Exploring marble mountains

The Marble Mountains are located about twenty kilometers north of Hoi An. The five mountains stand at a short distance from the sea, in the middle of the plain. We drove there on our own, fitting the three children on two rented motorbikes. The road to Marble Mountains is easy to ride; wide, straight and with little traffic.

The marble statues

Near the mountains, you’ll witness countless shops offering huge marble statues. Large marble sculptures are processed using machines; smaller objects are still hand carved. The artisans have preserved their expertise, even if they now use an imported Chinese marble.

Two paths lead up the mountain: a marble staircase or a large glass elevator. Entry to Marble Mountain area cost 15.000 VND per person (children enter for free), the ride on the elevator is an extra 15.000 VND per person (children also free).

The elevator

We chose the lift, not to spare us the effort but to enjoy the view. The mountains host many natural caves, as well as several Buddhist and Confucian temples. The elevator leads to a terrace, halfway up the mountain. In the immediate vicinity stands a beautiful pagoda, a little further away, a nice little temple.

View from the top

Behind this temple, there’s a path that leads to a small cave, decorated with marble Buddha statues. Turn back to climb a trail that leads to a point of view. Further, follow the path clogged between the two peaks of the mountain. On the left, a few steps lead to another Buddha cave. Behind the altar, in the darkness, follow the few steps to continue the exploration to a cavity that lets in daylight. Don’t forget your flashlight!

Outside the cave, a path on the left side leads to the top of the southern peak. A little further, there is a path on the right side that will let you reach the top of the (slightly higher) northern peak. Both ways are strenuous climbs but the beautiful view on the sea is a great reward. Back on the main path, follow it straight ahead to enter the largest cave, a huge cavity decorated with temples and statues of marble.

It's already time to go down by a staircase. At the foot of the mountain, next to the elevator, there’s the entrance to another cave. It costs another 15.000 VND per person (children free) but it’s well worth seeing. The cave is huge and has many passages to explore. On the right side, you’ll see a dark staircase going down; if your children are too sensitive, don’t go down. The staircase is a descent into hell and the walls of the cavity are covered with plaster statues representing visions of horror. The tunnel ends in a small cave. On the left side, there is a set of stairs. It is very steep and leads up to a very nice outlook.

Our kids loved exploring Marble Mountains!

How to get there? We rented motorbikes for 5 USD a day. Bikes can be parked at the foot of the mountain for a fee of 5000 VND per bike. You can also easily get there by taxi. The last alternative is to book one of the many tours in Hoi An or Da Nang.

What to bring? The usual sun screen, sun hats and rain coats, but pack extra flashlights for the kids!

5 reasons to visit Hoi An with children

Hoi An is a beautiful ancient town. It is one of the most charming and most visited city in Vietnam. If you needed a reason to stop in Hoi An on your family trip, here are 5:

1. Let them run! The old town in the center of Hoi An is a pedestrian zone. There's no honking and beeping of motorcycles, no ignored traffic lights, no walkways turned into parking lots. Children can walk, or run, safely and freely in the streets. Our kids truly enjoyed it and we walked the streets of Hoi An north to south, east to west, up and down. Beware of the many cyclos though!

2. It's free! There's an entrance fee to visit the well-preserved monuments of Hoi An, based on a voucher system. You pay 120.000 VND to receive five vouchers that give you each access to any of the 22 sites. You then pick and choose the places you want to visit. However, children may enter any site for free. To maximise their experience, mum and dad have not selected the same sites and the children have visited more than 10 monuments. 

3. It's fun! Each visit will take you 10 to 20 minutes, short enough to keep children active and interested. It's easy to fall back in time when entering the houses, shops and temples that have remained unchanged.

4. It's yummy! Hoi An has lots of exquisite restaurant, local specialities or fine world food. For a sweet treat, head to the fine bakery of the Cargo Club or enjoy the atmosphere at Reaching Out teahouse, a social enterprise that employ hearing impaired people.

5. Let them enjoy sun and sea! Hoi An is also a beach destination. The Cua Dai beach is only few kilometres away from the city center and the An Bang beach is an infinite strip of white sand.

Come to Hoi An and you will find many more reasons why it is not to be missed with children.

Sweet buffet in Da Lat

When staying with children in Da Lat, a good place to enjoy a sweet afternoon break is Langfarm shop and cafeteria.

The Langfarm buffet

The Da Lat area benefits from mild mountain climate. Many crops grow in the countless greenhouses: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, artichokes, small and sweet persimmons. The numerous Langfarm shops sell local products such as: fruit jellies, dried or candied berries, artichoke teas, and fruit juices.

Located in the city center, the Langfarm cafetaria offers an incredible sweet buffet: seven flavors of smooth ice cream, blackberry, raspberry or passion fruit juices, artichoke or Lingzhi tea, slices of banana or green peas cake and a wide variety of fruit, dried, candied or jellied.

More information: http://www.langfarmdalat.com/buffet-en/
The buffet costs 39000 VND per person; only our oldest (7-year old) daughter paid the full adult price. The other two children ate (a lot!) for free.

Around Da Lat on a scooter

There’s a lot to see and do around Da Lat. That’s why we rented scooters to explore the city and its surrounding area during three days with the children. The first excursion takes us to the village of Nam Ban, 30 kilometers from the city. The girls ride with their father, while Loïc, my son, climbs with me on the bike.  Along the way, the scenery is beautiful but, soon, works on the road make the driveway rather impracticable. Yet, we manage to ride through mud and gravels and reach our first stop after an hour's drive. It starts raining heavily and we’re just in time to find shelter in a silk factory, which gives us the opportunity of a very interesting visit. The visit stretches for two hours while it’s pouring rain outside. As the rain finally stops, we resume driving, only a few miles to the Elephant waterfalls.  Due to the heavy rain, the falls are really impressive, with loads of brown water storming down the rocks.

Impressive waterfalls

Fortunately, we are not alone on this tour and Aron and Sandra, the German friends who accompany us, lend a hand to help our children follow the trail down to a viewpoint. 

Thanks Aron and Sandra, for helping the children down!

Back up the trail, we walk a few hundred meters more to see a quiet temple, known as the Happy Buddha Temple, which dominates the valley and the falls.

The happy buddha temple

Now it is about time to drive back to town, in order to arrive safely before nightfall. Alas, a new tropical downpour forces us to take refuge in a cafe. A few hours later, it's still raining and it got dark...

Finally, we leave our scooters in the local coffeeshop and arrange a pickup by minivan. A much better option for the children, who are now tired and fall immediately asleep in the van.

The next day, children stay at the hotel, while we, adults, take a local bus to Nam Ban to recover the bikes. The first stretch of road back to town is really nice, and what a pleasure to ride alone for once, without children on the bike! We even take a short break in the middle of a coffee plantation to enjoy a "weasel coffee" - guess what that is. But soon, the sky darkens again, and we ride the last ten kilometers under heavy rain. We are lucky to have left the children safe and dry at the hotel!

Before the rain...

In the afternoon, we take the children back on our bikes to visit the Summer Palace of Emperor Bao Dai, close by the city center. It is a beautiful art deco residence, slightly faded but pleasant. The kids have great fun exploring the bed- and bathrooms of princes and princesses.

We continue our tour with a visit of the historic train station of Da Lat, just in time to see the ancient train arrive in the station. We end the day with a delicious meal in a vegetarian restaurant. It is already time to say goodbye to our German friends, leaving Da Lat to Saigon the next day.

Aron and Sandra enjoyed traveling with children, who are so prompt to marvel the wonders of this world.

Additional information: Scooter can be easily rented anywhere in town for about 5USD a day. Ask for the directions to get to the Elephant waterfalls, which are quite easy to reach from Da Lat.

Here is a link to Aron and Sandra's blog!

Hiking mount Lang Biang with children

We decide to climb the Lang Biang Mountain, one of the highest summits around Da Lat, 2167 meters above sea level. Our guide first seems to have little confidence in the physical abilities of the children and asks us several times if we did not book the wrong excursion. The ascent, he says, is difficult, especially in the last kilometer, when the trail climbs steeply.

Ready to climb: the Lang Biang mountain is right behind us.

We are determined to attempt it: our children are definitely good hikers! The trail climbs gently at first, amidst coffee plantations, then more steeply in a pine forest. Lucie, 3-year old, finds it sometimes hard to follow our steps, but keeps on climbing, while we encourage her with songs and stories. Four kilometers further, we reach a wooded ridge, just in time for a lunch break.

The Lang Biang peak

 After a hearty picnic, children are full of energy to start the final kilometer of the ascent. We now walk on a narrow path lined with wooden planks that make the steps of a high and irregular stairway. We’re only 400 meters away from the summit when Lucie abandons, exhausted: the steps, sometimes as high as her, are extremely difficult to climb. She gets in the baby carrier and falls asleep within seconds. Lise and Loïc reach the top easily. The weather remains clear; the view is gorgeous.

Summary of the hike: 3h30 ascent, 2h descent, 10 kilometers walk and more than 670 vertical meters climbed. Who would think children aged 3, 5 and 7 years could climb that much with little to no help?

Riding the cable car in Da Lat

If you've visited the Crazy House already, and you're in search for the next kids-friendly activity in Da Lat, I'd recommend you take a ride with the cable car.  The cable car station si located on the outskirt of the city, on the top of a southern hill. The ride will take you over the valley to the site of a large, quiet  zen monastery that overlooks a beautiful lake. Enjoy the silent ride, glide over a superb valley, take a stroll on the grounds of the monastery and around the lake. Our children loved it.

A ride with the cable car costs 70.000 VND (return) per adults, children (from 1 to 1,3 meter) pay only 40.000 VND (return). As often in Vietnam, officers at the ticket counter are not too strict with age and height limit, and our 1,05-meter tall son didn't pay for the ride.

The Crazy House in Da Lat, Vietnam

The Crazy House is the work of a Vietnamese architect, the daughter of Ho Chi Minh's successor to the leadership of Vietnam. The house is a surprising mixture of architectural elements evoking the creations of Gaudi, with a touch of Hundertwasser for interior fittings. The Crazy House grows every year, since more than twenty years. It is an incredible labyrinth of narrow bridges, corridors, ladders, with few fantastically decorated rooms. The place is definitely a must-do with children, the kids loved getting lost in this unspeakable maze! Be careful though, as some high-level passages have no handrails and the works in the unfinished house are not child-safe. 

The Crazy House is also an hotel where you can stay with your family for approximately 60 USD.

More information about the Crazy House
The Crazy House is open on weekdays from 8.30 to 7 pm.
Entrance fee is 20.000 VND per person (children inclusive), toddlers enter for free.

Refreshing Da Lat

A great destination with kids, Da Lat is a mid-size town nested in the mountains of the southwest highlands. Da Lat welcomes many tourists every day, but the majority of them comes from other parts of Vietnam.

Da Lat enjoys a moderate climate, which makes it, literally a refreshing place to visit. The city and its surroundings have a lot to offer to families; rent two swan-shaped pedalo boats to explore the lake (60.000VND per hour, per boat), ride on the cable car or take a short hike in the mountains...

Visiting the crazy house is a must-do with children, although ou should keep a wary eye on them as not all passages in the house are child-safe!

Spending a few days in Da Lat with you family is definitely a refreshing idea!

The lake in Da Lat

Discover the Tra Su bird sanctuary

The Tra Su bird sanctuary is a marvellous place, a dense forest of immersed trees, a refuge for birds and other endangered species of the Vietnamese fauna. The visit combines a short motorboat ride that  brings you to the heart of the forest, a wonderful 15-minute tour onboard a rowing boat, gliding on the smooth green waters, surrounded by trees and dozens of birds, and a short walk and climb to the top of an observation tower.

Wonderful Tra Su bird Sanctuary

The boat rides, bird watching and climb to the tower make it a great excursion to arrange with kids. Even if your children are as young as mine, the half-day exploration of the sanctuary will enchant them.

View from the top of the observation tower

Tra Su is difficult to reach by public transportation, best is to book a tour or arrange transportation through your hotel or travel agency. Through our guesthouse (Murray Guesthouse), we booked 2 motorbikes with drivers, who brought the five of us to the sanctuary for a total cost of 40 USD. This included a few stops and detours on the way back to visit temples. Entrance to the sanctuary cost us 75000 VND per person; we were not charged for the children.

Cycling around Chau Doc with children

A good thing about the Murray Guesthouse in Chau Doc is that the hotel, next to offering a family room (triple, 43 USD a night, breakfast included - children under 9 stay for free), puts bikes at your disposal, including one in children size.

Hopefully your child is a girl, because an 8-year old boy might not be enthusiastic about riding a pink, 'Hello Kitty" bike. It was perfect for our daughter. One child behind his dad on one adult bike, our youngest girl in the carrier on my back, and off we went, the 5 of us, to travel the 7-km distance to the nearby sacred Sam moutain.

Lise on her "Hello Kitty" bike

A few hundred meters further, we have to stop already: one tire is flat. Thanks to friendly and efficient  Vietnamese repair service, we're ready to start again a quarter later, with a brand-new tire. Tire and service cost us no more than 80000 VND.

Repair service was flawless

The route to Sam mountain is somewhat dull, flat and straight. The road is currently a worksite, large and empty, sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy, always dusty under the heat. Arrived at the bottom of the hill, we park our bicycle in one of the many private garages, where people will watch over your  bicycles for 10000VND each. You'll easily find motorbike drivers ready to take you to the top of the hill; we opted for a hike up the hill. The ascension is certainly not the most easy one, on a very steep road with little shade, bur eventually, even our 3-year old manage to reach the top. It was well worth it; the views from the top are stunning.

View from the top of Sam mountain

After a well-deserved rest, lying in hammocks and enjoying the views, we set off again for the much easier descend. Halfway down, we stop for another break at Victoria Nui Sam Lodge. It's not that we're addicted to luxury, but the hotel's wonderful lookout on the valley seems the perfect place for a drink and a snack. Quite over our budget, but the view makes it worth.

The restaurant of the Victoria Nui Sam Lodge

Back down, we fetch our bikes to drive around the mountain and visit few of the many pagodas that surround the hill. When we head back to our hotel, it is already late in the afternoon. The children are tired but happy.

Detail of the Tay An pagoda

Charming Chau Doc

I've skipped a few places we've been visiting in Southern Vietnam. I've been busy setting up our French blog: www.lespetitsbourlingueurs.com. I'll take some time report about the places we've seen in the Mekong Delta and give a few tips.

We arrived today in the city of Chau Doc, a small town near the Cambodian border. After 6 days spent on the beautiful but touristy Phuc Quoc island, the little town brings a refreshing change. A stroll in the park "à la française" that stretches along the river Bassac, a peak into a couple of kitschy pagodas, a delicious vegetarian dinner on the night market; Chau Doc is a quiet and charming place.

"Jardins à la française" along the river

A view on the Bassac river

A monsoon rain shower forced us to find shelter in the classy Victoria Hotel around 4 p.m.; at the hotel's bar, we've ordered a Western-style coffee and lemonades, which we've sipped while enjoying the amazing view on the river and playing boardgames with the children. A somewhat pricier but very pleasant experience.

Tomorrow, we'll visit Sam mountain. More to come in my next post.