Flowering season at the beginning of winter
Wild sunflowers originated from America and were brought to Da Lat and the Central Highlands by the French nearly a century ago. Today, wild sunflowers not only grow in the Central Highlands but also bloom in many northern regions such as Moc Chau, Son La, Ba Vi, Hanoi. However, only when coming to Da Lat, visitors will feel that this flower has become an indispensable part of the mountain town and is the inspiration for many writers, musicians, and poets here...
If the cherry blossoms attract tourists in the days before Tet, the yellow color of wild sunflowers signals a new dry season in Da Lat. The blooming of wild sunflowers is also the time when the gloomy rains have just ended, giving way to the dry sunshine returning to the plateau.
The flowers bloom from late October to early December every year, and the most beautiful blooming time falls in the first half of November. The wild flowers dye a bright yellow color not only for Da Lat city but also for districts and towns throughout the Lam Vien plateau. The wild sunflowers have many petals, full pistils, and bright yellow flowers like the sun. The plants grow into large bushes, often stretching along both sides of the road or covering the hillsides and mountainsides.
Not requiring meticulous cultivation and care, wild sunflowers have a strong and wild vitality, as their name suggests. The less populated the area, the more wild sunflowers grow and bloom like a carpet. Therefore, the further out of the inner city you go and wander the deserted roads, the more you will be immersed in this endless bright yellow color.
Endless golden roads
From Ho Chi Minh City, we booked a sleeper bus at midnight, slept until dawn, and when we opened our eyes to see the misty sky, we knew we had arrived in Da Lat. We left our luggage, leisurely had breakfast with banh mi and xiu mai and a cup of coffee, waited for the warm sun to rent a motorbike to travel from the city center to the suburbs to hunt for flowers.
In the inner city, there are many places where wild sunflowers bloom on every street corner, but you have to go on the roads to the suburbs to see the flowers blooming everywhere. There are many routes to hunt for wild sunflowers such as Trai Mat - Cau Dat; D'ran Pass - Don Duong; Da Lat to Lien Khuong airport; Bao Dai Palace - Tuyen Lam Lake; Van Thanh flower village area...
On the first day, we chose the familiar route to Trai Mat - Cau Dat, on the way we encountered countless sections of wild sunflowers. The flowers were in full bloom covering the hillsides, creating a harmonious natural picture between the green of the tea hills, pine forests and the yellow of wild sunflowers.
This is an easy route that combines many activities such as hunting wild sunflowers, hunting sea of clouds, visiting tea hills, wind turbine fields... If you have more time, you can continue to D'ran - Don Duong - Phi Nom pass, in addition to wild sunflowers, here visitors will be able to check-in with rose gardens full of fruit.
In the afternoon, on the Lien Khuong - Prenn highway, we saw dozens of tourists stopping on both sides of the road to check in with the patches of wild sunflowers in full bloom. Among the young people in pretty dresses were older photographers who were also passionately composing with the flowers. If you take the time to search, leaving the highway, you can sneak into the residential roads, among the yellow color of wild sunflowers are the images of farmers enthusiastically harvesting fruits.
The next day, in the morning, we found our way to hunt for clouds on Thien Phuc Duc hill, and in the afternoon, we strolled around Tuyen Lam lake. Early in the morning, we arrived at Thien Phuc Duc hill, everyone was huddled in warm clothes and quietly enjoyed the scenery of the mountains hidden between the frost and the white clouds. In the afternoon, we wandered around Tuyen Lam lake, visiting Bao Dai palace. The entire route to and from there was now covered with yellow wild sunflowers. The flowers growing along the lake, along both sides of the road combined with the charming scenery of Tuyen Lam lake made it even more poetic.
Thanks to the blooming wild sunflowers, Da Lat's winter is more romantic and full of life. In the sunset by Tuyen Lam Lake, wild sunflowers make visitors from afar feel lost, absorbed in looking at them until they forget their way home.
