A weekend in Da Lat with no plan

Last spring, my friend Linh and I took the night bus from Saigon to Da Lat. We were both tired of work, so we made one simple rule for the trip: no plan. No list of famous sights, no booked tours, no alarm clocks. We just wanted to go with the flow.

Da Lat sits about 1,500 metres above sea level, which is why the air is much cooler than in the south. As soon as we got off the bus at six in the morning, we needed our jackets. We walked into the first café we saw and ordered hot soy milk. The owner, an old man with a warm smile, asked where we were going. When we said we didn't know, he laughed and drew us a map on a paper napkin.

His map led us to places we would never have found on our own. First, we visited a small farm where a family grew roses in long greenhouses. Then we followed a dirt road to a quiet lake with pine trees all around it. There were no tour buses and no selfie sticks, only a few fishermen. We lost track of time and stayed there until the sun went down.

Travelling without a plan was not always easy, though. On the second day it rained all afternoon, and we spent two hours in a tiny noodle shop waiting for it to stop. We also missed the famous night market because we were too sleepy. Still, the rainy afternoon turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The owner's daughter taught us a card game, and we played with her family until dinner.

Looking back, the best moments of the trip were the ones we did not plan. I still like a clear timetable when I travel for work. But next time I go on holiday, I will leave some empty space in each day. In my experience, that is where the real stories come from.