Dalat Diaries : A Family DIY Trip

This is our second DIY travel as a family, and our first proper international flight together.

Untuk Batam dulu, kami naik ferry sahaja, so kali ni experience dia berbeza.
Airport Malaysia pun dah banyak upgrade, and using MyBorderPass made everything easier, just scan, walk, and go.

Alhamdulillah, everything went smoothly from start to finish.

Baby Arizz pula sangat behave sepanjang perjalanan. Kebanyakannya dia tidur sahaja, dengan bantuan earmuff yang kami letakkan supaya telinga dia selesa dan tak rasa berdengung.

Bila sampai je dekat Dalat, cuaca sejuknya terus menyapa. Masa ni aku memang rasa lega sebab sebelum memilih Dalat, aku banyak membaca dan buat research. Ada yang kata sejuk lagi Cameron, ada yang kata biasa-biasa. Tapi bila dah sampai sendiri,  Alhamdulillah, cuaca Dalat memang kena dengan expectation aku. Tak terlalu ekstrem, tapi cukup sejuk dan nyaman, terutamanya bila bawa baby. Aku memang tak nak ulang situasi di Batam sebelum ni, di mana cuaca panas buat baby cepat cranky. Untuk aku, Dalat lebih sejuk daripada Cameron Highlands. Dekat sini, aku memang hire driver je sebab aku bawa 7 orang so bagi aku agak susah nak dapatkan grab serentak. And aku kalau boleh memang nak smooth semaksimum yang mungkin since bawa orang tua.

So first place kitaorang tuju memang tempat makan sebab kami sampai pun around 12 tengahari. So sementara nak tunggu check in hotel, memang kitaorang bergerak dulu ke Hajah Hawa Restaurant, one of Halal Restaurant yang ada di Dalat. Masa ni ibu choose satu set makanan which are nasi kosong, ikan siakap, kailan, telur and sup for baby. And untuk setiap makanan aku dah prepare atleast 2 Mil VND for each meal. For this lunch, it cost us approximately 1.175 million VND.

After lunch, we proceeded to check in at Boho Boutique Hotel sebab aku dah cuba juga search tiktok and google kalau ada masjid, so takut terpusing pusing aku decide solat kat hotel and keluar semula. After check in, aku sangat puas hati sebab hotel ni betul betul besar and bilik pun memang tersedia tiga bilik. Aku sangat recommend ye this place sebab dia punya surrounding sangat calm and so suitable for the family. 

Lepas solat, we going out and ask driver to bring us ke Valley of Love tapi dia cakap tak sempat since attraction tu tutup pukul 5 and masa tu dah jam 3.30 petang. So we follow his suggestion pergi ke Crazy House. So harga tiket untuk Crazy House 80,000 VND or RM 12.32 per pax. Aku boleh katakan mostly harga attraction dekat sini agak murah murah. So masuk je kita tengok bangunan bangunan dia memang reka bentuk unik and sesuai dinamakan Crazy House tu.

                                            

Lepas habis pusing pusing, kami singgah di Still Cafe, mainly just for photos. Kitaorang takde minum minum dekat situ since masing masing masih kenyang lunch tadi. After that, around 5.50 pm we going to Dalat Night Market, and mostly dekat situ jual baju baju sejuk and tak dinafikan bila malam tiba, memang cuaca kat Dalat boleh jadi sangat sejuk. And sini kalau pukul 6.00 pm memang dah start gelap and malam sbb kat Malaysia masatu dah jam 7.00 pm. 

Setelah pusing pusing sekitar Dalat Night Market, kami singgah di Sarah Halal Restaurant jam 6.30 pm and its cost us around 650,000 VND or RM100.00 for our dinner. Kami balik hotel semula around 8.30 pm and rehat since we going out tomorrow dalam 7am. 

DAY 2

So pagi tu dalam 7am, kami sekeluarga dah bergerak untuk breakfast di Restoran Halal Kampung Melayu. Of course, we choosed Bahn Mi as our breakfast on that day. Orang kata tak sah kalau tak mencuba makanan diaorang. Tak dinafikan memang sedap and kenyang when eating Bahn Mi. Bahn Mi makanan dia berasaskan roti, telur and daging. So we pay our breakfast around 480,000 VND or RM71.38 for all 7 persons. 

After we finished our breakfast, we heading to Alpine Coaster Datanla or Xe Truot Moi and arrived around 8.30 am. Since we were travelling with a baby, we took turns taking care of Arizz while others went on the coaster. Bersyukur juga sebab kami antara yang hadir sangat awal, jadi cepat turn satu family naik. Nak pula masatu memang suhu masih sejuk, jadi baby pun tidur je tenang tenang. Orang start ramai betul betul time turn mak aku and aku naik around 9.30 am. Sambil naik, kita boleh nampak pemandangan sekeliling and its very a good experience for me. Kita pun akan lalu dekat Datanla Waterfall and boleh berhenti and take a picture kat tempat tu. For this attraction, amount is around 250,000 VND or RM 38.59 per pax and have some additional price around 500,00 VND or RM76.98 untuk zipline which is adik and kakak ipar decided to try.

Around 11.00 am, we went to Dalat Cable Car untuk lihat persekitaran sepanjang jalan cable car tu. We just ambil one way sebab nak terus ke Di Muang Cafe and its cost us 120,000 VND or RM18.48 per pax for this cable Car. For me pemandangan atas Genting Highland much better but its still worth it to try!

Sampai di stesen Robin Hood Cable Car, kami terus berjalan kaki ke Di Muang Cafe sebab memang dekat sangat. So sampai je cafe tu memang okay no wonder ramai amaze sebab memang cantik sangat bunga bunga dia. Walaupun asalnya aku harap season Winter masatu. But still its amaze me. Untuk cafe, harga bayaran dia 120,000 VND juga but include dengan air. 

Selepas sesi ambil gambar dan minum air selesai, kami bergerak ke Ismael Halal Food dalam jam 12.46 pm. Sini kawasan paling sesuai untuk kami anak beranak nak makan dan boleh solat sekali. Sebab Ismael Food ni ada kawasan surau untuk tourist tumpang solat. Jadi kami boleh jimat masa dekat situ. Makanan makanan dia pun sedap sangat dan menepati citarasa Malaysia aku hahaha. 

Setelah solat and makan, kami terus pergi ke Mongo Land untuk aktiviti seterusnya. Kami sampai around 2.25pm dan masani ayah offer untuk jaga baby sementara kami main slide besar dekat situ. Untuk harga Mongo Land ni, ia cuma berharga 194,000 VND or around RM 29.87 excluded air minuman untuk kesemua permainan which is korang boleh main go kart, slide also tengok haiwan haiwan disini. Untuk Go Kart, kami gilir gilir bermain sementara jaga baby. 

Untuk main slide besar tu, we added 300,000 VND (RM46.19) for drone recording.  Dalam masa 3 hari, pihak Mongo Land Drone akan chat kita through Whatsapp and send link to us. Last sekali, aku and adik decide untuk try their traditional clothes which the price start from 100,000 VND (RM15.40) - 600,000 VND (RM 92.38) + Makeup from 200,000 VND (RM30.79) until 400,000 VND (RM61.59). So adik and aku choose baju for 200,000 VND + 200,000 VND and total cost is 400,000 VND or RM 61.59 per pax. With that outfit, kami pusing pusing around Mongo Land to take a picture. We finished our activities dekat situ around 4.15pm.

 

We proceeded to Hajah Hawa Restaurant untuk makan malam, sekaligus untuk lihat Menara Vinaphone around 5.48pm. Kata orang sana Menara tu menyala hanya pada hari sabtu sahaja. So bila tengok depan mata, cantik yee lampu lampu dia. After that, we decided to returned to the hotel early to rest.

THIRD DAY

Pagi ni after breakfast we decide to go to the Valley of Love or Thung Lung Tinh Yeu since kawasan ni sangat luas and mengambil sedikit masa to explore this area. We chose a combo package with the glass bridge, costing 400,000 VND (RM60) per pax.

Masuk je memang amaze betul bunga bunga dia yang besar and segar sangat. Setelah lalu di kawasan bunga, kami pergi ke arah jambatan kaca and sejujurnya agak gayat since kita boleh lihat pemandangan di bawah tu. Since the area is huge, we used buggy rides to move between stations, enjoying views of the lake and surrounding nature. Kayaking was available for free, but we chose to walk and enjoy the scenery instead.

Towards the end, my siblings and I tried the zipline and high-wire games. We completed all activities around 11.30 am.  After that lagi sekali kami singgah di Ismael Halal Food Restaurant sebab mudah ada access surau and makan sekali. Jadi kami mengisi masa di sana lebih kurang 2 jam sebelum bertolak ke Luge Dalat atau KDL Sinh Thái Cao Nguyên Hoa Đà Lạt around 2.40 pm . 

For this game, we chose two laps, costing 300,000 VND (RM46.19) per pax. The best part, baby also boleh naik as long we used a baby carrier tu. We having so much fun sebab literally elderly pun enjoy this game. Kat sana pun macam macam pemandangan yang cantik, air terjun and still bunga bunga yang menyerlah, Definitely a bonus point attraction! 

We finish this game around 5.00pm and terus makan malam dekat Sarah Restaurant dalam 6.15 pm. So this is our last dinner before we going back tomorrow. Then we going back early sebab nak pack pack and sleep around 8.00 pm. Untuk esok punya breakfast we request driver to call Fatimah Restaurant to open early sebab teringin gila dari haritu asyik tak sempat. Luckily the owner so kind and bukakan kedai for us dalam 7.30 pagi eventho their reaturant open at 9 am. And for sure tak menyesal sebab nasi lemak dia sumpah sedap!

LAST DAY 

After we finish our breakfast, the driver ajak untuk minum minum kopi dekat satu lagi tempat yang popular, but i terpaksa politely declined since we just had our breakfast and depa pun risau tertinggal flight since masatu dah around 10 am and our flight at 12pm. Sampai je aiport, we buying all the souvenirs dekat sana je sbb mmg sepanjang kat Dalat, its so difficult to find place to buy souvenirs. A bit pricey but it was our only option. Alhamdulillah, we managed to return safely to Malaysia.

This trip was never about rushing from one place to another.
It was about moving slowly, adjusting to each other, and being present as a family.

Travel with family memang perlukan banyak sabar, especially bila ada baby dan orang tua.
But in between the tiredness, there were moments of calm, laughter, and gratitude.

Alhamdulillah for the smooth journey, the cool weather, and the memories we get to keep.
Dalat, you were gentle to us.