Friday 23 April 2010

Đà Lạt



We are now in the city of Đà Lạt in the central highlands of South Vietnam. The city stands at an elevation of 1,500 meters and is a lot cooler than we have been used too lately. Average daily temperatures have been around 24 degrees centigrade when we have been more accustomed to temperatures of 35 degrees centigrade lately. It actually feels cold in the evenings and rain seems to arrive for an hour or so each afternoon now as the rainy season is fast approaching. We even had to buy an umbrella yesterday :-( Its a very pretty area though and there are mountains surrounding the area and it is very lush and green.

Today we hired a taxi and driver and went to see a few sights around Dalat. Firstly we went to a cable car and traveled a long and high above pine forests to a hill-top pagoda. From there we were taken around a large lake to our next ride, an elephant. This elephant (rather reluctantly) took us on a 30 minute trip around a small route in the forest next too the lake. Although I'm glad we did it, I did feel a little sorry for the elephant as she kept on making toilet stops en-route and seemed happy to remain static despite constant urging from the "driver" to move onwards. Also there was no opportunity to get photo's of us on the elephant along the way so we only have a few of us on the elephant.

After the elephant ride we were taken to the Datanla waterfall. This was very pretty and had quite a bit of water rushing down it.

We also made a visit to the Hang Nga Guesthouse, also known as the 'crazy house'. This house is a bit like something from a Tim Burton film with a bit of 'Alice through the looking glass' thrown in for good measure. They have different kind of themed rooms that you can stay in overnight (at a high price) but during the daytime the place is open to visitors. It was truly crazy.

1 comment:

Eri said...

Anyunak üzenem, hogy a fenti képen látható lyukas házszerűség az Őrült ház nevű épitmény Dalatban amit egy Oroszországban tanult vietnámi épitésznő épitett. Az épitmény kivül belül úgy néz ki, mintha egyenes Aliz a Csodaországból került volna elő. Szállodaként is szolgál és választhatsz, hogy melyik témájú (mackó, tigris..) őrült szobában akarsz aludni. Mindegyik olyan, mintha egy mesébe csöppentél volna.