Vietnam: Da Lat

  Da Lat, Vietnam
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

We took a bus from Nah Trang to Da Lat. It was your typical bumpy, bus passing out another bus while theirs on coming traffic type of ride. Da Lat is known as the honeymoon capital of Vietnam. When we got there though we weren't too impressed with the place. Its quiet a small enough town. The river is heavily polluted and is quiet dirty in general. It does however have a nice lake in the near the middle of town and also has some nice spots like waterfalls and some hillside scenery outside of it. Hence the reason why we only spent 2 nights here.

02 Crazy Poses

In the afternoon of the first day we just walked around a bit and got a bite to eat before getting a motorbike taxi to the Crazy House. This place was designed by a lady called Dang Viet Nga. It was opened in 1990 and not due to be fully finished until 2010 or there abouts. It actually functions as a guest house where you can stay if you wish. It just looks like one big concrete tree house. She obviously was trying to relive her childhood when putting this place together with her various themed room like the bear room, kangaroo room, spider room etc. It was an interesting place to look at.

The second day we hide some Easy Riders to take us on a day trip around Da Lats countryside.

18 The village leader with the rice wine

We were driven to a local village where we were met by the head of the village and told about how life works around there. We were also treated to a bit traditional music and a go at some rice wine. Their version of Poitin. It was well tasty not as strong but still good.

We then made our way to the summer palace of the last prince. It was built in the early 1900's and has a very french feel to it. It was a nice place but nothing much to talk about. Finally we made our way to a waterfall a few miles outside of town. The waterfall was nice but because its the dry season its not as fierce as it could be. However the highlight of it was actually getting to the waterfall. They had this cart on tracks as modeled by Diana.

31 Diana on the kart to the waterfall

Its free falling so you have to apply the brakes yourself. It was like an amusement park ride. So good we actually went back up and did it again.

Next morning we were up nice and early and hopped on a bus to Saigon/ HCMC