Dalat

Up early to catch the bus to Dalat (had to fight for our rightful seats again, I'm glad this is the last sleeper bus we need), a town about 4h away in the interior. It is quite a mountainous region so the road is a bit wobbly, which eventually triggered a bit of breakfast overflow from Aisha. This bus was much older than the previous two we have been on and, barely 20km from Dalat, it refused to go up a hill. It took an hour tinkering with the motor before they convinced it to continue.

This area is famous (in Vietnam at least) for grapes (and wine), strawberries and flowers. There are a few waterfalls and lots of nice countryside to visit. The town itself is very pretty, set round a nice lake. You could be forgiven for thinking you are in Switzerland.

Our hotel is pretty cool. We wanted something a bit different so we are in the outskirts of town with a nice garden area. It is near the old train station (much of the train line was bombed to smithereens) and has a distinctly train theme about it - the restaurant and breakfast area is a train carriage. I hadn't realised it but we actually have a lounge and a small kitchen so after lunch we headed out to find a supermarket.

Just before we found it we bumped into a bunch of small electrical cars for kids. Lucas and Aisha loved them and after a few false starts were soon driving round the small square with the rest of the kids (like yesterday, all local). It took a bit of convincing (well, the promise of more another day) before we convinced them to leave for the supermarket (a very modern affair in a shopping mall by the lake). Cooked our own dinner for the first time in months.