Day 16: Da-Lat, lots and lots of Da-Lat

(I'm posting this on Day 17, since only now I have decent internet, so read as if it's yesterday).

Today we went with our guide Vui, who has a Hebrew sticker on the back of his car (left by one of his other tourists):

We first went to see some temples (don't remember their name), it's a big park with many temples:

This huge bell is inside the previous temple:

The inside of the bell is covered with notes:

The view from the area:

Some weird kid who kept taking photos of us on his mobile phone (these people are really amazed by my beard for some reason...):

Later on, we went to see some waterfall whose name I can't remember...

Rotem under the waterfall:

A bridge near the waterfall (it's a small park):

An elephant people can ride on (one of the attractions in the park):

Afterwards, we went to see Chicken Village (the guide said they're called Chicken Village because they have a giant chicken statue at the front of the village).

The people in this village don't speak Vietnamese, they have their own language.

Here's the giant chicken statue:

This is a well from which they get their water:

A little chick near the pot in the kitchen (hmm... I wonder what he's doing there... wink wink):

In the center is a woman and around her are her seven children:

A big piggy and a little piggy:

After the village, we went to see a Chinese pagoda called The Agalloch Buddha Pagoda. It contains three giant buddha statues made of aloe wood (each statue is 4 meters high and weights 1.5 tons), these statues were brought from hong kong in 1958 when the Pagoda was being built (it was reconstructed in 1989).

Archaeologists say that these statues were made in the 16th century, but no one knows the exact date.

Here are the three statues:

A cute little puppy we met in the pagoda:

I saw this shot, and I thought it looks interesting:

After that we went to the Chua Linh Phuoc pagoda:

This is an interesting building near the pagoda:

Funny looking lion statue in the pagoda:

Inside the pagoda:

Dragon statue in the pagoda:

Another giant bell, this time inside the tall building 4 photos ago:

That building is currently being built (or restored, not sure), they are using broken plate parts to cover the walls with pictures (they are breaking the plates and pasting their parts on the wall to create all sorts of forms):

Afterwards, we went to eat lunch in a very nice little restaurant called "Peace Cafe" (57 Truong Cong Dinh St.), it's also recommended in Lonely Planet.

The owner of the restaurant is called TU ANH, she's a very nice lady, knows some Hebrew words, she's very hyper but very nice:

After lunch we went to Valley of Love, one the most kitschy place we've ever seen, full of pink hearts and stuff like that.

Here you can see Rotem laughing at how kitschy this place is:

A cool miniature waterfall thingy:

An eagle statue from up close:

The view:

"The bench you are sitting on is sponsored by PEPSI"...

Later (yeah, we were in lots of places...) we went to the Crazy House, it's a really strangely designed house (by a very crazy architect), it's like a maze in side.

Here are some photos:

There are rooms inside that you can rent:

One of the construction workers (this place is still under construction) showed me were I can take a good photo of one of the towers:

At the end of the tour, we asked the guide to drop us off at the town center and we walked around the market.

Some old lady in the market:

Motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes, ...

As I mentioned in a previous post, the motorbikes here are family vehicles, and are also used for transferring large things like huge bags, closets, fridges. We even saw a motorbike-mounted kiosk.