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Sorry for the recent lack of photos! although there is internet available everywhere in Vietnam, it seems to be a case of quantity over quality here.
We visited Da Lat two days ago, taking a beautiful route through the mountains, although quite scary (think a coach overtaking two other coaches on a blind U bend and you've got it).
Da Lat was refreshingly cool compared to the rest of Vietnam, for once we actually felt cold! We were still able to wears tshirts and shorts, to the amusement of the Vietnamese who we're wearing coats and scarves, clearly not used to that climate at all.
When we first arrived we found a lovely little guesthouse off the side of the road, and the first place we visited was Datalana waterfalls, which is the nearest one to Da Lat, and was a bit mad with Vietnamese tourists. What added to the madness of it all was that to get down to the waterfall you took a bobsleigh. Yeah that's right you take a bobsleigh to the waterfall. It was absolutely hysterical, bobsleighing down to this natural beauty spot with lots of crazy Vietnamese tourists. Luckily when we got there we paid about a pound to take a cable car over to another side of the waterfall, which was deserted and we were able to enjoy it without feeling like we were in a circus.
After the waterfall we visited the 'Crazy House', which was built as a work of art by a Vietnamese woman who studied architecture at Moscow univeristy. The house is influenced by Dali, and was amazing to walk around inside. It's also a gueshouse, but the rooms are all so amazing I expect it's very expensive to stay there.
We ended our evening in Da Lat by visiting the night market. Before we went, we stopped off in a little Cafe called Cafe Tung, which was a hang out for intellectuals in the 50's. It seems not much has changed since then, with french music in the background and old men sitting around reading papers. We had THE nicest coffee I have ever tasted in my life there. Once you have tried this coffee you will only ever consider nescafe or starbucks as murky water. The coffee is served in these little metal perculators that sit on top of the cup, and drip slowly onto a sweet condensed milk at the bottom. After about three minutes the coffee will be ready and you can enjoy. And at only 30p a cup, it not only the best coffee I've ever tried, but the cheapest! The coffee beans are grown on the hills surrounding Dalat, and I will have to try and buy some to bring home.
After our caffeine fix we strolled around the night market, which was absolute mayhem! Imagine hundreds and hundreds of stalls everywhere, people yelling, stepping over all kinds of leftovers on the streets, and to top it off mopeds winding their way through the crowds and honking continuously and you've pretty much got it. Oh and add in all the strange fishy fruity smells. We were the only white people in the entire market, and with my haircut, Nikki's height and Lina's pale skin and blonde hair we were quite the attraction. I did pick up a pair of fake adidas trainers for 5 pounds so it was well worth the hassle. We finished our night by having some street food - dumplings, which are these big doughy bread balls filled with spiced pork and quails eggs.
The nest day we headed back to Nha Trang for the full moon party on the beach, which was a lot of fun, even though it was only a minor one compared to those of Thailand.
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