Having thouroghly enjoyed Saigon City we moved to a place in the Central Highlands called Dalat. This is the complete opposite to the main Cities as it is set in lush hill sides with plenty of opportunity to get out hiking and explore the countryside. Also the temperature is much cooler and much to our surprise they cultivate similar flowers, fruits and vegetables to England. Home from Home!

When we arrived into Dalat we'd actually landed at the end of their famous flower festival and the sleepy village was overrun with out-of-towners looking pretty shifty and rushing to get the free wine on offer. We didn't feel very safe around the town and so didn't walk the streets for long. The hotel owner had also warned us about pickpockets so we called it a night and were happy that it would all be finished tomorrow.

The second day we hired some bikes to get out a bit further and see some more of the sites on offer. First we cycled to the lake at the bottom of the hill and spent a bit of time looking round the flower garden with its phallic entrance arch, rather tacky displays, and freeky topiary in the form of dragons and beasts. Having been totally perplexed at this place we had a nice lunch of noodle soup in the restaurant next door over looking the lake. We'd heard of a place called the Valley of Love and seen as we are on our extended honeymoon it seemed fitting to go check it out. This place turned out to be more tacky than the flower show. You enter into a naff fairground at the top and everywhere you look there are swings and benches with sculptures of couples on that say welcome to the Vallée de l'Amour (I guess they think if you write it in French it is even more romantic). Once you get past all the tacky structures and naff fairground games the view down over the valley is actually really beautiful and the walk down to the lake, past the guys dressed as cowboys giving horse rides, is really nice too. After all the Tack and Tat that we'd seen that day we weren't at all surprised to see the Crazy House. This house is said to be influenced by Gaudi with its organic shapes, unfortunately it is just like walking round a big tacky theme park. You go through concrete trees and into rooms with giant kangaroos with glowing red eyes. You can even stay the night in these rooms if you are not of a nervous disposition. Any where else in the world this building would be a mockery but as Dallat loves everything twee it kind of makes sense that this building is here and if nothing else it's good fun climbing up the ramps over the ceilings and then down staircases made to look like tree trunks...

We'd seen enough of Dallat's tacky side and so the following day we organised to go for a hike into the countryside through coffee plantations, and Hill Tribe villages and past waterfalls. Our guide Tanh drove us out of the town and into the serene hills of the Central Highlands. We hiked for a few hours and just before lunch marched to the top of the biggest hill to admire the views and refuel with a picnic of fresh baguettes and fruit. The scenery was so beautiful and seeing the coffee plantations and small village was a real experience. Towards the end of the hike we came to Tiger Falls. A damn had been built further up the river so not as much water flowed over it as used to, but it was still really impressive. As we scrambled to the other side of the waterfall we found a cave and just to prove we were still in Dallat two tacky, concrete tigers stood outside. Obviously! When we got back into town we were totally exhausted so popped into the bar next to the tour agency for some much needed liquid refreshment and a game of scrabble...