Dalat, Tombstones and Disappointing Pizzas

My plan for Dalat was to chill, catch up with my blog and take a break from the heat of humidity. Dalat seemed to be off the beaten track as far as mass tourism goes, and competition for tourist dollars meant I could afford a private room for barely more than a dorm bed in Hoi An. A basic one to be sure, but the lovely owner, after leaving me alone with coffee and some promotional material for tours, led me to the room, where I promptly collapsed on the bed and slept away most of the morning.

Six hours before this turned into the night market.

The next day I took a convoluted walk to Hang Nga Guesthouse, commonly called Crazy House.

Designed by Dalat architect Don Viet Ngu, the main building is shaped like a giant tree, with design elements such as mushrooms and cave systems.

All I know is that it felt like reading a Lewis Carroll novel while drinking a magic mushroom shake. It was only turned into a guesthouse tourist attraction when the money the architect borrowed to build the place became delinquent.

The next day I took a Grab Bike to the outskirts of the city, to a minor tourist attraction called Two Graves Hill. Which had a convoluted, Romeo and Juliet-style story. Vu Minh Tam travelled to Dalat to study martial arts and fell in love with La Thi Theo, a lady from a poor family. His parents did not approve, and while he was fighting in a war, his love received the false report of his death in combat. Out of grief, she ended her own life. When against his family’s wishes, Tam returned to Dalat to reunite with his lady love, only to find her grave, and laid down next to her and died, heartbroken.

The grave site itself seems much younger than the story seems to indicate, which makes me wonder how true the story is. Nearby are several much older style tombstones, overgrown by Lantana, forgotten and forlorn.

Someone paid a sizeable sum to have this made.

Further investigation into the pine-covered hill showed young people picnicking, construction dump sites (some things are sadly universal), homeless person camps and bizarrely, a campsite for the local Scout camp.

My next stop was Linh Phuoc Pagoda, an impressive complex.

Most of the surfaces were covered in mosaics, a level of detail I have not seen outside of the oldest churches I have seen.

Off to the side of the Belltower was the main Buddha statue, which was epic.

I thought I had seen all there was to see, and I was about to order a Grab back to my hotel when on impulse I followed a group of Koreans to a set of stairs leading below the ground of the pagoda. The first sub-level was entirely devoted to a showroom with some very fancy furniture, the kind of furniture you would need a forklift to rearrange.

Then in the corner I noticed some interesting statues, and some more stairs.

I followed the stairs, which lead into a passage that turned out to be a depiction of an underworld or hell, which didn’t seem to match depictions of any of the common ideas of hell in Buddhism.