 Pic 1. A classic Citroen taxi ready for hire [pic: Bob King]  Pic 2. A Montagnard villager near Dalat [pic: Bob King] |
Each year more than half a million visitors make their way on Highway 20 from Ho Chi Minh City or Highway 11 from Phan Rang up more than 4,000 feet to the old 'Summer Capital' nestled among waterfalls, forests, lakes and hills in the Cao Nguyen Plateau of Lam Dong Province in Vietnam. The French lavished attention upon Dalat because it was not a Vietnamese city as much as it was their creation and their proud domain. At its peak, from the 1920s to the '40s, it educated the children of governing officials throughout the Asian region, maintained the faith of the occupiers in cathedrals and churches, and established, through comfortable villas and alpine cottages, gardens, public buildings and lakes, an ambience of European civilisation.
With Citroen and Peugot taxis, plentiful European fruits and vegetables, a mild and misty climate, recreational hunting and royal patronage, it was a posting worth pursuing. American President Theodore Roosevelt even had a hunting lodge there. Today all the elements of that extraordinary history are in place, intertwined with the culture of the Montagnard people. A very different Vietnam.
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