dalat
dalat is a pretty town considered the 'little paris' among the vietnamese and is where the honeymooners come to vacation. its communication tower is shaped to look like a mini eiffel tower. dalat is located on a mountain plateau in the central highlands. this makes dalat's weather cool and crisp, instead of tropical hot, and the locals are dressed in heavy coats. it looks quite different to the places we have visited thus far. instead of rice fields, here you will find strawberries, coffee, and vegetables are in abundance.
i promised kai a ride on an elephant. the trick was finding elephants that were well cared for and i think we did. we hired a local guide to take us on mini excursion which included a ride on the tuyen lam lake, a visit to the truc lam pagoda which was by farthest the loveliest one we visited, and then an elephant ride.
we visited the 'crazy house'. it's a piece of architecture to marvel at, it's outlandish and kitschy. it's strangely decorated and lots of fun for kai to climb up and down stairs, get lost in the maze of tunnels, and go in and out of nooks and crannies. artisans work on site.
hoi an
hoi an has world heritage status. we visited the japanese covered bridge which is from 1590s. many of the houses were built in the 19th century and well preserved despite their age. the old city of hoi an is filled with buildings in gold, blue and yellow tones. there are plenty of narrow streets to explore, we enjoyed cycling among them. there were souvenirs on sale here, but hoi an is best known for its tailors (i had a pair of sandals made for me!) and cuisine. lanterns were everywhere.
we stayed at an awesome hotel with an idyllic pool but we thought we would hop onto our bikes and cycle to the beach one day. we decided to take the scenic route and got hopelessly lost. a kind woman took us and our bikes across the river in her little boat - apparently we ended up on the wrong side of the river. after much more cycling we did finally get to the beach. whew!
on our last day in vietnam we cycled around the outskirts of the old town. we ended up at a great little place for coffee.
this was our first time to vietnam. hopefully not our last. thank you for enduring the endless photos of our vietnam holiday.
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