Mimosa Hotel Dalat

... the spring, there are lots of pine trees giving off a great home scent. Once you arrive, there seems to be a monastery, Its not in the 07 lonely planet and looks new so it must of been built recently. You can walk through the grounds that give you a spectacular view of the reservoir. While walking down we stop and looked in a few shops and nearly bought a silk hand made bed throw, made by local hill tribe people. It would look great in our bedroom at home but we could bring ...

... in green houses to protect them from the elements, whereas the remaining vegetables are grown in the open air;<br>- coffee plantation, where we learned quickly how it is made. Apparently, the best coffee here is called the weasel coffee (no, the weasels don't poop it out). These creatures, being intelligent little rodents, know exactly when to pick the beans at their best. But they only eat the skin of the coffee bean, and they drop the raw beans on the ...

... in 1897, who were feeling a little homesick and somewhat sweaty from steamy Saigon. As we wound up the mountains the palm trees and rice paddies were gradually replaced by rocky inclines and pine trees. Our ascent stopped at 1,500km and a homely 17 degrees Celsius. We could breathe again!<br><br>After a long comfortable nights sleep we decided to do what people do in Dalat - take a motorbike tour. This was a ...

... to the abseiling practice wall. First, our instructor taught us how to make our way down the wall. After a few practice runs we moved on to techniques for picking ourselves back up if we were knocked down by the waterfall. The technique is to use your left hand to prop yourself up, then move the right knee up, then the left, then the right foot up and then the left. It was very easy on the practice wall to say the least (although required quite a bit of strength). Next we ...

... chose to ride down and walk up and later regretted not just<br>riding up too. hehe<br><br>Central Market- Pretty much just as we arrived at the market the daily rains poured<br>down. The first market we saw was mostly dried fruit and nuts with the<br>usual snake wine (literally a snake in a bottle with "wine" sometimes<br>with a scorpion in his mouth), da lat wine (the red is actually pretty<br>good both warm and chilled). I was frustrated that all the vietnamese ...

... of the tour we were brought to the place called the Crazy House. An architect had designed this mad look place that you could actually stay in. It all looked like a big tree and bits coming off the building in all directions. Its hard to explain so the pictures will have to do the talking. We ened up back at the cafe with the drivers having a drink and got persuaded to book a 2 day, one night tour with them. It was a bit expensive but we said feck it lets do it.<br>

... to be honest) and we all arranged to get driven around on a motorbike for a day by a group of Vietnamese men who call themselves the Da Lat Easy Riders. To be honest, they could have driven me anywhere cos I am happy just riding around on a motorbike, it's fun!<br><br>We got shown a pagoda, a 'crazy house' (it was rubbish, the architect was the daughter of a former Vietnamese president, clearly ...