Guest post by Sarah Grant.
I’ve had the pleasure of regularly traveling to Vietnam to conduct anthropological research on the coffee industry since 2007. The longest trip was a 22 month stint in Dalat, a small town in the south-central highlands.
Living and working in Vietnam as an anthropologist comes with obvious advantages — I speak Vietnamese, have a deep historical and cultural knowledge of place, and I have a local host institution to facilitate conversations with people who would not otherwise speak to me.
And of course, living in Dalat and traveling outward tributaries is not the same as passing through for a couple weeks. That said, a detour on Vietnam’s Off the Beaten Coffee Trail is possible for just about anyone willing to take a deep breath, relax, and patiently navigate a new journey. The rewards are worth it…if you like strong, syrupy, sweet coffee and beautiful vistas.
Traveling in Vietnam is relatively easy. A lot of people (especially in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) speak English and are willing to help tourists. And coffee is one of the easiest Vietnamese words you’ll come across: cà phê. Sounds like “cafe.”
Smaller towns such as Dalat certainly have a tourist infrastructure set up and there are plenty of places — “local” and “touristy” alike— to sleep and eat. But here’s how to best explore Vietnam’s Off the Beaten Coffee Trail.
In Dalat: As with many small towns in Southeast Asia, the best way to experience local life/culture in Dalat is to wake up early and wander the streets. Very early. I’m talkin’ 4:30am early. Cafe 171 will be packed with folks having their 25 cent coffee before they head off to work.
If you’re there during the rainy season, it will be chilly and a hot caffeine jolt will be incredibly appealing. Take a stroll to Lake Xuan Huong before you wander up “Cafe Street” and pay a visit to Cafe Tung. Here you can have another coffee and a homemade yogurt while you watch all of the domestic tourists hopping on and off buses from all over the country.
In Buon Ma Thuot: The coffee capital of Vietnam. This is where a vast majority of coffee production takes place. The biannual “Vietnam Coffee Festival” also occurs every other March in this provincial capital. There are cafes and coffee showrooms everywhere.
Trung Nguyen, the nation’s first franchise and leader in coffee branding hosts a coffee village (“Lang Ca Phe”) and a small coffee history museum on their grounds. From here you can take a coffee Jeep tour around local farms and cafes should you like. You can’t throw a stone in Buon Ma Thuot without hitting a cafe, and the coffee farms stretch as far as the eye can see.
Here’s a quick guide to navigating a local, no-frills Vietnamese coffee menu (you’ve probably seen these drinks in your local phở restaurant):
iced sweetened condensed milk coffee: cà phê sữa đá
hot sweetened condensed milk coffee: cà phê sữa nóng
iced black coffee (default w/ sugar): cà phê đên đá
hot black coffee (default w/ sugar): cà phê đên nóng
sweet yogurt: da ua
steamed pork bun: ánh bao
If the caffeine starts to get to you, slow things down with a sweet fruit smoothie — sinh tố appears on many cafe menus across the country.
We love seeing a new perspective on the places we visit, like a Texan’s morbid tour of Texas and a Roman’s advice on what to do in Rome.
To keep up to date on Trip30, sign up for our email list and you’ll be among the first to know when we’re live. In the meantime keep checking back on our blog for more travel tips, travel stories, and updates from the Trip30 team.
