Da Lat city walk, Crazy House, Cable car and sightseeing

This morning was a bit lazy after our long day of travelling yesterday. When we finally made it out of the hostel late in the morning we headed for "Crazy house" - one of the sights to visit in Da Lat. A project long in the making and still under construction by some woman who we clearly inspired by at least a couple of fairy tale stories. 

The house sits on a big plot of land in Da Lat city and is constructed with a lot of weird staircases, unique rooms and a lot of fake "nature" decoration. Kitsch or horror - you decide but it is different anyway. 

We headed down town to the centre of Da Lat to find some lunch and had the Ba Mihn sandwiches and some good coffee, walked some more, found the "Easy Riders" office and met with two older guys. Dan and Bah gave us a good sales pitch on the trip we wanted to do from Da Lat to Nha Trang so we agreed on going with them in a couple of days. Small issue was the deposit they wanted us to pay. Malene went with Bah in search of an ATM that wasn't limited to 2 million Dong - and came back with nothing. It is a rather annoying that the is what seems to be a countrywide limit which means more fees to the bank when you have to take out cash. We ended up persuading Dan and Bah to take us to the hostel to get our cash there, so off we went, took care of payment and persuaded them to drop us off at the cable car outside the city. 

The cable car took us to another temple - really nice in forest just outside Da Lat city. Surrounded by a nice garden with lots of flowers we enjoyed walking around there in the quiet afternoon before we took the cable car back up the mountain, had great coffee and a cafe and spent about an hour walking back to our home stay for the group dinner. 

Dinner was yet another chance to talk to some of the other guys staying at the hostel and once done with food we managed to Skype home and congratulate Mikkels mum on her birthday. Then we headed down to the 100 Roofs cafe in Da Lat. A kind of similar place as crazy house with lots of weird decoration, hidden stair cases and unique interior. We found a place to sit and have a few beers and were joined by Sam and Paul from the UK. They are doing a 3 month trip in South East Asia, having their own motorcycle here in Vietnam so we shared a lot of travel experiences and a few beers and agreed to meet tomorrow morning and hang out in Da Lat. It's great to travel.

Breakfast at the hostel

Hostel dog

Waiting for the laundry fairy

Crazy house

Unique and tacky at the same time

Great city view

One more market

Soup and sandwich for lunch

And good coffee

Easy Riders Sales pitch

Cable car

Temple visit

Mr Eiffel would have been proud

Dinner at the hostel

Drinks at 100 Roofs

VietJetAir from Phu Quoc to HCMC and Da Lat - delayed forever

At 7 PM we left our nice room and resort and headed to the Phu Quoc airport with a taxi. A short drive later we were at the airport, very quiet this morning and check in was easy. We made it through security in no time and then realised our flight was delayed. 30 minutes - then one hour. That also meant that our connection in HCMC was gone, so when we eventually took off with our flight we didn't even have to wish for a fast flight - it was too late. Unless of course the next flight was just as delayed. Which it wasn't.

The Da Lat flight left according to schedule from HCMC at 11 AM so we got our luggage and headed for the VietJetAir counter where a very nice woman gave us a free change of flight to the later departure - leaving at 8 PM. A lot of hours to spend in HCMC where check in wouldn't open until two hours before departure which meant that we had to sit outside at one of the nice cafés with no A/C and look after our stuff. 

On the upside being stuck here meant we had access to some of the few ATM's that will let us take out more than two million Dong per transaction. There are a couple at the airport where the limit is five million Dong. Two million with the added fee's is ridiculous - it is not even USD 100 plus fees. Five minutes later and we were loaded with 10 million Dong. You feel so rich here in Vietnam. And we still had five hours and fifty five minutes to wait until check in would open up. 

Five hours later we both reached the "end of the Internet" having spent most of the day surfing web pages and updating Facebook. Internet at the airport is free and fast. Perfect for missed connections. Just before check in was about to open we got a mail from VietJetAir - announcing another hour of delay. We checked in at 6 PM, our flight got delayed until 9 PM but we had good dinner at the airport so when we finally made it to Da Lat airport some 30 kilometres outside of Da Lat town we were happy to see the shuttle bus waiting for us. We were dropped off a bit from our hostel, took a taxi, got our room just before midnight and crashed on the bed. Two 30 minute flights and 17 hours of waiting and a bit of bus and taxi transport in one day. It would have been slightly faster to take the bus and the boat but who cares. We are here and the place seems nice.

7 AM and we're on the road

Phu Quoc international airport

Waiting forever

Delayed forever

Ho Chi Mihn City from above

Da Lat airport shuttle

Hostel with scooter garage