Monday 26th April - Nha Trang to Da Lat - Caught the bus to Dalat which involved a switch of bus for us while everyone else went to Saigon. Luckily the small mini-bus only had 6 of us to cope with. We chatted Leon and Kilmi (?) from Vancouver and Toronto respectively on the way as the temperature dropped as we climbed to 1500 metres above sea level. This meant COOL weather for us which was such a refreshing change from the heat and humidity of most of Vietnam! The one day we didn't bring any food for the bus, the bus choose not to stop - apart from half way up the mountain at a pineapple and peanuts only for sale place. The bus hadn't stopped when the hands came throught the window offering us fresh pineapple for 15p or less. We lunched in Da Lat in a rather grim restaurant but thought 'oh it's only a quick snack and we'll be gone' - Unfortunately we didn't reckon on a 3-hour thunderstorm to keep us there! After 2 hours there we left and dodged the raindrops as we discovered our way around town. We stayed in a hotel room that had 3 double beds in it - you could easily have put 3 or 4 more in there too! Hence we had a huge room for a couple of nights - total cost - 2 pounds 80 pence a night.

Tuesday 27th April - Da Lat - Today we booked a private taxi to take us around all the sights of Da Lat - it was money well spent as our guide (Tin) spoke excellent English . First off we hit the Chicken village (ethnic village) and visited an incense making house inhabited by local nuns, who sell the sticks to raise money for medicine for the local children. Here we tried some guava fruit which is essentially like custard and apple together. Next, we headed to the Truc Lam Pagoda (built in 1986) with lovely gardens and views over the Tuyen Lam Lake. We jumped on a cable-car to swoop over the valley of Da Lat and our guide (and driver) were there to pick us up on the other side. The 'Crazy House' was next and this was the highlight of our day. A hotel built to look like an old tree trunk but with lots of steps leading up through a maze of unusual rooms. If we'd had more time in Da Lat we'd have liked to have stayed the night. It really like being a child again and taking part in some kind of Alice in Wonderland dream. Imagine what a picture of a home from a Hans Christian Andersen book might be like! We visited the French district of Da Lat before stopping for lunch with some of the locals - very tasty. After lunch we went to the Bao Dai royal summer palace which was used many moons ago by the rulers but they were ousted in the 1940's apparently by the French. The 'magnificent' flower gardens were not as good as the gardens we saw earlier in the day - must be the time of year! Finally we ambled down to the 'Valley of Love' which is where all the local couples go for some romance. It was totally cheesy with lovehearts cut into lawns and romantic music bellowing out but we liked it anyway.
The great thing about Da Lat was the weather - always a cool breeze to refresh you and it was very different to the rest of Vietnam - us 'white tourists' were far outnumbered by local tourists and that was a really pleasant change!