Da Lat

Da Lat is in the central highlands of Viet Nam - north of Saigon and in the middle (but a bit closer to Laos). It is pretty much the swiss alps of Viet Nam. Many of the buildings are French (from when they were here), and it was complelty avoided by both sides in the war. It was pretty cold up in the hills, and I was forced to wear jeans and a hoodie for the first time in 3 weeks. I took a one day motorbike tour of Dalat and the surrounds:

Some waterfall:


Choice pagoda where monks still live:

Incects in Viet Nam are enormous. Don't get one of these in your pants:

Hard yakka. Show your gran next time she complains about having to work...

'Crazy house'. When the North took over, the new community party leader's daughter fell in love with an American. This was not a good look for the party, and so she was sent away to Russia to study. Pans out being away from her love drove her a bit mad. When she got back to Viet Nam, she moved to Da Lat and built a wacko guest house called 'Crazy House'. The place is a maze of walkways and corridors, and each room has a different theme (the eagle room, bear room, crocodile room etc):

Da Lat is the vegetable basket of Viet Nam. Traditionally food is sent south to the Saigon to be traded for rice (from the mekong). Much of the land has been given out in small blocks by the government to families from the north, hence the patchwork effect:

The Vietnamese believe that they decend from the phoenix and the dragon. The tortise and the unicorn are also important, but I did not get good photos of them...