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On Thursday morning we took a bus from Nha Trang to the town of Dalat. Being in the central highlands of vietnam, the climate was a lot cooler which was a lovely respite from the intense heat and humidity of the rest of the country. The spring like cool also means that flowers and strawberries can be grown in the surrounding farmland, rather than rice, which results in a very different landscape. The french influence is also apparent here, with lots of French stle villas instead of the usual delapurated, tall, narrow terraced buildings.We were staying at a lovely hotel called Dreams Hotel- they had marmite in their breakfast buffet! The owners's grandchild Cherry was always running around the lobby- she was so sweet! She couldn't stop talking, and mostly in English, despite being only 2 years old! When we arrived she stood on the reception desk and showed us her map of Dalat and the nearby sights- so funny and quiet incredible.
In the afternoon we visited Hang Nga Crazy House- which was completely bonkers! The house is maze of surrealist architecture, with tunnels, walkways and ladders leading you to rooms you can actually stay the night in. Some if the bizarre bedroom decorations included a kangaroo statue with red glowing eyes.
On Friday we took a city tour of Dalat's main attractions. It was a really great day as it was just us three girls and our charming tour guide Hib. We started off taking a cable car from Robin Hill to Truc Lam Pagoda. The Buddhist monastery was a large complex of temples set in a pine forest with lots of flowers adorning the pathways. There were monks everywhere, and the site was very cool and peaceful. We then walked down to Tuyen Lam Lake, a popular location with locals for romantic encounters on the swan peddle boats! To be honest, the lake didn't seem very romantic to be as it was actually a reservoir and the small pier/viewing tower was covered in graffiti!
We then went to Datanla falls, but rather than walking down to the waterfall, we took a bobsled ride! It was really fun whizzing down the mountain along metal tracks, I had my brake off nearly the whole way down. Next was Bao Dai's Summer Palace, but it looked more like an old swimming pool complex, as Emily put it! Lunch was a real treat- Hib tool us to his favourite street eatery. It was great to be the only westerns there joining all the locals fit authentic street food. hib took us to local street restaurant. Everyone had the same set meal which was cooked on the roadside. We had BBQ pork, fried egg, rice, pork skin, fish sauce, some veg...It was lovely and only cost 30000d (90p!).
In the afternoon we were joined by a swedish couple to go horseriding around the Valley of Love. We were really excited about it but it was a bit of a disappointment as the poor horses were so thin and weak they could only break into a trot momentarily. We mostly walked along a road with a brief stint in pine forest. The Valley of Love park itself was a good laugh; the landscape gardens are filled with 'romantically' themed props and statues which are tacky and cheesy to the extreme. We had a lot of fun taking photos of us posing with the kitch sculptures- they had everything from garden gnomes to giraffes!
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