Dalat

---

Dalat

 Asia » Vietnam » Da Lat By Nessy and Pete
March 21st 2007

Dalat

In Dalat we were expecting a beautiful, quaint little hill town with loads of character and a relaxed atmosphere. Instead it was a cold, concrete town with little or no atmosphere. We realise the next day that it's the countryside surrounding the town that gives it it's reputation. We took a motorbike tour of the hills to see all the cool stuff that goes on there. Because the town's up in the mountains, it's got a micro-climate that allows everything to grow there, from mangoes to avocadoes and coffee beans to pistachios. We went to a silk factory, tea and coffee plantations, vast flower growing places (whatevert they're called) and a couple of cool waterfalls. When we weren't out in the hills on the bikes, we sat in our room watching Star Movies, drinking as many bottles of Vang Dalat (local red wine) as we could, and eating fresh pistachios! It was a really nice break from our usual days here in Asia. This whole time in Vietnam we spent just by ourselves- no talking to strangers or making new friends! Lovely jubbly.

---

Photos

Pete and his tour guide!
This young man sang westlife to Pete while driving through the hills!

Factory fun
These girls strip the worms of thier silk. It really stinks.

Gross silk worms
These little things have been stripped of their silk.

A machine
It dyes the silk lovely colours.

Vietnamese coffee
Our favourite so far!

Crazy House
This is an actual hotel. They still have 10 more years work to do on it. And it really is crazy!

Crazy House
The wall is covered in them.

Our tour guides!
We are by a beauitful lake. Which would of been a 7km walk but they drove us round!

Bus fun!
We spent many day and night on these not so comfy buses! We are jealous of everyone at home with their lovely, soft and clean beds.