En route to Dalat, we stopped at a place that becomes number five on my list of really stupid "tourist attractions". Yes, it's a giant chicken!!! There was some explanation for the legend, but the Vietnamese English escaped me... but we reckon the locals dreamt up an excuse to convince the odd tour group to stop for a look, thereby having some customers for their local handicrafts. It definitely worked as 3-4 of our group of 10 bought the same scarf. Of course I was too busy admiring the giant chicken!!!
Dalat itself gives the impression of being in Europe somewhere. In fact the French who colonised Vietnam in the early 20th century apparently reckoned this area would make a good holiday area to remind them of home. So they flew over the area and released pine seeds... a decade or so later they came back to build a town... that really does feel like it should be in the Pyrenees or the mountains near Madrid. The town itself doesn't really have much to offer other than a respite from the oppressive heat down at sea level, but there was a pleasant enough Buddhist temple built in the forest outside town...
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