moving northwards from Ho Chi Minh City

From Ho Chi Minh City I took a bus to DaLat, the so-called 'city of eternal spring'.  Whilst I was there that meant lovely warm days (24-28⁰C range) and cool nights (around 18⁰C, so easy to sleep), and it was easy enough to walk long distances up and down the narrow streets and alleyways of this very hilly town.

I suppose the best-known site there is a modern one, being the so-called 'crazy house'.  Designed by an architect (an official at the Architecture Design Institutes of the Building Ministry and Cultural Ministry) who wanted to "break traditional practices by forming free volumes with free curves and structures", and built during the years 1990 to 2010, it really is a "crazy" house, which I spent a couple of hours wandering around.  No straight lines anywhere, tunnels from some 'rooms' to others, giant spiderman hands on one outside wall ... it's really not possible to put across in words quite how crazy it is.

It is possible (although not cheap) to stay there, though I'm not sure that I'd want hordes of tourists wandering past my door and windows all day long.  But if I did ever stay there, I think this room pictured at the top of this post with the giant hornbill is the one I would choose!

The town also has the country's oldest train station, and I took the short (45-minutes) ride to the end of the restored line, where I had around 30 minutes to look around the amazingly ornate Linh Phuoc Pagoda.  It's almost like a religious/spiritual version of the crazy house.


I also took the ten-minute cable car ride over the tops of the pine trees out to a monastery on a hill next to a lake, and generally had a very pleasant time in this relaxed place.  & then went on by bus to Nha Trang on the coast - not for its beaches, but to see the ancient Cham ruins.  The origins of the Cham people is disputed - and complicated - but these temples, built between the 7th and 12th centuries, represent their Hindu beliefs. 

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