We left the Möwenpick Resort and made our way to the next stop on our agenda, Đà Lạt, up in the mountains. I gather it was where the French colonialists escaped the summer heat in Saigon.
The initial two hours of the journey were along very narrow and winding roads leading to some interesting moments as our driver overtook slower cars and lorries. Having said that, he was careful and there were no more than a few narrow scrapes.
Jessie felt carsick after a couple of hours so we stopped for a drink and ice cream at a tiny rest stop at the top of the hills.
A couple of hours later we arrived in Đà Lạt, a busy and clearly very popular little town – lots of attractions for the tourists and clearly very popular with the Vietnamese.
The driver found his way to our home for the next few days, La Fleur Hotel right on the main road which is “serviceable”, shall we say. The young lad checking us in recommended a place called Emai for dinner. It was tucked away in the hills and was absolutely outstanding! I’d go there again.
After a very leisurely start to the day, we set off in search of some breakfast somewhere along the route to our destination, the Crazy House of Đà Lạt.
We found a couple of places serving noodles which were fine but most of the options either had meat or the broth had meat. So, Penny had to wander a bit further to find a vegan establishment where she was able to get something.
After breakfast we made our way to the Crazy House. Only one word for it – Crazy. (If you do click the link to the Crazy House be patient – the site can be very slow to load).
Hằng Nga guesthouse, popularly known as the “Crazy House”, is an unconventional building designed and constructed by Vietnamese architect Đặng Việt Nga.
Described as a “fairy tale house” the building’s overall design resembles a giant tree, incorporating sculptured design elements representing natural forms such as animals, mushrooms, spider webs and caves. Its architecture, comprising complex, organic, non-rectilinear shapes, has been described as expressionist. Nga has acknowledged the inspiration of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí in the building’s design, and visitors have variously drawn parallels between it and the works of artists such as Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney. Since its opening in 1990, the building has gained recognition for its unique architecture, being highlighted in numerous guidebooks and listed as one of the world’s ten most “bizarre” buildings in the Chinese People’s Daily.
Wacky!
A packed, fun-filled morning. Penny had mapped out an itinerary which included a ride on a cable car, a visit to a monastery and a roller coaster to some very picturesque waterfalls.
The cable car runs from Robin Hill to the Truc Lam Monastery and was built by an Austrian company. It covers about 2.5 km with some pretty nice views.
The monastery was an unexpected delight. It’s not very old – built in 1994, apparently, but the gardens were magnificent. A real treat.
From there we grabbed a taxi to the Alpine Roller Coaster which was excellent. Thankfully, Julieta just made the 90cm height restriction so she and Adam went in one car, Ava and Jessie in another and Penny and me in cars of our own. Like all roller coasters, it was great fun with twists and turns – sadly no loop-the-loop.
The roller coaster delivers you, still buzzing with adrenaline, to the Datanla Falls. It’s a lovely spot if you can get past the kitsch concrete walkways and sculptures. Jessie had fun climbing on the T-Rex while we sat and enjoyed the views.
Dinner was at the Blue Parrot Mexican Grill, rated, apparently, the best Mexican restaurant in the whole of Vietnam. And, it was very good.
I won’t mention the twenty-seven mile walk around the lake which Penny made me do before dinner. Well, at least it helped work up an appetite.
Next time . . . another long and winding road from Đà Lạt to Nha Trang, back on the coast. More pool time, a couple of great meals and a day at the mud baths and spa!
We’ve had a busy week! We’re still slaving away at Penelope’s Project – the most challenging bit is yet to come! The weather’s been not quite as good as last week’s – we had a day of rain, overcast days and decidedly cooler temperatures. Next week, though, is supposed to be Scorcio!
Thursday evening we went with some friends to the cinema in Banbury to see Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, a digitally remastered 1972 film of, you guessed it, Pink Floyd playing in the amphitheatre at Pompeii. We’re not, perhaps, huge Pink Floyd fans, although there’s a lot of their stuff we like. But, our friends from around the corner are/were big fans so they were keen to go and we were more than happy to accompany them. An impartial review? It was “interesting.” I had imagined that it would be a film of a concert but no. It’s a film of them in Pompeii (and some other places including the Abbey Road Studios in London) messing around, basically. This was the period of time when wacky and bizarre effects could increasingly be easily generated through electronic technology and Pink Floyd were at the “cutting edge” of that experimentation. Interesting.
On Friday we had a grand day out – we took Annabelle and her friend Jia to London to see a production of Mean Girls. This was our Christmas gift to Annabelle – a London show of her choice along with one of her friends, and this is what she chose. Good fun and especial thanks to Nick for dropping the girls over and for baby-sitting Daisy while we were away.
After the show we raced back to Moreton Pinkney and got home just in time to attend the first Moreton Pinkney Poker Night which was a lot of fun. The evening was made even better by the presence of a Thai food truck which provided delicious food prior to the event.
There were nine tables of eight or so folks each and, after a brief explanation of the rules of Texas Hold ‘em, we set off to gamble our hearts away. Thankfully, this was all in aid of charity and our £5 “admission” fee bought us stacks of poker chips with which to play. Astonishingly, knowing almost nothing about Texas Hold ‘em, I still managed to amass the largest collection of chips on our table. This was undoubtedly due to my great poker-playing skills or complete blind luck – I’ll let you decide!
Towards the end of the evening the “winners” from each of the nine tables were pitted against one another for a final three rounds. Here I resorted to form – I had lost all my chips by the end of the second round. Hey ho, win some, lose some.
YCNMIU
Another “chat” where Pete Hegseth shares details of an upcoming attack with another Signal group which this time included his wife, brother and about another dozen people? You’ve got to be kidding me! Just extraordinary.
And finally, I ran across an article listing Susie Dent’s most popular Words of the Day. Intriguingly, most of these seem strikingly relevant to the crazy times we live in.
Susie Dent’s most popular words of the day
- Ingordigiousness: extreme greed; an insatiable desire for wealth at any cost.
- Maw-worm: (19th century): one who insists that they have done nothing wrong, despite evidence to the contrary
- Sparple: (14th century): to deflect unwanted attention from one thing by making a big deal of another.
- Recrudescence: (17th century): the return of something unpleasant after a period of relief.
- Malversation: (16th century): the corrupt administration of power.
- Filipendulous: (19th century): hanging by a thread.
- Circumlocutionist: one who consistently speaks in a roundabout way in order to avoid addressing a question directly.
- Spuddle: (17th century): to work ineffectively; to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing.
- Sequaciousness: (17th century): the blinkered, unreasoning, and slavish following of another, no matter where it leads.
- Zugzwang: [tzoog-tzwung]: a situation in chess (and life) in which a move must be made, but each possible one will make the situation worse.
Meanwhile, keep breathing, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees – we need all the pollinators we can get.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg