Travelled up from Ho Chi Minh City by bus. Not the normal Vietnamese buss but the special Open Tour Bus for travellers, so not to taxing. Getting out of the city took ages and the sprawl went on for ever. The population of the country is 80 Million and you can quite believe it. there are people everywhere.

Spent yesterday walking around Dalat. It`s nice to be out of the burning heat of Saigon, but this place makes up for it with hills. It`s an old resort area and full for tourists both Vietnamese ones and foreigners. Some nice scenery but most of the attractions I tried to go to were closed. I guess it`s the off season. The flower gardens are delightful according to The Lonely Planet, but when I got there there was just a lot of earth and some diggers.
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Today spent the day on a tour of the delights of Dalat. Lots of Pagodas, a couple of waterfalls and the Valley of Love, which was full of Cowgirls trying to entice couples into taking horse rides around the lake. Very peaceful spot though away form the noisy streets outside. There were a few unfortunate Monkeys kept in cages about the size of a normal car. Still at least they weren`t on the menu.

Was just sitting enjoying a piece of cake, thank the French for that, and some incredibly milky tea, admiring the lights of Dalat, when they all went out. Nice to have a decent power cut. Quite took me back to the three day week. better finish this before it goes again.