Well what can i say we didnt really expect much of Dalat and only planned to stay there for on or two days. we were basically told that the only thing there was to do there was to see some of the waterfalls. dalat is around 1500m above sea level and has some fantastic scenery as a result. the fact that we were so high up also ment that it was actually cold for the first time since we left England and so we enjoyed wearing our jeans for the very first time.

The bus journey there was a bit of a nightmare as we had yet another lovely 6 hours on the road with a couple of stop overs, loud music played by the bus driver (which without meaning to be disrespectfull sounded like he had one song stuck on repeat for the hole journey) and some of the most hair raising winding roads up mountainus terrain that you could imagine, sam especially wasnt a fan!!!

We arrived an were immediatley pestered by every man and his dog about wether we needed a room or not and so we decided to resort to finding one from the lonley planet, took another fun (in the loosest sence of the word) taxi ride over and got out to be pestered again by even more people. the hotel had no good rooms left so tried to accomodate us on the top floor with a room where the walls literally were crumbling and falling down and so allthough it was only 1 pound each per night we moved to another hotel 10m seconds up the road. the new hotel was much nicer but a lot pricier at 2 pounds each per night lol (its alot to us!)

we went downstairs and were pestered in the cafe by a group of guys calling themselves the easy riders. they all had jackets made with their logo and they offered numerous motorbike tours, having settled after pushing them away i read up about dalat in my guide book and it turns out that they are a pretty well renowned group of tour guides that have been in operatinon for years.

Later that night after a pretty yukky meal (western cuisine wasnt that good here so we haved gone back to eating local foods) we went back to the cafe and chatted to a couple of easy riders, one called thien and the other rocky as he used to be a boxer (suprisingly he was more coherant and had better english skills than stallone) we booked a motorbike tour for the morning seeing all the off the beaten track sights. Sam was a bit dubiuous and worried about the motorbike ride but they were great drivers as we discovered the next day.

We left early for the tour and it really was the most fun thing we have done in the whole time we have been away. the motorbike ride wasnt to great for me sam failed to mention in the last blog that i pretty much broke my neck sand sledding in mui ne (video should be on the site soon) so it was a bit uncomfortable for me. please excuse me if i forget anything we did as there was just so much. at first we saw some farming and people in the rice fields, then we saw some coffee farming up close, we saw some sights where the yanks had napalmed the viet cong that were hiding in the ,mountains and how they had used agent orange, which still today ment the ground wasnt fertile enough to allow any plants to grow (just on a side note im reading "the girl in the picture, kim phuc" which is a really good book explaining lots about the viet nam war). we then saw a silk production factory which was amazing, i really had no idea of how it was made and we then saw a waterfall which we climed up to as close as possible and another massive buddah. we then had a huge lunch of all local traditional dishes which was great. On the way back we saw some flower growers, apparently greenhouses were only brought over when the french colonies settled here. saw some actual silk worms and then went home. pictures should all be available and i appologise if i have forgot anything. the tour guides were great informative and safe drivers. that night we had a better meal and then went back for an early night before our next lovely bus en route writting in our guides book so that he could sell his services to other tourists.

Well i cant think of too much more so i will now go and im sorry for the spelling mistakes etc but theres just to much to write in to little time!!!!! take care all and speak to you very soon Adam and Sam xx