Dalat

Dalat is the first city I've been in that is touristy. There were many foreigners around and many travel agencies and restaurants/cafes catering to tourists. I could actually have an enlish menu! I ate a big breakfast of an omelette, baguette and coffee at Chocolate cafe for $2. I rented a mountain bike to explore the sights around the city. Dalat is spread out and is very hilly. The bike I rented was decent and had many gears which made riding up and down the hills no problem for me.

Crazy House
My first stop was Crazy House. This place was truly awesome! The 'house' was designed by an ex-president of Vietnam's daughter who was educated in Russia. It began in 1990 and is still a work in progress. The house is supposed to have elements to bring it back to nature. There are no round or square windows. Many things resembling roots or the inside of a cave are all over. There are many small walkways, ladders and cubbyholes. Wandering around and getting lost is part of the experience. Crazy House is hard to describe with words. It's like nothing I've ever seen before and I had so much fun checking it out. It is a hotel as well. There are 10 rooms priced from $25-60. I could afford a $25 a night room but the room I really wanted to stay in was $50! I decided not to stay at all in the end. I'll just stay at my $5 cheapie!

Bao Dai's Summer Palace
I rode for 1km from Crazy House to Bao Dai's summer palace. This extravagant home was built in 1930 and has furniture and decor are almost that old. It was an interesting place to wander around. Where Crazy House was busy with tourists, there was almost no one at Bao Dai's. There was one room decked out with a few thrones. I paid the 80 cents to dress up in a royal costume and have a bunch of photos taken. It was fun. The outside of the house was lushly landscaped with strict manicure gardens and had many large bonsai's, mostly fig and bouganvillia.

Flower Gardens
I rode across town beside the lake to the Flower gardens. The lake is emptied and cleaned every 2 years. Unfortunately this happened to be when I was in town. So there is this big lake, dry to the bone. The gardens were right beside the lake and virtually empty. Most of the plants were in containers, plastic and clay. It was a pleasant place to wander around. They also had a huge greenhouse selling every kind of plant. Lots of orchids and bonsai. In general I find that there are a lot of bonsai trees around Vietnam, lining the sidewalks and in front of businesses. I've never seen so many in a country before and I really like it. Some of them are so huge. It would take a forklift to move them. I've never been to China or Japan but for some reason I think this is what they would look like, with many bonsai's everywhere. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

Train Station
From the gardens I rode for 10 minutes to the old train station. It's mostly for display. There is only one line and it only runs 8km! There is a sign saying that they must have at least 2 passengers for the train to run. I read in the guidebook that there were some old locomotives here. My dad really likes trains so I came to take a few photos for him. There was only one old locomotive, steam powered. I could step inside it and still see the coal ready to be shoveled into the engine. I had never seen an old steamer like this up close.

From the train station I rode back into town and returned the bike. Vietnam has a lot more variety of fruit than Myanmar and Laos. I've been eating heaps of dragonfruit and mangoes since I arrived. I've been having mostly a fruit lunch. I bought 2 sandwiches for dinner and fruit for dessert. My hotel is a little bit out of town up a large hill and I didn't feel like walking into the center of town for a meal.