From the beach we headed into the Southern Highlands of Vietnam. We took a bus to the touristy city of Dalat, at an altitude of 1500m.
There were a lot of churches around...remnants of the French colonisation?
We took a walk around the city and ended up at the central marketplace. There were all kinds of exotic fruits and vegetables, many kinds of animals for the slaughter as well as a wide range of unidentifiable foods.
We decided the best way to see the sights around Dalat was to rent a motorcycle, as there was no public transit and it was too far to walk. Our first stop was the Flower Garden. It was filled with Vietnamese tourists who just loved all the tacky decorations, one of which was this cute bumblebee.
We enjoyed checking out all the different flowers they had, from the typical to the more exotic.
There were many interesting sculptures scattered around the park.
The next stop was a place known as 'Crazy House'. It was designed by an accomplished Vietnamese architect and has a very 'Alice in Wonderland' sort of style.
There were many windy passageways and oddly shaped structures.
There were also rooms available to stay in that each had a different theme. I think this was the horn bill room.
They had a xylophone made out of different sized slabs of stone.
The next morning we drove through the countryside taking in the mountain views.
Our plan was to hike up Langbiang mountain, but when we arrived it was much different than we expected. It was packed with tour buses and the only way up the mountain was by jeep on a large paved road.
So begrudgingly we paid $2 each to take a jeep to the viewpoint at the top of the mountain (1950m). The view was nice but we were disappointed that we couldn't do any trekking and that there were so many people.
At the top they were selling ostrich eggs and skewers of ostrich, crocodile, and rabbit meat.
On the way back I drove a motorcycle for the first time, for a little ways...it was fun!
But mostly Frank was designated driver.
Next we headed to Datanla waterfall, which was also packed with Vietnamese tourists.
There was a bobsled ride that lead down through the jungle to the waterfall.
They also had a cable car through the jungle, but we didn't go on that one.
On our way back we found a small trail leading into the jungle, so we decided to follow it for awhile.
We saw some interesting botanical specimens along the way.
The fiddlehead of a fern.
We ended the day with a ride around the lake that lies in the middle of Dalat, and we watched a beautiful sunset.
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