An Actual Brief Post from De Lat - with pictures!

Ok - so I lied. It's not actually a post from De Lat, it's a post about De Lat. We're leaving Vietnam tomorrow (how time flies!) and I'm trying to catch up! But there are pictures!

After a surprisingly quiet night (for being right where the action is in the hotel, it was much quieter than HCMC at night), we woke up early on our only full day in Da Lat and had a great breakfast. While eating, we met a couple from the US who were touring Vietnam with their 11-year-old daughter whom they had adopted as a baby. They had visited her orphanage and said that the nannies were thrilled to see their daughter and had kept all the letters and pictures they had sent through the years. Very cool. We then had a lovely personal tour of De Lat with our guide, Heng (who said he learned English from working in restaurants as a boy and listening to the tourists - made sense as he spoke with an odd French/Australian accent and every second phrase out of his mouth was "Oh my God!" or "Oh yeah!"). We took a cable car to a pagoda, complete with monks and gorgeous grounds. The view was spectacular from the cable car, but hard to capture with our cameras, as it was still a little misty. The mountains are beautiful and there are many farms in the valleys, with soil that is red, similar to Prince Edward Island.

Next we went to a place with a few waterfalls and the highlights there were Audrey, Luke and I riding on an elephant, which might just have been topped by Audrey riding an ostrich! We then went to a place called the Crazy House, which will have its own post. We had a great lunch at the hotel (amazing tofu!) and in the afternoon we visited an embroidery factory and the Valley of Love (our guide kept telling us that the French named it this) where many people go after they are married. The views there were also amazing. Da Lat is very lush and beautiful. Reminded us a little of Vietnam's version of Whistler (Audrey said the Alps). The weather was also much cooler here - we needed sweaters (come to think of it, only Audrey and I wore sweaters). It was nice to get a break from sweating. We also really enjoyed the food here. After dinner we bought some De Lat wine (strawberry and mulberry), which we packed in swim diapers (luckily, we brought too many) and hope to drink (or wear, depending on how the diapers hold up) when we get home!

On the cable car

Another view from cable car

One of the waterfalls we saw

Bear attacking Doug (see the look of terror on his face?) and Luke (good father, he didn't even offer his baby to save himself)

Outside the pagoda

View from the Valley of Love

Elephant riding (we bought really good pictures that were taken of us for the whole ride - we went through water and everything!). This shot was taken by Doug who couldn't get very close or follow us.

And finally, the pièce de résistance...