Going crazy in the Crazies House!

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After our first night bus experience in Vietnam (in which we were not on a sleeper bus, but in narrow seats) we arrived groggy and hungry in Da Lat first thing in the morning. A very popular tourist draw in Vietnam is the Easy Riders, who take you on the back of their motorbike for an authentic and in depth experience with Vietnam's culture and sights. We opted not to do this (after much debate) but we sure had our fair share of Riders approach us!

We found our hotel (Phuong Hanh) where we had an awesomely huge room with a renovated bathroom with hot water! This was a particular score as Da Lat has the coolest weather in most of Vietnam - it was about 15 degrees that day, although it felt much colder! In a desperate search for some food, we gobbled down a spicy meat sandwich then took a quick nap. Awaking around 9, were trying to arrange a rental bike from our hotel when the drama began! The owner of the hotel was trying to sell us a day tour rather than the bike rental. A man standing outside the hotel was an Easy Rider trying to get our business. Next thing we know, the hotel owner is yelling and gesturing to the Rider, angry at him for trying to steal "her" clients! To make things simple we decided on no tour and just the bike rental which was significantly cheaper.

Now, we did not rent bikes in HCMC because the roads were too insane but we figured that a smaller town would be more manageable - which would be true if you knew where you were going! After making a few wrong turns, we finally ended up at the CRAZY HOUSE, a uniquely designed house with themed rooms that people can actually pay to sleep in. It was like a maze for adults and we had lots of fun going crazy in the crazies house! It was designed by the daughter of the president after Ho Chi Minh and if she was not the daughter of a famous person, her house would not have been allowed to be made in Vietnam!

Parking our bike in front of the Crazy House, there was a woman who offered to watch our bikes and helmet if we bought something from her. Innocently we chose a roll of fruit Mentos. Little did we know, this day would go down as the beginning of our depence on Mentos for the remainder of our trip. Never would be board a bus, train or start the day without at least one pack on Mentos stashed away to perk us up when the mid-day hungries struck!

The rest of the day was filled with on and off rain, a fruitless search for a waterfall, a beautifully scenic drive through the countryside and two drenched and frozen travellers at the end of the day. The other sights in Da Lat were nothing overly special so we really just enjoyed the day cruising along the open road outside of the city (where there is less chance of getting lost) and admiring the wonderful views of the mountainous landscape with mulberry, rice and tea fields blanketing the hills.

That evening, after dinner, we walked to the market and were surprised to see a very different sight from other markets we had been to! Rather than selling tourist souvenirs, t-shirts and sunglasses, they had touques, mittens, sweaters and coats on sale!! It was amazing the change in temperature just 5 hours north of HCMC. Da Lat is also known for wine making, so obviously we couldn't leave without tasting some! For a small bottle of wine, we paid 22,000dong which is approximately $1.10! Whether the wine was actually good, or whether we hadn't had wine in so long that anything would have tasted good is still up for debate but we enjoyed the bottles of wine that night and slept peacefully until band practice began at 4am right outside our hotel room window! Bah! Just as we were about to fall back asleep, the alarm went off, letting us know our bus would soon leave to take us 4 hours to Nha Trang.

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