We decided to go and see a few sights ourselves today despite it being a lot of walking. So after breakfast we set off for the 8km walk to the meditation centre. We went the wrong way though and did a good 3km extra than what we needed! On the way we went into the 'summer palace' which sounds wonderful and it was interesting but they make it sound so pretty and magical when it isn't! It's more like a big villa which was built in 1933 for the royal family who had another 3 such 'palaces' in dalat. All the original furniture, ornaments and general household stuff is still in place however I would have been disappointed had it not been original...after all it was only built about 70 years ago so it's not exactly ancient. It was interesting walking around because they had quite a few information boards about the rooms and things in them, with bits of information about the family and photos so it was nice to imagine them in the house. Notice I automatically say house not palace!
After about an hour there we moved on, it took us nearly an hour and a half to get to our next destination. Although we were hot and I was getting tired it was still a really pleasant walk because we had moved out of the city. The roads were big but more or less empty and winding through the country side so we got some lovely views. We reached the meditation centre which was a really welcome relief and it was relaxing. We were expecting a bit more from it, like seeing more monks around or them holding perhaps little meditation sessions or something but it wasn't like that. It was a big complex, it's got a public area with lots of little temples and shrines and absolutely stunning grounds. It's got all sorts of flowers everywhere and so many benches in lots of different areas to just sit and look at everything. There's wind chimes hanging from lots of places that play the most gorgeous tunes and bells being rang by the monks in the temples. Apparently there are 50 monks and 50 nuns in the complex, they have their own separate living quarters which are also separate from the public parts. We saw where the monks live through a big iron gate. The houses are really lovely and they clearly have lots of areas for meditation. We walked around the grounds and came to a big rectangular pond like area full of fish and turtles, then we walked down into the woods towards the lake. The pines here are so lovely and tall and it was really peaceful so we stopped and ate lunch on one of the benches. After walking down to the lake and back up again we decided it was time to move on, so we took the cable car across to the main built up areas again.
It's a really long cable car ride we were on it for about 15 minutes, the views again were wonderful. You could see all the green for miles and miles. We then walked another 6km to the old train station...again I'm not sure what we were expecting but for that amount of walking I think a little bit more excitement was in order. The station is the oldest in vietnam i think i heard. There are 2 trains there, one is an old steam train that's been out of service for 30 years, the other is an old one but a bit more modern which is still in service for tourists to have a ride. We decided against it because the next trip was a 50 minute wait and we were knackered! So we got a taxi back (there was no way I was walking another 6km back), went to a coffee shop for hot chocolate then went to make use of the jacuzzi! Ooh it was good because it was getting a bit later so it was cooler, soaking in hot water in the cool air as so refreshing. We sat with a German couple talking for just over an hour, used to steam room then got ready for tea. Thankfully the food was back up to the wonderful Vietnamese standards we've been used to so we went to bed happy.
