Easy Riding

View of Paradise Lake from the Zen Buddhish Monastery, Dalat, Vietnam
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I was up at the tourist information center at 7:40am in order to catch the bus for Dalat, which is located in the central highlands with a much cooler climate. I had been warned not to take any local buses and I saw why when they sped past us on the winding roads. After an 8 1/2 hour trip I was happy to be in Dalat. As I looked for a moto driver to take me to my guesthouse, I met Mui, an Easy Rider. He offered to take me to Dreams 2 and after dropping me off, asked me to meet him at the cafe next door so that he could discuss his services. I checked into my very nice room, along with massaging shower, and went back down to meet Mui. The Easy Riders are a group of guys on motorcycles that show tourists not only the sights in and around Dalat, but also will drive you to other cities in Vietnam, such as Hanoi, Nga Trang and Mui Ne. I knew I wanted to do the sights of Dalat and told him I would call him in the morning as I wasn't feeling too good and wasn't sure if I would be up for seeing the sights the next day.

Bell at Zen Buddhist Retreat, Dalat, Vietnam
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Well, I didn't do much of anything the next two days as I became pretty sick. I ended up with a 104 degree fever, shooting pains, chills, dizziness and so on. I started to become concern after reading that the symptoms for malaria are the same as for the flu. I tried going to the doctor the first night, but it was too late. I ended up going the hospital for the following day, taken very kindly by Dung from the guesthouse who was able to translate thankfully because I alone would have had a very hard time figuring out the system of rooms that you had to go to. I had blood drawn as that is the only way to tell if you have malaria and thankfully I didn't, just a viral infection with some digestive issues thrown in as well. Four prescriptions and $6 for the visit and medications, I went back to crawl into bed.

Seven Tiered Pagoda, Dalat, Vietnam
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By the third day, I wasn't 100%, but good enough to finally see something other than the inside of my room. Mui met me at my guesthouse and handed me a helmet which I was happy to have, even if it was a bit too big. Our first stop was the Hang Nga Crazy House. Mrs. Dang Viet Nga is an architect and has been building the crazy house for quite a few years now. Each room has a different theme to it, such as the ant room or the eagle room. I think LP explains it well saying that the architecture is "gaudi meets Alice in Wonderland". It was truly bizarre and wonderfully tacky. You can even stay there, but I think that would have been a little too much for me.

Dragon at Temple, Dalat, Vietnam
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Next we headed outside of the city to get a spectacular view of Dalat. Mui explained how Dalat is known for its vegetables which are able to grow so easily because of the cooler climate. These vegetables are traded for rice which is not grown there. We continued onto Phuoc Pagoda that had a temple and a seven tier pagoda to it and had dragons as the predominant theme. I walked up to the second floor of the temple and then up to the top of the pagoda for some wonderful views. The mosaic work in the pagoda was amazing - I can't imagine how many pieces of pottery had to be used and beer bottles - yup, Tiger beer bottles were used.

Dalat, Vietnam
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I had hoped to ride the cable car, but once we got there it was closed for repair or scheduled maintenance and there was no telling when it was going to start again. Instead, I had to settle for a moto ride to the zen Buddhist retreat. On the grounds is a large bell in which you can write your name on a piece of paper stuck inside. When you do so, you are supposed to make a wish which is supposed to come true when the bell is next rung. The retreat overlooked Paradise Lake and definitely had a relax feel to it. Before we could head out to our next stop, rain poured down for about 45 minutes which we waited out.

Eagle Room at Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam
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We made our way to see a waterfall, but had lunch before I headed down. There were two ways to get down to the waterfall, by walking or toboggan ride. Well, with my love of roller coasters, I opted for the toboggan. Mui said that it was an Austrian design and was very safe. I climbed into one of the toboggans and took off. You basically go as fast as you want, applying the brakes to slow down as necessary. Unfortunately, there was a bunch of slow people in front of me, so couldn't whizz all the way down, but did get a few good runs in. At the bottom was a waterfall that was dumping an impressive amount of water, thanks to all the rain in the wet season that was just finishing up. I took the toboggan back up and we headed back to Dalat. One final quick stop was near the post office that has a mini Eiffel tower. Kind of a bizarre sight in Vietnam.

Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam
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Mui dropped me back at my guesthouse around 2:30pm and was very kind to tell me that the next time I was in town, he would like to invite me to meet his wife and two girls. I told him that I would like that and that I would also like to do one of the longer tours. I had seriously considered going with Mui through the central highlands and down into Mui Ne on a four day trip, but due to my health, I figured this time around it wasn't such a good idea.

Well, I can definitely see why Dalat is such a destination for hundreds of thousands for Vietnamese each year and almost a hundred thousand foreigners.