We are now in Dalat – the honeymoon capital of Vietnam. most of the tourists here are loved-up Vietnamese couples who seem to have a strange sense of what they like to see. The region is famous for its waterfalls but most are decked out with fake plastic animals and cafes. You can get your photo taken with a Vietnamese cowboy and his pony. We even found a white horse with black painted stripes, attempting to look like a zebra.
But once you get away from the tack, it is actually a pretty nice place. It is up in the mountains, which is a nice escape from the flatness of the south and it also means the climate is cooler. I even had to wear a jumper last night!!
We spent yesterday exploring the town by foot. The first stop was Crazy House which Lonely Planet highly recommends but it is a bit of a let down. It is this strange house with rooms in weird shapes and very uncomfortable looking beds. Each room has a theme such as kangaroo, where there is a giant kangaroo in the room, with evil glowing red eyes. Guests have to be out most of the day so people can look around. But on the upside the honeymoon suite is available for 1,2 or 3 people???
next was camly falls, the capital of tack. The cable cars were over an hours walk away but well worth it for the view. You can see all over Dalat, even the Eiffle Tower shaped post office!
Today was the best day of the trip so far. Rot the guy who runs our hotel is very anti-Lonely Planet and keen to offer things not in there so arranged for his cousin and friend to take us on the back of their motorbikes to a local mountain for a walk. The walk was straight up and I struggled a bit – clearly boot camp didn't do that much for me!! - but it was amazing.
The views at the top were spectacular looking over a greenish lake, over Dalat and to the other mountains.
The way down was interesting. It is entering the start of the wet season so there has been a bit of rain, making the track pretty slippery. We had very dirty bottoms whenn we got down.
We both loved the motorbikes and are pretty keen to do another trip like that soon.
But for now it is off to Nha Trang. Here is apparently a really nice beach and we are both desperate to gett in the water away from the heat and after today, rest our tired legs!
Louisa and I were both desperate to get to Nha Trang because it was hot and we just wanted to swim. It hasn't disappointed, we've spent lots of time at the beach inthe warm water.
On Wednesday we promised ourselves a treat day to unwind from the stress of no work or responsibilities. But ended up being stalked by a taxi driver who set his bikie friends after us, eating a bowl of spinach and wallowing in mud.
We attempted to order a traditional vietnamese breakfast first thing of soup. Usually these come wiht a range of vegetables and noodles but this one was just spinach and some weird meat we didn't know what it was floating in oily water.
Never mind we'll grow strong like popeye. After breakfast we attempted to get a taxi but he didn't understand where we wanted to go so we walked off. He spent the next hour following us around tryingto understand where we wanted to go, we said goaway but he kept following. We tried going up back streets but he found us. Next thing his friends on motorbikes were following offering us lifts as well,to some unknown destination as it certainly wasn't the mud baths we wanted to get to.
WE eventually got rid of them, went backto thehostel and got them to arrange a taxi for us and our dramas for the day were over.
The mud baths were great, so relaxing. YOu soak in this pool of mud for 15 minutes, to which Louisa said "This is great, it'll get allthe dirt off our bodies"??? Then wash it off and soak in a hot tub before jumping in the pool. Unfortunately the cold pool was closed andthe 38 degreee one was a tad too hot, so we opted to return to the beach andhave a swim before sipping cocktails on sunbeds,life is pretty tough!
The next day we took a trip to 4 islands on a small boat with a bunch of other tourists, we went to a dodgey aquarium which looked more like a pet shop than tourist attraction, went snorkeling, danced on tables and sang waltzing matilda.
now for 2 more days lying on the beach before heading to Hoi An where we may get some clothes made up
