The Vietnamese Central Highlands - by Motorcyle!

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Yesterday, Nate and I had an amazing day touring around Da Lat on the backs of two motorcycles with two excellent guides, Wing and Duong. We went to the Dragon Pagoda first and saw a huge Buddha statue, then we went to the Crazy House, which is this house built to look like a tree with themed rooms inside (like kangaroo, tiger, gourd and pheasant) but, frankly, was a little overrated. After that we visited a farm and walked through a valley of red dirt fields that was really beautiful. After the farm we went to a hilltop monastey overlooking a lake, and it was very beautiful and peaceful. We then went to the Datanla Falls, which were raging and very cool. After the falls we had lunch and then headed to the "Chicken Village," which is the name the tourists have for it because it has a two-storey chicken statue in the middle of it. The chicken statue is apparently a memorial for a girl who, legend has it, was told by her boyfriend's parents that they could only get married if she found a chicken with nine spires on it's legs. She looked and looked and one day went into the mountains looking for it and was never found again. The actual name of the village is Lang Dinh An, and it is a minority village of about 800 people that our guide walked us through. He took us right into people's homes (which was a quite strange, as they were in there going about their daily business before he/we interrupted them). It was cool though. We got to watch a woman make incense and met two kids working with corn. They had huge smiles on their faces and were quite sweet. I bought a handmade silk scarf from one of the girls, and it has been very useful in Da Lat's cold climate. After the Chicken Village we stopped by a coffee plantation (Da Lat is apparently very well known for it's coffee, and exports 90% of it's crops). We finished up at the French Railway station (which had some old trains that Nate found interesting) and the neighbouring bonsai garden, which had some of the best bonsai trees I've ever seen. All in all, it was a really busy day but really amazing, too. It was great to see the Highlands by motorcycle, because we really got to take in all of the scenery properly instead of through a bus window (which had been our original plan). It was tons of fun and we're looking forward to Nha Trang tomorrow.

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Photos

On the bikes
Outside our hotel with Wing (on the left) and Duong

Big Buddha!
Nate and I outside the Dragon Pagoda

Me by the lake
I can't remember it's name right now, but it was right before we climbed the stairs to the monastery and it was very cool

Bell at the Monastery
I don't know what's sweeter, the building or the deer-shaped bushes outside

Chicken Village
The mysterious nine-spired chicken