Da Lat

Đà Lạt is located 1,500 m above sea level in the southern parts of the Central Highlands region. Becs had been drinking Da Lat wine since we got to Veitnam so we guessed there were vinyards as well as coffee plantations and some fantastic countryside. What we hadn't counted on was the heavy downpour of rain. .....

Apparently one of the best ways to see Dalat is by Easyriders- not sure what put us off the motorbike tours but probably a combination of the heavy rain and also having already spent a few days touring on the back of a bike - we were kind of 'over it'...

Instead we did a little on foot, a little on tandem bike and a little canyoning!
The first afternoon the weather was lovely so we walked around the city to the Crazy House, Royal Palace and central Markets.

The Crazy House
Hằng Nga guesthouse (known as the Crazy House) has been designed and constructed by Vietnamese woman architect.

I guess the house reminded me or a cross between Alice in Wonderland, a giant twisting tree and a theme park! The building is unusually shaped and is based on nature and the environment.

There are cave shaped stairways, unevenly shaped windows and rooms and branch-like structures that "grow" along its walls and rise above the roof into the sky -which you can walk up - giving fantastic views of the city.

There are spiders webs, and themed rooms such as the eagle and bear room.

Apparently its a guesthouse - but in the rooms we saw no evidence of people staying here and lots of building work still being carried out as the tourists come in the view the house.

The architect produces paintings, and hires non-professional local craftsmen to transform these into structural elements.

We also took a tandem around the lake and to the City of Flowers...

Feeling in need of some adventure we found a tour agency and booked in for canyoning the next day!

Our 2 Groovy Gekko Tour guides pick us up from our Hotel at 9am - along with another girl Nina from Argentina. The bad news - it was raining heavily, the good news there were only 3 in our group so not too much waiting around and wet suit jackets to keep us warm!

In 15 mins we arrived at the mountains and hiked another 15mins to the first waterfall. Before our first abseil we practiced down a a small hill. The guides were brilliant. Very good English and explained everything really well.

Abseil 1 - (18 meters - dry rock)

A confident Terry went first ....

Followed by a slightly more cautious Becs...

The thought of the cold water was more scary than the abseiling!

Next up Free Jumping

Abseil 2 (15 meters - dry rock)

And then water sliding - basically sliding over the rocks down small waterfalls!
2 lots - the second a bit steeper and a bit more bumpy..

Solo

Couple

Threesome!

We stopped for a 20min lunch break before our first wet abseil down the middle of the waterfall (25 meters)

Terry...

Oops..

What Becs didn't realise was you had to jump the last 4 meters!

Free jumping (a bit higher)

Last Abseil (number 4) - the washing machine. Only 13 meters high but you practically lower yourself into the centre of the waterfall, jump in and hope your life jacket pulls you up the other side - it did really feel like getting sucked around like a washing machine!

Could see anything from the top...

Like a true gent Terry tested it out first..

And then Becs

20 min hike to the top of the mountain and we were done! After nearly 6 hours, we were cold, tired and wet through, climbing, jumping, floating down the river and abseiling down waterfalls. What a brilliant day, even with the rain!

We paid more with Groovy Gekkos than some of the other backpacker tours, but our guides seemed much better than some of the others - as other groups kept coming over to us and trying to listen to our instructions! And no other group had wet suits! At $32 - worth every penny!

We had booked a bus out of Da Lat for the following day - but the storms and rain continued overnight and our bus next day was cancelled... we were stuck in a city up in the mountains until the roads were fixed! The is a storm brewing in the Philippines - possibility effecting central Vietnam but that's a bit more north. So we are sitting here as we write this - hoping we are on the bus tomorrow!