Dalat

Dalat is a town in the chilly highlands of Vietnam. It is quite different from most places-lot of the architecture is french inspired-and you also have quite a lot of modernistic and creative buildings in town. It is a relaxed place with good food. It is a good place to try the Dalat wine (passable but not excellent-and certainly overpriced considering the quality). It is a good place to organize a trip into interesting surroundings and a place for adventure in the form of canyoning. And you have a good selection of interesting pagodas in the area. All in all-a good place to spend a few days.

I have a few blogposts related to this post:

 http://theglobalexplorers.blogspot.com/2014/11/canyoning-outside-dalat.html
http://theglobalexplorers.blogspot.com/2014/11/linh-phuoc-pagoda.html
http://theglobalexplorers.blogspot.com/2014/11/around-dalat.html

The entrance of the Du Sinh church at the outskirt of town. At first eyeglimpse it looks more like a temple.

Not a village-but a graveyard near the Du sinh church.

Not in Dalat itself, but in a village some 8 kilometers from downtown is this somewhat Disneyland like pagoda. The new Linh Phuoc pagoda is totally covered in pieces of broken pottery. Giving it a striking visual impression making it somewhat difficult to remember this is actually a sacred place.

Garden decoration

Modernistic church in Dalat.

Yummy streetfood-in a while.

Downtown-with the Eiffeltower inspired radiomast in the background.

The well groomed Dalat.

The roundabout beside the central market. This is the place to go for food in the evenings. You have street vendors selling small simple things as well as outdoor restaurants under a tent roof selling more upmarket, excellent food at fair prices. And even better: on Sunday evenings after 7pm, the whole area is blocked for motorized vehicles. And the ban is actually even enforced!

Pottery cooked fish in fishsauce. total 90000 dong including the rice and a beer. Delicious.

The Crazy House in Dalat. It is the brainchild of Dang viet Nga, a lady with a PhD in architecture. The construction begun back in 1990 and will go on as long as she have money and inspiration. It really is a crazy house-with strange rooms, corridors and staircases. Windows as well as doors have their own peculiar shapes. It is a fun place to explore-and it is possible to stay there as well.

A courtyard.

Streetfood one Sunday evening at the staircase leading down to the market roundabout.

The area has an European climate-chilly compared to much of Vietnam. As a result there is lot of agriculture here-growing chilly climate vegetables and flowers. The farming starts already in the suburbs of Dalat.

The Linh Son pagoda in central Dalat.

The Linh Quang pagoda, also in central Dalat. There are many churches and many pagodas in town.

Outside the Linh Quang pagoda are all the animals representing the forces in Buddhism, This is the dragon-symbolizing strenght.

Recycling. This woman walk around collecting plastic bottles. They will then be recycled-and she gets a small amount of money for her work.