Vietnam - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 890

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Da Lat's major attractions can all easily
be seen in one day by bicycle. Day-trips
to outlying attractions, best seen on the
back of a xe om with a good guide (see
p.895), usually take in a minority village,
silk-worm hamlet and factory, Lien
Khuong and Prenn waterfalls, a rice-wine
factory and a cut-flower farm. It's well
worth making Da Lat your base for an
extra day to do a motorbike tour to Cat
Tien National Park - great for hiking,
birdwatching and mountain biking.

On a tour Lak Lake is part of many Easy Rider (see p.895)
tours of the region.

DA LAT AND AROUND
Standing at an elevation of around
1500m, the city of DA LAT is Vietnam's
premier hill station, an amalgam of
maze-like streets and picturesque churches,
and French colonial buildings spliced with
less appealing new constructions. In 1897,
the governor-general of Indochina ordered
the founding of a convalescent hill station
here, where Saigon's hot-under-the-collar
colons could recharge their batteries. By
tacit agreement during the American War,
both Hanoi and Saigon refrained from
bombing the city and many of the old
buildings remain.

Hang Nga's Crazy House
One of Vietnam's more unusual
attractions, Hang Nga's Crazy House
(3 Huynh huc Khang; daily 8.30am-
7pm; 40,000VND) is the brainchild of

11

0 750

metres

Flower
Gardens

Grand Lycée
Yersin

3

Ga Da Lat

H O

Easy
Riders

4

Groovy
Gecko Tours

Phat Tire
Ventures

5
6

Cinema

Dalat Travel Service

Dalat
Tourist
Kiosk

Linh Phong
Pagoda

Thien Vuong
Pagoda

Thuy Tien Hotel

0 200

Long-distance
bus station

metres

Highway 20, Airport (29km), Datanla Falls & Lake Tuyen Lam