There is so much about this city that rocks. First of all, the layout and building structures reminded us of a smaller-scale San Francisco. Secondly, the people here were extremely friendly and willing to talk about life as it really is (which we as tourists hadn't heard all that much due to the government). Thirdly, there was so much to do inside and immediately around the city.

The first stop we made in the city was at an establishment called 100 Roofs Cafe. There we ordered an artichoke tea (delicious), but most importantly, wandered through an eccentric maze of various art pieces, staircases, dank rooms, and thresholds hardly big enough for me to get through. It was a labyrinth of the owner's mind and was overwhelming to get through at times. See pic below for an example of what was covering the walls.

After about a half hour of meandering around the cafe, we finally made it to the rooftop garden. We gulped fresh air and celebrated our success of finding the top.

We also stumbled upon a flower park which was pretty enough to walk through, but we couldn't help finding a tad creepy due to the lack of people. Oh, and the weirdo Viet-Mickey statues. Lay off the dope Micky!

One of the highlights of the time we spent there was eating traditional meats at a self-BBQ restaurant.We ordered chicken, beef, frog, goat, crocodile, and ……chicken feet! Our waiter kept asking us if we actually meant to order what we had said…pointing at his feet and waving his arms around like a chicken to get the point across that it was actually chicken feet. Once we had the dish in front of us he watched us grill it, and helped us out after we burnt the first one. He and some friends then stuck around to watch us eat it. It wasn't bad…although there is zero meat on it whatsoever. I think our friend Anna's face says it all. Our group closed the place down, and the waiters gave us each a couple shots of rice wine on the house at the end of it all. I think they liked us.

We also decided to hike up to Lang Biang mountain – 2 miles up a paved road and 1.5 miles out and 600m up a dirt trail. The view was completely worth the steep climb up the mountain. We enjoyed victory Oreos and bahn mis at the top with some locals, and then trekked down a random side trail to avoid pavement. One huge descent later, we found ourselves in a scene that reminded us of home.

The next day was full of pagodas and views. We even found a maze depicting hell at the bottom of one of them. We also visited the Crazy House, a sister establishment to the 100 Roofs Cafe. Apparently a couple built both of them. It was as strange as the former place we visited. We even spotted a vine lady having too good of a time with herself in public.

The final day in Da Lat was spent motorbiking from the main city through a few towns to visit a waterfall. The view of the fall was nice, but the ride there was killer.

After, we are off to travel north. As always, thanks for reading!

D & G