24. In the central highlands.... Dalat

So the call of the road hit again, and I caught the night bus from Saigon to Dalat in the Central Highlands, a 7 hour journey. And what a different journey from the night bus I caught in Cambodia. It left on time and arrived early, unlike the bus from Battambang which was over an hour late leaving, but that could have been because it was coming all the way from Bangkok.... This bus was much more modern as well, still upper and lower tiers, but with individual reclining seats, not in pairs, and much much more leg room in the recess under the seat in front. Note the neon lights too....

I didn't really want the bus to arrive in Dalat early as it was still dark at 0530am....  Luckily I bumped into an Australian guy at the bus station who told me there was a free shuttle bus into town, so we arrived at 6am and everywhere was shut. Soon dawn broke and people started to stir, and businesses open up. Luckily in this part of the world people get moving much earlier than at home..... So after buying a coffee and something to eat from the bakers, I started to search the hotels for a room. Full, full full.....no luck. It was still Tet holiday and Dalat is a major Vietnamese resort. Eventually I found a room in a very Vietnamese hotel, but I was  happy to have found somewhere. I didn't have a window in my room, but the view from the corridor was magnificent.....

Dalat was a French hill station built in the early twentieth century on the recommendation of Dr Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss doctor who worked in Paris with Louis Pasteur, and after he came to Vietnam in 1889 he discovered the rat-borne microbe that caused the bubonic plague.   

Dalat was built to escape the heat and humidity of the lowlands. It is also extremely fertile soil and a good growing climate for many fruit, vegetables and flowers that cannot be grown elsewhere in Vietnam, particularly artichokes, chrysanthemums, gladioli, all grown under acres of plastic greenhouses...

It is the home of much of the coffee grown in the country, and Vietnam is now the second most important coffee exporting country in the world after Brazil, with much of it coming to UK.

I set out to explore, and walked past the lake in the town, where the main pastime is pedaling swan boats which the Vietnamese love...

I went to the Crazy House..... Yep! Crazy.... A cross between Blackpool Pleasure Beach and a Gaudi building in Barcelona! 

Complete with Father Xmas and his sledge...

I walked to the old railway station, and caught the train... Originally the cog train linked Dalat to the coast but the service ended in 1964 due to disruption caused by the war. They are talking about rebuilding the train line to connect it to the main north south Reunification train line, but for now it's a 20 minute ride to nowhere just to explore the countryside on some very old but wonderful carriages. 

Pulled by an old loco...

This was the entrance to the station. Note the French influence... Ga as in gare..... Station..

And the station

While I was waiting for the return journey I explored this beautiful Cao Dai temple on a hill top. 

Caodaism is a fusion of eastern and western religions which developed in Vietnam in the early twentieth century, and all their temples are of the same design and colour. Very striking....

Back in Dalat I met up with the girls again who I had been with in Saigon and we had a lovely evening. 

Dalat was so busy with many many Vietnamese holidaymakers still enjoying the Tet holidays, but it was a lovely atmosphere and nice to see the locals enjoying themselves. And I actually needed a jumper and scarf on tonight, something that I hadn't needed for quite a while!