The plan was to go to the Elephant Waterfalls but the weather was less than favourable. Our driver suggested a few destinations and we worked out a rough plan. As we drove past the cathedral up the road, he pointed out the rooster on the very top of the cross on the spire. The locals call it "the chicken church". We saw no less than 6 weddings there the day before when we were on our travels.

First stop was Bao Dai's Summer Palace. Bao Dai was the last feudal emperor in Vietnam and only passed away in 1997. The palace is designed in the 1930's it has an art-deco style and still has many of the original furnishings. Each bedroom (even the childrens') had large tiled ensuits. We commented that what they considered as luxururious is probably on par with a 3-star hotel today. I guess when the rest of the city was probably still using thatched roofing, I suppose it was pretty lah-dee-dah. The garden ground were quite pretty except for the tacky mini-park full of elephant statues and love heart seats. Dalat is renowned for having some very tacky parks like this. Even the locals cringe.

Next was a cable car ride. The view is spectacular and fortunately the rain eased off. There are many terraced farms growing a mixture of flowers and vegatables. Some of the houses in the hillsides are very beautiful. Its amazing that there are whole forests of European pine trees around Dalat. We think the French may have introduced them because they're sure as hell not native to Vietnam.

The driver met us at the other end of the cable car where we went though the Truc Lam Temple. The gardens were immaculate with very well tended flower gardens. Many tourists were coming in and praying whilst the monk sounded a gong which resonated throughout the building. We saw some young monks in training (about 4 years old) which Steve now refers to as "monklings". They were very cute.

Daniel split his pants getting back into the bus so we had to make a detour back to the hotel before heading off to Datanla waterfalls. It was a fair hike down and it was very wet undefoot. There was a toboggan run (similar to Jamberoo) winding down through the rainforest to the falls. Daniel was busting to have a go. The views at the bottom were spectacular. Being the wet season, the cascades were very full. A guy in a Monkey Magic suit offered us a photo opportunity with him. Steve haggled him down to 1$ and Daniel posed with him.

A cable car took us down through the gorge to another part of the cascades and it was well worth the $2ea. There were new steps being built along the sides of the gorge and lots of makeshift planks across the water at the bottom. The falls at this point were probably even more spectacular than up the mountain. The stream gushed down into a large pool where men were fishing. We suspect that these guys were actually supposed to be working on building steps we saw along the way.

The driver dropped us off in town and we arranged for him to take us to some more locations the next day. Had a slight misunderstanding with the negotiated fee over the phone. Steve thought he said 400,000 dong but he actually meant $40 which was 800,000 dong. It wasn't an issue and he was happy to take $35 as we'd decided to cut the day short and walk around the town some more.

BUH BOW! Should've paid the extra money and kept the driver because not long after he left, it started to bucket down. We ducked into an eatery for some lunch. Daniel had fried rice with pork which was loaded with garlic. Very tasty. Sue and Steve had the house special dish which were called pancakes. They were unlike any pancake you could conceive of back home. They were a bit like a deep fried gem cake. We'd seen people on the street making these with small pans. These were being made in a very big one over a large charcoal fire. Sue had pork and Steve had fish. They were served with lettuce leaves and herbs which we'd roll up and dip in various sauces. They were really delicious but kept repeating on us the whole afternoon.

As it was still raining fairly heavily, we decided to don the sexy plastic poncho's and walk a couple of doors up to settle in for a coffee like we'd had yesterday. Steve tried one this time despite having been weaned off coffee about 6 months before. It was very comfortable under cover with soft chairs so we just watched the soggy locals riding past for about an hour. The rain had only eased up a little bit so we donned the ponchos and walked back to the warmth of the hotel.

We'd read about the 100 Roofs Cafe in the Lonely Planet guide. Apparently it was very much in line with the Crazy House with a slight Lord Of The Rings feel and a slightly surreal ambiance. The problem is we couldn't find the damn thing. After wandering up the street three times in the damp mist, we gave up and looked further afield. Daniel was non too impressed. We found a nice little cafe that served drinks overlooking the marketplace. A parade of sorts was meandering around the streets near the market place banging drums and clapping cymbals. Several Chinese style dragons were bobbing about and there was a huge procession. They came up our street a few times and we got some good video footage.

We think Daniel was feeling a bit gastronomic homesick so we opted for a restaurant that served pizza & pasta. He seemed to cheer up a bit with that. The toliet was an interesting situation... the flush mechanism was broken so there was a water hose sprayer and a big garbage bin of water that you used to "hand flush". Sue was none too impressed.

Its a tall order trying to get a glass of wine over here. Most are about $10 a glass, probably due to the fact its all imported. There is however Dalat wine which is "a blend of local grapes and mulberry". Calling it different is about as complimentary as Steve can go. Sue's been sticking to lukewarm gin & tonic and skipping the ice lest we awake the tummy beast again. Steve has stuck with the Saigon Red beer but unfortunately this seems to escalate his snoring. Might have to stick to coconut juice.

Sue's Footnote : I don't care if the accomodation is only a 10 minute walk away. If it's torrential rain, we are spending $1 in cab far to get back, so we don't turn up looking like drowned rats & our shoes squelching down the hallway, notifying everyone of our imminent arrival!