximise their profit, the drivers tend also cram a lot of passengers onboard their vans. The ride to Dalat cost me 50,000 VND. If you are going from from HCMC straight to Dalat using the open ticket buses, Dalat is the first destination that is  north of HCMC.

ACCOMMODATION : I stumbled upon this little gem of a place in Dalat by accident -  Mini Hotel Lam Phung (address: 5C Bui Thi Xuan, email: [email protected]). It is just a 150m walk uphill from the luxurious Trung Cang hotel (where passengers taking the Sinh Café open tour bus would alight). 
For just US$4 a night, you get a cheery and clean room with a private satellite TV and a good hot shower. I particularly enjoyed watching HBO and Starmovies in English every night. What impressed me was that the owner, who speaks English, even personally served a free plate of cut fruit to my room every night! For me, Lam Phung was easily the best value-for-money accommodation for my entire trip in Vietnam. Western breakfast, laundry and scooter rental are all available there. Several Internet cafes are just a short walk downhill and there is a vegetarian restaurant immediately opposite of the hotel.

BIRDING HIGHLIGHTS :

1. Dantala Falls

The highest density of birds that I had encountered in the whole of Vietnam was at the pine forest just beyond the payment booth of Dantala Falls. Between 7.30am – 9.30am, that little area (which happens to be near a stream) was so amazing that every other second, my binoculars would be up. The base of the waterfall is another hotspot that birds like to visit nearer to midday. Fit and adventurous birders may attempt the trail that runs beside the river. That trail is so steep that ropes are provided to help you negotiate the rugged terrain. 

Birds seen there include White-Cheeked Laughingthrush, Red-Vented Barbet, Black-Throated Tit (Adult Annamensis), Blue-Winged Minla (Adult Orientalis), Chestnut-Vented Nuthatch, Scarlet Minivet, Lesser Racquet-Tailed Drongo, Streaked Spiderhunter, White-Throated Fantail, Black-Crested Bulbul, Ochraceous Bulbul, Black Bulbul, Green-Billed Malkoha, Ashy Bulbul, Black Bulbul, Green-Backed Tit, Hill Prinia, Yellow-Browed Warbler, Grey-Headed Canary Flycatcher, Mountain Fulvetta, White-Browed Scimitar Babbler.

2. Mount Lang Biang

This area can be pretty slow at times. But there are small bird waves to liven up that place. Do not just bird watch along the tarmac road that leads to the lead summit. Try the small trails that run parallel to that road as you may find may find many other species that way.  To save time, you might want to hire a jeep to bring you to the summit and walk down.

Above midway up to the summit, the fork that leads up to the peak of Mount Lang Biang can be easily missed from the tarmac road. The directional signs fairly high up and are also quite small and inconspicuous. From those signs, follow the trail that leads away from the tarmac road. Along the way, there are red arrows painted on the rocks on the ground.

The endemic Vietnamese Greenfinches are easy to find. They tend to perch on the tips of tall pine trees at two areas : 

1. by the tarmac road before the Mimosa Village sign and

2. at a clearing beside the transmitter tower on the way to the summit restaurant.

The endemic Collared Laughingthrushes were more difficult to find that I had expected. On my third day up, I saw one in a cage that was used by a poacher to lure in the rest in. With such poaching going on, no wonder it is so hard to see any of those thrushes in the wild there.

Other birds seen there include Chinese Pond Heron, Eurasian Treesparrow, Black-Collared Starling, Sooty Headed Bulbuls (Adult Thais), Burmese Shrike, Black Bulbul, Spotted Dove, Indochinese Cuckooshrike, Blyth’s-Leaf Warbler, Green-Backed Tit, Eurasian Jay, Hill Prinia, Yellow-Browed Warbler, Black-Throated Tit (Adult Annamensis), Blue Whistling Thrush (Adult Eugenei), Richard’s Pitpit, Little Pied Flycatcher, Rufous-Chested Flycatcher, Chestnut-Vented Nuthatch, Short-Billed Minivet, Rufous-Winged Fulvetta, Mountain Fulvetta, Chestnut-Winged Minla, Mrs Gould’s Sunbird, White-Browed Scimitar Babbler, Red-Whiskered Bulbul 

3. Ho Tuyen Lam

The road that leads to this area is just before the Datanla Falls’ carpark. One has to cross the lake to access that area for the endemic Grey Crowned Crocias. It is a large area and when I went there, the reservoir was almost dried out. Since I could not locate the boat crossing, I did not manage to survey that area. Nevertheless, several Black-Collared Starlings that were at the car park were quite vocal.

4. Ta Nung Valley

Ta Nung Valley runs along a long stretch of road. Head out of Dalat from the road leading to the airport. Based on the directions in the reports currently available on the Internet, I found about 6 possible areas over a period of 3 days but don’t think any of them were that hotspot. 

Birds seen  at all these various locations include Black Bulbul, Red-Throated Flycatcher, Spotted Dove, Ashy Drongo, Burmese Shrike, Plaintive Cuckoo, Green-Backed Tit, Black-Collared Starling, Black Bulbul, Bar-Winged Flycatcher Shrike, White-Throated Kingfisher, Dark-Necked Tailorbird,  Eurasian Treesparrow, Chinese Pond Heron, Eurasian Jay, Grey Bushchat, Arctic Warbler, Verditer Flycatcher, Vietnamese Greenfinch, Ashy Bulbul, Chestnut-Vented Nuthatch, Mountain Bulbul, Gould’s Sunbird, Black-Throated Sunbird, Black-Browed Barbet.

 5. Hang Nha Crazyhouse

If you have difficulty finding the endemic Orange Breasted Laughingthrush in the wild, just pay a visit to the above bizarre tourist haunt in Dalat town. At the courtyard of this weird looking hotel is a solitary caged Orange Breasted Laughingthrush.

LEECHES : None encountered.

MAP/SKETCH : See Sketch of Birding Spots Near Dalat.

SCOPE: Many forested areas but the scope can come in handy.

LESSONS LEARNT : It is quite difficult to find the endemic Collared Laughingthrushes at Mount Lang Biang as a result of poaching. It might be more productive to find them at Deo Nui San pass near Di Linh. Di Linh is situated between Cat Tien National Park and Dalat.