Riding The Rails To Dalat

The network of transportation lines connecting Dalat to its neighboring towns was originally opened in 1938 between Dalat and Cham Towers. The Dalat station was considered the most beautiful railway station in Indochina at the time. The 84 km railway, 16 km of which is rack and pinion railway, was designed by Swedish engineers with experience in mountainous geography, allowing steamer engines and passengers to climb up and down steep hills or through dark tunnels, while admiring a slowly passing landscape of majestic mountains and forest. Unfortunately wartime caused part of the line to fall into disrepair and the whole extraordinary line was left unused for a long time.

In 1991, in an effort to promote tourism in Dalat, the 7 km railway line joining Dalat with Trai Mat was restored at a cost of over 11 billion VND. Locals of Troi Mat expect tourists to visit Linh Phuc Pagoda nearby, which is still restrictive due to difficulty in travel and time limit. In spite of the possible lack of activities along the tour, which has been impressively titled "Excursion to Trai Mat", tourists may take advantage of having a full view of Dalat from high above, while the train winds its way along hillsides, allowing passengers a chance to admire the continual miraculous changing of nature in front of their eyes, and enjoying the purest atmosphere of the Central Highlands, where the pressure of industrial development is far from reaching its grip into the verdant mountains of this southern resort town.