<p align="center"><strong><img src="/images/Vietnam/Da-Lat/2-royale.jpg" alt="Da Lat City" width="268" height="180" align="left" />Dalat and  Around</strong></p>
<p>Hinged by the Cam Ly  River, and nestled at an elevation of just under 1500m among the pitching hills  of the Lang Bian Plateau, the city of DA LAT is Vietnam's premier hill station,  a beguiling amalgam of squiggly streets, pictur-esque churches, bounteous  vegetable gardens and crashing waterfalls, all suffused with the intoxicating  scents of pine trees and wood-smoke.<br />
  It was Dr Alexander  Yersin who first divined the therapeutic properties of Da Lat's temperate  climate on an exploratory mission into Vietnam's southern highlands, in 1893.  His subsequent report on the area must have struck a chord: four years later  Governor-General Paul Doumer of Indochina ordered the founding of a  convalescent hill station, where Saigon's hot-under-the-collar colons could  recharge their batteries, and perhaps even take part in a day's game-hunting.  The city's Gallic contingent had to pack up their winter coats after 1954's  Treaty of Geneva, but by then the cathedral, train station, villas and hotels  had been erected, and the French connection well and truly forged. By tacit  agreement during the American War, both Hanoi and Saigon refrained from bombing  the city and it remains much as it was half a century ago.<br />
  It's important to come  to Da Lat with no illusions, though. With a population of around 200,000, the  city is anything but an idyllic backwater: sighting its forlorn architecture  for the first time in the 1950s, Norman Lewis found the place &quot;a drab  little resort&quot;, and today its colonial relics and pagodas stand cheek by  jowl with some of the dingiest examples of East European construction anywhere  in Vietnam. Moreover, attractions here pander to the domestic tourist's  predilection for swan-shaped pedal-boats and pony-trek guides in full cowboy  gear, while at night the city can be as bleak as an off-season ski resort.<br />
  Despite all this, Da  Lat remains a quaint colonial curio, and a welcome tonic to heat-worn tourists  — all in all, a great place to chill out, literally and metaphorically. If the  cool air gets you in the mood for action, you could try trekking to minority  villages, mountain-biking or rock-climbing, but you'll need a permit and a  guide.. Horticultural enthusiasts might like  to time their visit to coincide with the annual Flower Festival, which takes  place each December </p>