Tom met me at the quest house early in the morning and we quickly took off for some breakfast. After some tasty Pho, and some chatting, we rode of to see the sights surrounding Dalat.
We saw quite a few places, but the best part of the day was definitely riding around on the motorcycle. The motorcycle (not the usual vespa type scooters) is big and comphy and has a bit more umph than the smaller bikes. It's a Taiwanese made, 4 stroke, 125 cc bike. Definitely not what Dennis Hopper drove, but still fun. All the rodes wind through the green hills, and you always get a nice breeze and some great views.
Our first stop was the Valley of Love, a usual honeymoon getaway for the Vietnamese (hence its name). The place is extremely cheesy, but the Vietnamese people LOVE it. There were very cartoonish statues of hearts and the like all over the place, some small fair type rides, and pedal swan boats in the lake. The place is actually quite beautiful though. The valley is very small and steep with a small man-made lake in the center, and there are some great views of the surrounding farmlands.
Next up was the old French railway station, which had some cool old trains still there. The point of this stop was to meet with Tom's "cousin," Dennis, who helped Tom sell me on an extended tour through the central highlands. Although I've heard great things about these tours, I hadn't planned on this addition to my budget. They did spur my interest, and after playing a bit coy we got down to a reasonable price since Tom was going to Nha Tran for a wedding, and the trip was on the way. I told them I'd give them a call later.
After a lot of talking we finally got on the road again and headed to Datana Waterfall. Similar to the Valley of Love the waterfall had a Disneylandesque feel to it. There was a roller coaster that went down to the bottom, and I couldn't resist. It was fun, the waterfall was pretty neat, and the hike up was nice, but there was no reason to spend too much time here.
We went up the road a little bit to Tuyen Lam lake, which is another man-made lake, yet still extremely beautiful. After hanging out a bit, we walked up to the Truc Lam/Sangha Pagoda (I was told both names). The Pagoda was very nice, but nothing too special. As I explored the grounds I ran into a Monk, Trung Hoa, who spotted my Western face and was eager to speak English with me. We sat down for a while and went through some of the stories in his textbook. We mainly went over pronunciation (the r and p sounds), and had a lot of fun laughing with/at each other. I left when it was time for Trung Hoa to go to lunch, and made way to the Summer Palace #3.
The Summer Palace was built by the old Vietnames king (I have forgotten his name) as a vacation home in the 50's. The place was extremely beautiful and definitely had a royal feel to it. The best part was there was a lot of information about the house and the royal family.
We made way back into town for some lunch and some coffee. Tom has showed me some cool places to eat around town and we always have a good time chatting over meals.
Tom dropped me off back at the guest house and I researched the usual easy rider tour prices and his suggested itinerary. I couldn't resist, and gave him a call to pick me up in the morning.
I made way out in the evening and found this really fancy tasty looking restaurant. I was curious and looked at the menu. I took a couple double takes at the food prices and the looks of the interior, and decided to give it a try. I had a tasty caramel shrimp clay pot and some Dalat wine. It was delicious, and cost around 80,000 dong ($4).
I then walked around into the night market and joined in a game of dacou (seems to be becoming a regular occurence). It got me pretty tired out and I had to get some sleep for my easy riding in the morning.
Dalat has been fun, a bit cheesy, but beautiful., I can definitely see why the locals come up here to escape the city and the heat.
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