There was one last thing in Dalat I had decided to visit, alone: the flower garden. I wanted to have a nice quiet photo session there so I got up at 7 (the garden opens at 7:30), grabbed the camera and crept out. Had to jump the fence as it was closed an none of the hotel staff were around. Later I remembered we had been given 2 keys, maybe one was for the gate padlock. In any case I didn't have the keys on me and I wasn't going to go back to the room.
It's a nice walk round the lake to the gardens and I got there about 10 minutes after opening time. Despite the time (actually the sun was pretty bright by then) there were quite a few people inside. All Asians - some local, some tourists - I guess they are more used to getting up with the sun than Westerners.
I wondered around for over an hour, blissfully taking photographs without having to keep one eye open for the kids. The garden wasn't that amazing, and flowers are not exactly my favourite subject matter, but it was pleasant enough.
Walked back to the hotel in time for breakfast with the rest of the gang. We spent the rest of the morning just lazing about the garden and doing some serious packing (unlike the bus, we need to keep the number of hand luggage bags down to 4 for the airport). Had lunch in our train carriage ad then caught a taxi to the airport (which is quite far our of Dalat).
This is the first flight we have taken since hearing bout the Air Malaysia flight, but we weren't nervous. I was much more queasy getting on a flight from Madrid to Bilbao a week after the 2008 Spanair crash (you could actually see the charred crater during takeoff). Arrived at Hanoi without incident. We has a pickup to take us straight to the hotel (apparently airport taxis can be a bit dodgy in Hanoi, plus the price was good). It was already dark so we didn't see much on the way. Fairly cold and drizzly as well.
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