We've been to visit the popular tourist attraction known as 'The Crazy House'.
For once, readers, it actually lived up to both name and expectations.
Crazier than a belfry stuffed with bats.
We wandered around, and marveled at the sheer bonkersness of it all.
JB declared it to be the at the gaudy end of Gaudi, and he's been to Barcelona so he knows what he's talking about.
Here's a few pics to give you a flavour of it.
Incredibly, we have two pies to review, both both from the same roadside bakery in Dalat.
They were unlabelled (presumably to assist sales), but I've had a stab at guessing their contents.
Pie A:
A lattice topped tart really. Terribly heavy, slightly soggy attempt at shortcrust pastry. (Put me in mind of a flannel....)
Filling-wise, it seemed to be a mixture of coconut and condensed milk (sweetened. Of course)
Overall, not a good effort..
Pie B:
A crude attempt at puff pastry, its leaden layers concealed a filling which appeared to be a mixture of sage and onion stuffing and unrecognisable pork products.
I found the filling quite tasty, but given that we'd just passed a stall selling pig snouts, JB gave it a very firm thumbs down.
After 5 horrid horizontal hours on a 3rd class sleeper bus, we arrived here in Dalat, a 'weekend resort town' in the Central Highlands.
No tartan to be seen, but plenty of French and Alpine looking buildings.
The Vietnamese refer to the town as 'Little Paris' , however a closer inspection of a possible Eiffel tower revealed it as nothing more than a TV mast......
This morning, we set out for the lake and botanical gardens
The lake is somewhat fancifully described as 'banana shaped' and is populated by pedalos converted into chickens:
Next stop: the botanical gardens.
I think that the original designers were hoping to pull off an amalgam of Kew Gardens and Disneyland.
Sadly, whether due to a cost cutting decision or a simple error in translation, they appear to have consulted not the much loved Walt Disney, but the lesser known Glaswegian animator Walt Disnae.
And the result is, well, see for yourself......
There were other exhibits, but I'm sparing you.
Although I feel you need to see Disnae's Mickey Mouse:
The floral bits were quite nice , prompting JB to remark that the overall effect was reminiscent of Happy Mount Park in Morecambe .
Although less exotic. Obviously.
Anyhow, here's a few flowery pics to give you thar Morecambe feeling....
We've turned our backs on silver screen re-enactment.
Instead, today, we chose to visit Chùa Thiện Quang temple for some cultural and spiritual enlightenment .
(Quite possibly a tall order, but we shall see).
Encouragingly, the taxi driver knew where it was and we set off.
It should come as no surprise to seasoned readers to learn that, on arrival, the temple gates were firmly locked. For lunch apparently.
This seems to be a recurring theme here in Vietnam, and one wonders how they ever managed to defeat the assorted Allied forces if they stopped for lunch each day.
Anyhow......
Eventually the temple doors creaked open to reveal a frankly bonkers set of religious stuff.
Pausing only to don (faintly monkish, faintly musty) brown robes, we began exploring.
And believe me, reader, there was MUCH to explore.....
Buddhas of every shape, size and ethnicity, together with diminutive bathing beauties.......this temple's got it all.
Accompanied by an excellent soundtrack of chanting, we lurched from altar to altar, never once tripping up on the (frankly voluminous) robes.
Full credit to those monks that choose to wear them full time.
Culturally, and perhaps a little bit spiritually enlightened, we wandered off to begin the 3 mile (taxi-less) journey back to the hotel
Following on from yesterday's outing, where we successfully re-enacted the incomparable film 'Platoon', we decided to visit 'The Red Sand Dunes'.
Obviously hoping to bring to life yet another cinematic classic (ie Lawrence of Arabia), expectations and spirits were high as we boarded the taxi.
On arrival at 'The Dunes', I was immediately pestered by an elderly Vietnamese lady who seemed overly keen to rent out a couple of bits of ancient lino that she had clutched to her.
Regular readers will know that I have no truck with this kind of caper.
We moved on. Lino-less.
As it turned out, far from being ancient floor coverings, they were in fact 'Sand Sledges'. I gather that you're meant to hurtle down the dunes on them, but as anyone who's seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation will know, that sort of behaviour almost always ends badly.
But I digress.
On to 'The Red Dunes' . The first thing to note is that they're not really red. More a sort of sand colour......
Secondly, and perhaps crucially, they weren't really dunes.
More like heaps of sand.
Sand coloured sand.
Somewhat dispirited, but determined to see the project through, JB nobly posed for a 'Son of the Desert' snap, but neither of us felt able to channel the magnificent Peter O'Toole....
This afternoon, we visited the nearby Fairy Stream (what??? Thats it's name, right .......)
It's definitely a stream, but no with confirmed sightings of fairies.
The lack of fairies was more than made up for by the stunning scenery however.
The stream cuts through jungle to begin with, and as you paddle through it, barefoot, it's really quite atmospheric.
In fact, at one point, JB came over all Willem Dafoe and began making frantic hand gestures ( presumably to warn of advancing Vietcong, although he may just have been swatting away some mosquitoes)
It's that kind of place.
Eventually, the jungle gives way to bright red-orange sand dunes quite unlike anything I've ever seen before (and I've been to Fleetwood...)
We travelled to Mui Ne, a seaside town some fours drive from Saigon.
We'd booked the 'Luxury Sleeper Bus', little realising that the bus was actually fitted out with beds, not seats.
Horizontal coach travel, circular boats, every day's a learning day.
