I woke up early just after 6am and it had been cold in the night. I got up so that I could walk while it was still cooler but being in the hills and after the amount of winter clothes in the market I wore my thermal top and trousers. Downstairs I handed in my clothes for washing before having breakfast which was served at 6.30 and I had egg with noodles. The egg was a 2 egg omelette and the noodles were instant. There were 2 girls with bikes who were planning to ride to Nha Trang, a 135km ride. After that I headed out and went to the crazy house first which opened at 8.30 and was 40,000 VND entry. It didn't look so photogenic and I wasn't really interested in climbing around a building like in a childrens playground so I didn't plan on going back. I carried on south and came to Bao Dai palace 3 and paid the 20k entry. The palace was a bit small with a French design but they did have information in each room and after the king had left in the 50's it was used by the leader of south Vietnam. When leaving they make people leave through a longer route just so you go past some shops and I should have just snuck out through the entrance. I continued south along the road and listened to some music and bought some snacks on the way. At about 8.50 I got to where the cable car ends which costs 60k one way and 80k return and is probably more for the views as its not a great transport solution. The truc lam zen pagoda on the hill was nice but nothing special and there were no great views either. My favourite building was off limits and I went past it on my way to the lake which looked ok but the hills around were not high enough to really make it scenic. They had boat trips there for tourists for 300k and I checked the map and decided to walk to a nearby waterfall which involved a bit more walking on the roads as there was no pavement at all for this bit. I got to the waterfall area where a few coaches were parked and the place had a small rollercoater thing where people can control the speed of their cars. I walked down to the waterfall which was not very high but did have a bit of width and a decent flow of water. There was a path further fown and a cable car went even further down. I let it go and walked down where there was not much to see and the cable car headed back up before I could get on so I walked up. I was feeling a bit tired and ate the rice snack I had got earlier which was good. Then I went back up past the rollercoaster where a queue of cars had formed as they needed a fap between each car. I left and walked back into town past the bus station which I maybe should have visited to get prices and times. I then headed east and skipped the palace no 2 of 3 but stopped at a museum which was closed. I'm not sure what it was for but there was an old shrine discovered there and also some traditional stilt houses in the grounds I could see. I got to Palace Number 1 which was well sign posted so I thought it might be special and I had to pay 30,000 entry. The place looked nice but the building seemed smaller and there was less information inside than palace No.3 I continued along the road and found a shop selling tomatoes for just 6,000 a kg so I bought a kilo. I'd had a few conversations with people about salad not really being food so I decided to eat the whole lot and see if it filled me up so I walked and ate them all by 12pm and by 12.30 I was hungry so I got a 90g bread roll thing, salad schmalad. I was near the temple I had come to see and it was really nice and impressive. There were 3 buildings to visit and I started with the pagoda which I climbed to the top of, all 6 or so storeys but they had locked the upper floors so I couldn't enjoy the views. The detail of work on all of the buildings were pretty amazing and the next building had 2 large statues one in a room with hundreds of human sized statues in. The last building was the worship hall and there was also an underground place which looked a bit like a large antiques place with some unusual wood carved things. I left and walked along the main road to get to a nice looking building possibly a temple on a hill nearby. I came to a railway station which looked like it may or may not be used. There was a train parked there and people taking photos of it. I continued and saw the building on the hill to the side so I found a road that way. The temple at the top was big but closed and had a lot of the symbol that looks like a swastika. Back down some stairs the other building was open and a girl inside spoke to me in English and said these places were new and a new religion as well a mix of 5 religions but mainly Buddhism (Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism and Taoism would be my guess). We went back up to the larger building, her a chinese man and me but there was nobody to open it. She did tell me to see hell in the amazing Linh phuc pagoda so I went back there which was a fairly direct route this time and went downstairs again and through a gate I'd missed. Hell was lots of dark red lighted tunnels with rooms of people being tortured and gad been compared by others to the London dungeons but considering its free it was good to see. I then wet back to the train station as I could maybe get a train and have more time to visit another waterfall and maybe get train times to Nha Trang but the next train was at 5pm and it was 3.20. I walked back to town and bought some tofu for 20k which was a mistake as it was flavourless. At the tomato place I got some bananas as they were 10k a kg but the woman couldn't measure one kilogram and I ended up with 1.5 which is quite a lot and they filled me up a lot more than the tomatoes although they still didn't make eating the tofu pleasurable. I walked a different way to go north of the main lake and found another temple and then an internet place, finally. Unfortunately it didn't connect with my usb devices so I could only do so much.
It was now a bit dark as I walked around the lake and the flower garden was shut from 5pm but opens at 7.30 so it seens Vietnam does start early in the day. I finished walking around the lake which is a decent size and went to a travel agency where a bus would cost 119,000 and I would have to be there at 7.30, but I wasn't sure if I would have my washing back by then so I went back to the hostel. They had done my washing so I paid and noticed she'd overchanged me so I corrected it and found out they could book a bus as well which would pick me up from the hostel so even better and the price was 120k about the same. I went upstairs and did a bit of research and couldn't decide what to do in Nha trang and whether to just leave the same day on a night bus but I did decide to get the morning bus there rather than the 1pm one so I went down and booked it. Then I headed out for another walk like I hadn't done enough already and went to see 3 view places. The first was not really there and the second was along a road that was gated and locked do might be worth visiting in the daytime. The last place was a waterfall and I decided was too far to go and see in the dark as it was probably closed so I went back. I didn't feel like fixing my suitcase so I just rested and a guy came in and picked the bed above me which was annoying but it was a really strange distribution of beds in the place. I read some and had a shower before switching the light off at 10.20 as the guy above me was sleeping and the other person in the room was ok with it.
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