Mountain life in Dalat

Having had some chilled out beach action in Nha Trang, we were ready for change of scenery. Where better to head for than the mountain city of Dalat in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. Another bus journey awaited us but a mere 4 hours compared to the dreaded 12 hour stints on night buses. I was really looking forward to checking out the views from the bus in daylight, especially as we were heading up into the mountains.

The bus crawled through many a sleepy town and village before making a slow, steady progress towards the mountains. The views were amazing as we climbed higher and higher and soon we were as high as the clouds. It was such a nice change to be able to look at the scenery as we travelled on the bus. Our usual journeys happen in the dead of night! My journey was somewhat spoilt however after our rest stop, as a small boy proceeded to throw up his noodles in the aisle right next to me! Soon the mountain city of Dalat came into sight and on first viewing I was not overly impressed. The guide book had described the city as 'little Paris' so I expected quaint French architecture and pretty little streets. We found small parts of the city like this but on the whole, it's not a very pretty city. However, it was a nice change from the places we had been previously and had a totally different climate - we had to wear a jumper! At times it felt as though we could have been in any city in Europe rather than in Central Vietnam.

On the plus side, we had struck gold with our accommodation here. We stayed in an amazing guesthouse called 'Dreams' with the lovely Mrs Duong as our host. She made the most AMAZING breakfast ever, a real family affair with all the guests sat round the same table and a jaccuzzi, steam room and sauna on a rooftop terrace - what more could you need! Having not been overly impressed after our wander round Dalat, she advised us to take a tour around the sights and surrounding areas with the 'Easy Riders'! Originating in Dalat, the Easy Riders spend their time riding around with tourists, showing them the 'real Vietnam'. What a life hey? We were both unsure what to expect from the Easy Riders but it sounded like fun so we agreed to a tour the next day. I think that this was quite possibly the best decision we have made on our trip so far!

At 8.30am the following day, we were greeted by two smiling Vietnamese bikers - Joseph and Ted (yes they really were Vietnamese!) As soon as the intoductions were over, we had helmets fitted to our head (Joseph found it very funny how small my head was - rude!) and we were off! I was actually really comfy on the back of my bike as it had a small seat and back rest so I could sit back easily and definately wasn't going to fall off. Tom was not so lucky and had to hold on tight!

We rode through the streets of Dalat, pretty slowly if I'm honest (they weren't speed demons, thank god!) and soon arrived at our first stop for the day, the Dragon Pagoda. Now we've seen a fair few pagodas in our time away so far but these were pretty different. Imagine the Disneyland of pagodas and you're half way there! There was also a temple, which Ted took great detail in showing us round and also told us about 'bell mail'. Basically, every temple has a huge bell that the monks generally use to communicate with Buddha. Ted told us to have a look underneath the bell to see the hundereds of letters stuck to the inside - 'bell mail to Buddha', brilliant!

We climbed back on the bikes and headed out into the countryside, it was beautiful. There are fields, not rice paddies, growing friut, vegetables and coffee - a totally different side to Vietnam. We stopped to admire the view and for Joseph to give us some history about the area, especially about the war. These guys were brilliant for explaining everything about their country, in great detail. From politics and religions to mountain tribes and village life, they knew absolutely everything and were only too happy to talk about it. Tom was in his element, especially when talk turned to the history and politics of the country! I'm sad to say that I knew very little about Vietnam before coming away but thanks to these guys, I've learnt a great deal.

Further on, we were given some time off the bikes to climb a hill and take in the view of Dalat city. It looked pretty impressive from the top so I set about taking some pictures and got the fright of my life when Ted appeared through the trees to give us some more history about the war. Turns out, the hill we were on was a major look out point for the South Vietnamese army and he was able to point out the trenches and bunkers to us. He was able to give amazing detail and some personal experience as he served during the war under the South Vietnamese Army.

Back on the bikes, we headed further into the country, riding past giant greenhouses full of flowers and many coffee plantations. We stopped at one plantation and Joseph told us about the different types of coffee that they grow (robusta and mocha were the two we saw) and watched the beans being expertly picked from the plants. Later in the day, we had the slightly disturbing experience of seeing weasels (trapped in tiny cages) being fed coffee beans, they poo them out and they are collected to make really expensive (and pretty disgusting in my opinion) coffee. Much like we saw in Bali with the mongoose. Neither were treated particularly nicely and I'm really unsure as to why anyone would want to drink this coffee anyway?

Our next stop was quite possibly my favourite of the day, Elephant waterfalls. No, there were no real elephants to be seen but the formation of the rocks at the base of the waterfall are said to look like elephants. They just looked like rocks to me but hey, I'm not going to argue! The waterfall was pretty difficult to get to so Ted came down with us to show us the way. The guy is incredibly fit and at times I struggled to keep up. I'm sure that my wearing sandals to scale the side of a waterfall was part of my downfall - I managed it though and the sandals survived too! I felt a bit like Tarzan at times holding onto vines and clinging onto exposed tree roots but it was so much fun and totally worth it when we made it to the bottom. Ted was so excitable and took my camera from me and insisted on taking photos of us. He took us right to the base of the waterfall and we got absolutely soaked, slipping and sliding everywhere! Wet through, we climbed up alongside the waterfall for more photos. Ted continued to snap away with the camera as we climbed back up to the top, shouting "no one else will ever have photos like these!" He truly is a madman! On reaching the top, we posed for some more photos with stone elephants (classy!) then went to check out the 'happy Buddha'. I have to say that it was by far my favourite Buddha that I've seen so far - all Buddha's should be that happy and smiley!!

When we eventually returned to the bikes, the guys ushered us into a local cafe across the road for some lunch. The four of us sat down at a table together and they ordered a small feast for us. There was so much food and it was all really tasty - they both made sure that we try a bit of everything. A total bargain for all the food that we ate and it was really nice to sit down with our guides and find out a bit more about them.

After lunch, we were whisked away to a local house to see silkworms and boy did we see some silkworms. Literally hundreds of them on bamboo frames outside their house, spinning small silk cocoons around themselves. Once the cocoons had formed, they are collected and sent to the silk factory. That was our next stop, where we saw the cocoons being washed and the now dead silk worm being removed. The silk is then fed through a machine and spun into huge reels to create any number of silk products. We saw a pretty ancient wooden machine weaving a pattern onto the silk. To be honest it looked as though it may have fallen apart any second but the finished products were beautiful!

We climbed back onto the bikes and headed to our last stop for the day, the 'Crazy House'. It is a pretty surreal Gaudi-esque building, with weird and wonderful rooms and staircases to wander around. I suppose it's a bit like a messed up Alice in Wonderland - we climbed up a giraffes back, walked through giant cobwebs, sat at the worlds smallest table and chairs, had our photo taken with a giant eagle and egg and climbed to the top of a Hansel and Gretel style house (Dan Clarke this is the place for you!!) A truly bizzare end to the most amazing day!

We both felt really sad when we arrived back at the hotel. I can really see why so many people pay these guys to take them all across Vietnam for weeks on their motorbikes. They were both fantastic and gave us both a day we will never forget! Despite first impressions, we had a great time here. Another bus journey awaits to take us back down to the coast - bring on the beach!!

Lots of love, Shell xxxx

Nha Trang beach living...

After four excellent days enjoying the Hoi An high life we had just a few hours spare before the long, overnight bus journey south to Nha Trang, the next stop on our Vietnamese adventure. Before then we made the most of our last few hours in this charasmatic and beautiful little place. After spending virtually the whole day wondering the streets, stalls and shops we finally tore off the spending shackles and bought enough local produce to rival any of the local busnisses. Sticking to our daily budget has, at times, been a bit of a struggle but despite buying a stack full of items we even managed to stay within budget, which probably tells you more about our tightness than it does about the local prices. To be fair to the two of us though, we have become clinical barterers. It's going to be strange, when that day finally comes along again, when we have to buy milk and bread from the local Co-Op without the ability to knock a few pence off. I guess we could give it a try but I think the special employees may get a tad confused.

After buying quality chop-sticks, some much needed vests, a few pictures, another tacky magnet and Shell's replacement 'travelling' engagement ring we were done, glad to retire to another great (and cheap!) restaurant to fill up before our long journey. We ate at a place called Morning Glory, which despite the name, did yet more amazing food without a male waiter in sight. You never know, they could have taken thier employers name literally! The food was delicious, yet again, but we decided that the service wasn't up to scratch, not enough smiles. It's amazing how you start to pick up on things now! From there we seemingly did a 'food crawl' and went over the road for dessert. A place that had cake portions the size and shape of a breeze block, I opted for Tiramisu and Shell the Mango cheesecake and within a milisecond several pounds had been added, and I don't mean the bill. As we sat finishing our coffees we noticed an old boy walking down the street holding a big set of weighing scales. He went up to the nearest female he could find and threw it at her feet demanding she step on. It just never get's any less surprising to me, the enterprising spirit of this nation. It's as if the whole country wakes up in the morning at 6am, looks around the room and thinks 'how do I pay for my scooter petrol and cigarettes today?'.

Back at the hotel and waiting for the bus we were startled by two guys in helmets on two motorbikes. They got off and beckoned us to get on, with all of our bags. Now I honestly can't remember ever being on a motorbike before and I know Shell certainly hasn't, so this proved to be a bit of a challenege. Turns out, these guys would be giving us a lift to the bus which was waiting downtown. So on we got, both of us with our big rucksacks on our backs, the smaller bags on our front, I was carrying a bag of two 2 litre bottles of water in one hand and, embarrasingly, two small quiches balanced in the other that we had bought for the bus journey, all while hanging on to old Valentino Rossi for dear life. You really can't make this stuff up, a real British wally.

After being the last two people to get on the bus, we were ingloriously pummelled into the last two remaining berths, one in one section of the bus and one in the other. We were on a similar bus before, with three rows of beds, but this even had people sleeping in the exceedingly small corridors between the beds too. So in my section there were four people sleeping pretty much side by side all the way, for 12 hours! The bus also, amazingly, played really really shit Vietnamese pop music really loudly until at least 2am, at which time an old German guy had obviously had enough and went absolutely mental, I think threatening to eat the driver if he dared to turn it up a notch again. At that point we had turned into wrecks after being pummelled all through the night by a dual nightmare of both poor roads and terrible driving.I guess the only salvation of the bus trip was meeting another English couple, Mark and Luara, who we instantly got along with. Upon reaching Nha Trang we exchanged email addresses and planned to meet up the following night. Just as long as we could stop looking and feeling like relatively tanned zombies.

After checking into our hotel, Le Suisse, we plonked down our bags and managed to get a couple of hours sleep in before we woke, took one look at the Blackpool-esque weather outside and decided to take a long breakfast upstairs. The breakfast bar, on the tenth floor, is pretty special, it has amazing views of the mountains to our back and ocean to our front, interspersed with hotel high-risers, something which is all over this town, a kind of laid-back and overall better version of somewhere on the Costa Del Sol. Not that it looked anything like holiday weather outside. Despite this, we finished our breakfast and headed out to explore our new surroundings. That night we met up with Mark and Laura, after a marathon skype session with friends and family and headed to one of the local bars for drinks. They're situation is scarily like ours after getting engaged just before they came away too. Unlike us though, they have everything planned and will be getting married soon after they arrive back in the UK next summer, good on them though, really nice guys. I doubt we will be that organised. My role in this wedding thing has alrready been and gone! Well apart from demanding a hog roast and real ale stall. I don't want much...

The next morning the weather had changed and so had our impressions of Nha Trang, transferring instantly from shitty Northern beach resort to tropical paradise. Maybe the latter is a tad flattering but we both love the beach and Nha Trang supplements that with a bay that curves around, dotted in places with little islands. The beach itself is good, apart from the absolute incessant hawkers who try to sell you anything from sunglasses and bracelets to books and flat, dry pancakes. In any one day I think the average, 'no thankyou' count stands at around fifty, truthfully. The sea itself it majorly rough, but apparently this only happens in late October-early November, the rest of the year it is furtively calm. Nice. After seeing Mark and Laura down on the beach we planned to meet up later that night again and head out for curry, one of the guidebooks reccomendations. It turned out to be as good as they suggested in the book and an absolutre steal for around £3.50 each!

From there we got hustled into one of the bars with promises of a about a million drinks for free. I don't know if it is like this usually but I have got absolutely no idea in the world how this place makes any money whatsoever! Between the four of us, beacause of various drinks deals, we had two bottles of Tiger beer and either a Gin and Tonic or a Mojito between us and it cost 20,000 VD each, (55p!!). Absolutely insane.

For our final day in Nha Trang we essentially read our books and sat on the beach, batting back the constant array of sellers and planning our next moves down towards Saigon. We are well on our way now! What a life this is. We are certainly not taking it for granted. Tomorrow we take a bus south for around 4 hours to a mountain town called Dalat, a place where strawberries and flowers are grown widely instead of the usual rice, a climate that may mean we don two layers, no way!

Much love, Tommo xxxx