No Paparazzi!

Dalat is a beautiful mountain town, almost a mile high in the south central part of Vietnam. It is a favorite Vietnamese honeymoon and holiday destination, and still shows early 1900s French influence in its architecture. The area is covered in either tall pine trees or in greenhouses growing vegetables and flowers intended for sale all over the country. There is some obvious wealth here that we have not noticed in other places we've visited.

We hired a car for the day and drove all around. We started with a great cable car ride dangling high over the hills and fields, and then wandered through the Truc Lam Zen Monastery and its beautiful gardens (Addi made a love proclamation prayer to Buddha with incense, all the while instructing me on how to pray).

Then we went to Datanla Falls which took a short steep hike to an amazing and wide waterfall. Jim managed to get bit by a pony there- don't worry, no skin was broken, but really- who gets bit by a pony?!

From there we went to Bar Dai's Imperial Summer Palace. It reminded us of Graceland in that we kept commenting on how small and plain it all was (times have changed the definition of grandiose) Unlike the insanely ornate palaces in Thailand, this place literally looked like Mike Brady designed and furnished it.

From there we visited the Crazy House which is nearly impossible to describe. It is a hotel on an acid trip. Most of the crazy narrow passages and bridges wouldn't pass US safety standards. I really can't describe it and do it justice...and I really couldn't capture it on film well either...but I tried. One of the photos attached!

We concluded a very full day with a visit to the Valley of Love which was described as kitschy and we added strange. It is a fun park of sorts, on a beautiful lake. What makes it odd are the strange sculptures and animals and elves and things all about. It was an odd place...but apparently a popular spot with Vietnamese vacationers!

The Vietnamese are much more aggressive in their approach to Addi than we have become accustomed to, and I don't much care for it to be honest. All harmless and based out of the same excitement at the blond hair blue eye toddler phenomenon, just too aggressive. On more than a dozen occasions today, Addi was literally swarmed, passed around, pulled and tugged. I told Addi it is ok to say 'no!' which she did a few times but was generally accepting (more than I was). Again, clearly no harm intended so it wasn't scary or anything, but super annoying. Jim got his share of Paparazzi action today too...but no one cared about the brown haired brown eyed annoyed mother. Oh well, Cinderella story for me, I know!

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